California Love

On Sunday night when I was so full of inspiration and warm fuzzy feelings I should have written it down. On Sunday night when we sat on an airplane, and I reflected on all the wonderful moments Derek and I had with each other and our friends, I should have written it down. Now I grasp onto some random moments in my head and on my heart, but surely they are missing bits. Kind of like the Landon's smile- you know he's smiling, but clearly he's missing some very important teeth. Sorry. Bad analogy, but you get it. I bet I would have had a better analogy on Sunday... So here are some of my favorite moments from over the weekend, in no particular order of course!

Late night talks and laughter with Noah and Michelle before bedtime.

Paleo breakfast with my soul sisters in Santa Monica.

Seeing a bit of Gloucester in a California home.

Feeling the water on Butterfly Beach, surprisingly not as cold in October as Good Harbor Beach in July.

Hugging my girls, taking photos, and just being with them again. 

Derek and I planning our future on a napkin outside one of his favorite L.A. breaky spots.

Holding Derek's hand (a favorite of mine, always- 
it just never gets old).

Seeing familiar places and discovering 100 new ones.

Talking to Carina on the phone while shuffling through $100 jeans that I would never buy.

Being able to be there when Michelle and Noah committed their lives to each other. 

Seeing Noah give Derek a key to their house because of tradition... I swear, I almost lost it in the middle of Urth Cafe. The heart these boys have, you'd swear they're women. ;)

Seeing Natalie and Mike so happy together and so appreciative of each other. It's wonderful to see friends in perfect relationships.

Seeing how old-time friends can get together and create new-time-fun.

Taking about inspiration, love and gratitude with Brendan and Derek over the blasting wedding music.

Watching the dolphins play in the waves with the surfers.

Eating yummy, healthy food!!

Seeing the way Noah and Michelle looked at each other during their first dance. Melt. My. Heart.

Groundworks Coffee every morning.

Laughing and dancing with a tipsy Derek on the walk home after the wedding. He was in rare form. I loved every second of it!

Napping on the beach on the sand. Enjoying the sunshine!

Hanging half-out of the window while Alexis drove alongside the beach with Brendan James' "Lucky One" BLASTING.

Morning walks with my Husband.

Having two "movie dates" with Derek on the airplane.

Hanging out and cuddling with Dexter the amazing dog.

Sleeping in till 9am East Coast Time and getting up at 6am West Coast Time! Feeling refreshed and still having all morning!

Going to a Sunday Morning Farmers' Market.

Daydreaming in the sunshine.

Stopping in Ventura to watch the surf. 

Hands out the window, catching the wind.

Seeing the Beautifully Strong Jen and finally meeting her lovely husband Dr. Nick. They have such an awesome practice out there!

Kiss Buggies, lots of them.

Driving on the PCH. ...Learning what PCH stood for. 

That perfect moment when Derek and I knew that California is where we'd like to settle in the end, and setting the goals to make it a reality... some day. 

Till then, 

I'm a very grateful,

 and very happy Beverlian.

Switzerland is for Love Stories

Derek and my First Year Wedding Anniversary was last week! So I thought I would tell you how we met. I think it's a pretty cool story, and it starts in Switzerland.

In 2003 Derek traveled Europe alone, meeting and making friends along his journey. Just like Derek, my close friends, Alishea and Katie, set out on a similar adventure to travel Europe. While staying in a hostel in Switzerland the three crossed paths and became fast friends; sharing stories about themselves and creating more stories together to tell friends and family back home. After a month or so of traveling Ali and Katie returned to Miami with photographs and stories to tell; many of both were about and of Derek. The night they shared these stories with me was the night I was really introduced to Derek (not including a post card Ali sent me from Switzerland that mentioned their new friend).

In late March of 2007, I created a MySpace account and was searching though “friends of friends” to find people to add to my contacts. I came across Derek’s profile page in Ali’s group of Top Friends. Remembering the stories about Derek, I looked through his profile (to verify this was the same guy, of course) and on April 29th I sent him an email. The email said, “…I'm Ali's friend Heather from Miami. You seem to be my kind of person. So I just wanted to say hi…” In which he replied, “…Any friend of Ali's has to be quite all right, so I'm sure you’re my kind of person too. Your son is adorable by the way...” And that was the beginning of it all.

From April till about November Derek and I sent long pages of emails back and forth about our day, our lives and who we were - really getting to know each other. Along with the lengthy, flirty emails we also exchanged pictures of sunrises and sunsets. Being on the East coast in Miami, I sent the sunrises. With Derek on the West coast in the Bay Area he, of course, sent the beautiful sunsets. Because of these exchanges, sunrises and sunsets hold a very special place in our hearts. We also exchanged gifts and music in the mail; he was the one to introduce me to my all-time favorite band Steven Kellogg and the Sixers.

It was around mid November when we exchanged phone numbers. Afraid to mess up the bond we’d created over the Internet we cautiously proceeded with text messages for the better part of a month. The night Derek actually called me still reminds me of being in middle school. The nervousness, the butterflies, the screaming girls - no really, he called on a “Girls Grey’s Anatomy Night”, and all craziness broke lose. Carina and Chrissy actually tried to wrestle me for the phone because I wasn’t going to pick up (and I didn’t). Eventually I pushed Carina and Chrissy out of the house, said goodnight to my Mom and walked outside. I paced around the driveway for a good 15 minutes and then made the call. Derek was charming and funny, as he was in his emails, and we stayed up all night talking, laughing and discussing what we thought the other person might have sounded like. Which wasn’t a big deal to someone on the West coast, but 4AM on the East coast with classes the next day… oh who am I kidding, it was totally worth it.

So when did we actually come together? Well, almost a full year after our first email interaction. February of 2008 was my 25th birthday, and I invited him to fly to Miami for it. Though he could justify the trip as a way to see Ali again (because they still kept in touch and had visited each other throughout the years), we both knew it was more than that. Derek flew out and when I picked him up at that airport I like to say it was love at first real sight, but he thinks maybe it was just a verification of the love that was already there. We’ve been together ever since…

You know, many people think meeting people on the Internet is, well, lame, but honestly thank God for it. Not only did it allow Derek and I to connect across the country, but who can honestly say that they have their first interactions and conversations written down somewhere? I’m so happy to be able to say, we do. 

…In a way, we did meet in Switzerland, that’s where our unexpected journey began.

And a year ago we got hitched... but that is a whole other blog post.

 Happy Anniversary, Love.

Inanimate Objects

Have you ever played 20 questions with your friends? I have. It's one of my absolute favorite games. I don't think it will ever get old. Well, here is a question I was asked once.

What is your favorite inanimate object?

Having a favorite inanimate object is like choosing your favorite child. They’re all special in their own right, aren’t they? Though, my mind does go directly to three specific things: my wedding rings, my sewing machine (a gift from my brother Brandon) and a drawing my son, Landon, did of me as a gift for Mother’s Day when he was 4-years-old.

Here’s the set up. We were living in Australia at the time, and Landon’s school was celebrating Mum’s Day. ALL the mums were there, and we had all just watched a very cute short musical they put together about working together. Adorable. After the show the teachers announced the children had a surprise. Yay! They had made portraits of their mothers. One by one the children presented their portraits to their mums. All the mums had rainbow hair, long eyelashes, big heart shaped lips and rosy pink cheeks. And then… then Landon presented mine. It is possibly the ugliest picture a mother has ever been given, and it REALLY gives meaning to “a face that only a mother could love” because I do, I do LOVE it.

Take that other mums! You have eye lashes and rainbow hair? PPPpppppppp! I have WAR PAINT and SHARP TEETH! There is no question about this one, forget beating up the other mums- I would eat them alive!! 

But really, it is my absolute favorite thing. Ever. It’s never been hidden away either, it's always been proudly displayed in the kitchen or living room. Just a few months ago Landon (now 7-years-old) stopped in front of it and made a face while stating, “Mom, you DON’T really look like that…” It’s nice to know that this is not really how he sees me.

You know, it is very similar to paintings by William DeKooning. He had some major mother/women issues... I wonder if I should be worried...

19 questions left. Who's got one for me?

Happy 117th Birthday!

This week we celebrated Chiropractic's 117th Birthday! To celebrate I want to share my own recent expierence.

So much of my life is Chiropractic centered, my job (a Chiropractic Assistant), my husband Derek's job (Doctor of Chiropractic), the way we raise our son and live our lives (drug free, well adjusted) and pretty much all of my amazing friends here (being that I met most of them through work). Our boss, Dr. Franson (though, we all just call him Doc), does an incredible job managing our attitudes, and purpose, constantly finding new ways to motivate and inspire us. And even with the incredibly wonderful patients we have lately there have been days Chiropractic feels just like anyone else's job full of processes, systems, and protocols. This week felt that way in at the start, here's why...

Last week, I was awfully ill, downright out for the count. My body was truly going through something it had never experienced before. I spent most of Tuesday in bed followed by the rest of the week till Saturday. That was the day when I started to feel good enough to sit on the recliner with my computer. I was quick to tire and was often lightheaded with a constant headache. It's not like me to not bounce back quickly since I began Chiropractic care in 2008, so I was concerned, and so was Derek. The man hates when I have a cold, it pains him to see me feeling ill. Imagine his discontent.

I returned to work on Monday morning feeling lethargic, though better, I was not entirly present physically, mentally or emotionally. Completely exhausted. Later on Monday, Landon and I were scheduled for an adjustment.

I went into Doc's adjustatorium completely exhausted, headachy, in pain, short fused with Landon and with a heavy heart. While Doc adjusted Landon he and I chatted about my symptoms and what the last week at home was like (it's not like me to miss work due to illness anymore). I told him was I doing everything right: rest, fish oil, chlorophyll, iron, multi-vitamin, and my friend had even brought over some homemade soup. I honestly could not and cannot remember the last time I felt this way!! And this is how some of our patients walk in every day!! In pain!! Suffering!! It really was a God-Check for me. It was like He was putting it all in perspective for me, a nudge, if you will.

I sat down on the cervical chair and Doc scoped me, he said my upper cervical spine and atlas were on fire. That was my last 30 seconds of feeling like shit. Right there! Doc adjusted my atlas and instantly, I felt my power turn back on. I felt my life restored. I felt my smile come back. I felt ME come back. I felt, like, like, like I WANTED TO GO TO THE GYM!!! Instead, I went for my walk with Landon after my adjustment to help my body hold the adjustment.

As I walked it all came back to me, all the inspiration, all the heart of why we do what we do! All the reason! All the purpose and passion! Living the Chiropractic wellness lifestyle it is so easy to forget how so much of the world feels and functions. Our world is a sick world, being treated with Sick-Care, not Health-Care. We are only treating the symptoms and not the cause of the problem, and that is where we are failing! Chiropractic seeks to find the CAUSE of the problem. The disconnect in your nervous system,  which we all know is your master control system. That disconnect it called a subluxation, and if it goes undetected and uncorrected it causes degeneration and inflammation in your spine leading to all sorts of symptoms we are treating with a medication. Those medications, they don't treat anything, they mask your symptoms, your body signals. Your body signals are your body's way of screaming at you, "HEY! Something isn't functioning the way it's meant to!! Listen to me!!" And instead of listening we are shutting it up with a pill so we can continue on with the very life style that is killing us. Killing us with chronic inflammation, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, depression, ADHD, and the list goes on... we all know the illness in our world today.

I felt it was appropriate that all of this happened on Chiropractic's 117th birthday. What an amazing profession. What an AMAZING profession! What an amazing, underestimated profession that has been around for years and years, decades and decades. And yet, many times sill it's disregarded. I've heard so many times people, including my own family members [so frustrating], say, "I don't believe in Chiropractic." It's not a belief, people. It's science. It's anatomy. One of our patients said yesterday, "It's all really common sense if you just stop and learn about it."

Please, do that.
Stop and learn.
...And maybe take a moment to say Happy Birthday to Chiropractic too.

When I say Happy Birthday Chiropractic, what I really mean is,

  THANK YOU, CHIROPRACTIC!

My Son, Spiderman

“We like the tradition of letting our children choose their own name.”

::strange looks::

“WHAT?! Our son Spiderman turned out just fine!” -30 Rock

100 Lessons

100 Lessons Learned in the Last 5 Years (2010)

It’s a long one, but it’s a good one… here we go.

1. When you have had a runny nose and chapped lips for 3 days, don’t Nair your mustache- it burns like hell! AND everyone you meet might wonder if there is a new strand of herpes that you’re trying out.

2. In figuring out what you want in life, it’s just as important to figure out what you don’t want.

3. The hardest thing I have ever had to do, still, is watch Landon scream and cry while having his chin stitched up.

4. Animals really do attack. It’s not funny when it’s you they are attacking- it’s frighting and can leave you truly traumatized.

5. If you can do these two things, you can do anything; give natural child birth and grow your hair out.

6. Just because everyone (including yourself) thinks the grass is greener doesn’t always mean it is. But if you work hard enough on the grass you already have, it can be the greenest of greens.

7. Playing Legos till 1AM with the love of you life never goes out of style.

8. Always work on a few projects at a time; you may feel overwhelmed at times, but you’ll never feel bored.

9. First, remove gas nozzle from the car THEN drive away.

10. The Internet is an amazing tool for creating anything; web pages, business cards, relationships.

11. Love at first sight isn’t just in Fairy Tales.

12. Landon can sit at a table for 3 hours in protest before he eats a single pea.

13. When your best friend suffers, you suffer, but hold the confidence that she lacks. Knowing that she’ll make it, all you can do is be there to help her if she stumbles.

14. Everything is more expensive in Australia, and when you are living over there the USD doesn’t matter, bc you aren’t making it.

15. I am a Facebook addict, and really, I don’t care what you think about it.

16. Sometimes you HAVE to swim in REALLY cold water.

17. Blood IS thicker than water, but love can turn water to blood.

18. If you stop learning and growing, you stop living.

19. Missing your friends and family can be physically painful.

20. A dishwasher is an amazing appliance.

21. Derek likes to take things apart, and that curiosity is something I hope he never loses, it’s something I adore.

22. With that being said, a working dryer is also an amazing appliance.

23. Line dried clothes are not light and fresh, they are stiff, wrinkly and if they fail to dry in a day, they smell like ass.

24. I love Derek’s “cloth sandal shoes”.

25. A child’s innocence helps to keep the fear at bay.

26. Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers is my favorite band of all time- on album and live.

27. The word “booty” is hysterical to Landon.

28. Road trips are still fun.

29. Film is amazing and underrated.

30. I have to be near water, I go crazy being too far from it.

31. The ocean heals.

32. No one really NEEDS a microwave; I hope I never own one again.

33. I now understand the phrase “running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.” I had no idea that
they actually do that when you chop off their heads, now I do.

34. I am still a ‘Daddy’s Girl’.

35. College was not as painful as I made it out to be when I was 18; I just wasn’t ready for it.

36. I can learn almost anything with YouTube and a little self motivation.

37. Timing really is everything, so you can’t dwell on the time you lost and you have to use the time you have left.

38. It cost $289 to gama-radiate a $40 wooden drum from Ghana just so we can have it in our home without the skin on.

39. My brothers are inspiring.

40. Sometimes the perfect weekends only cost you enough money for food and gas.

41. The sweet question, “Will you make me breakfast?” is horribly annoying if asked more than once any day of the week at 5AM.

42. A tick in Australia can also mean “check”. So when your child comes home telling you he “got 2 ticks at school today” don’t freak out looking for the little parasites.

43. Grey’s Anatomy reruns still make me cry.

44. Don’t think that you can just go right into sleeping on a new contour pillow every night, if you’re like me you’ll have an ‘unexplained’ migraine for two days straight. They have to be eased into slowly.

45. Landon HATES ice packs.

46. I am on Team Edward.

47. My Mom is pretty amazing; she has taken more crap than anyone I know, and still continues to dish pure love back out. Thank you Mom.

48. I learned more about myself and art from Miami Dade in 2 years then I ever thought imaginable. Don’t knock a school just because it’s a “college” and not a “university.” I paid less for an amazing education.

 

49. I am forever grateful to all my professors- the ones that gave a damn.

50. No one can pull off a beard like my husband.

51. Spell check is a blessing and a curse, but who needs it anyway when I have Derek.

52. When Landon tells me I look beautiful I usually have to hold back tears.

53. You can’t unhurt the people you have hurt, you can only do your best to help repair the damage. That takes time.

54. When your heart is broken sometimes the “moving forward” part is harder than the “moving on” part.

55. It’s important to be there cheering on your children even if they are in last place.

56. It’s okay to stop, rewind and replay HIMYM ten times if it keeps you laughing till you cry.

57. I can cook a Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner.

58. I don’t have a doppelganger.

59. The world is made up of lights/darks and lines/shapes.

60. Sleeping squished between Landon and Derek, though uncomfortable, is perfect.

61. Watching one of your best friends grow into being a Mommy is so exciting.

62. Just because you have your stuff with you doesn’t make the house your “home”.

63. When in doubt- follow the traffic.

64. Whatever you’re going through- you’re not the first to experience it. Chances are, there is even a song about it.

65. The power that makes the body, heals the body. TRUST that.

66. Living in a small town has it’s benefits. For instance, you’ll NEVER get the guys at Blockbuster to give you an extension on movie you rented on Tuesday till Sunday with no fee and no extra charges even though they have 50 other copies of it. In addition, you wouldn’t be able to rent 4 good movies for a week at a total of $8.

67. We live in a beautiful world.

68. Sometimes your parents need you to be the parent, and tell them what may be good for them whether they want to hear it or not. And when that time comes, it’s hard and it sucks, but it’s necessary.

69. Long distance relationships can work if there is trust, respect, humor and a light at the end of the tunnel. Also, skype and texting helps.

70. Johnny Depp is an amazing actor. Yes, this makes it on the list.

71. It’s important to give people space.

72. It’s not the cold that sucks, it’s the wind.

73. Never under estimate the power of a hug.

74. If you are unsure about something, look it up, do the research and make up your own mind. You don’t have to believe something is true just because someone says it is.

75. Being a parent is hard. There is nothing beautiful about boogers or temper tantrums.

76. It’s always nice to look at your sleeping child at night, it’s kind of like a reset button on bad days.

78. Music helps with pain management.

79. Don’t dial 1800FEDEX, it’s a phone sex line. The number is 1800GOFEDEX.

80. It’s true, the squeaky wheel does get the oil, but the wheel that is just too damn squeaky gets replaced.

81. Having a “Murtaugh List” is a good idea, but make sure you’ve done everything enough times (be that 1 to 100 times) before you say you’ll never do it again.

82. Some people you never give up on, though you may step away from them doesn’t mean you’ve thrown in the towel.

83. When it comes to choosing the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with, don’t settle and make sure you’re “selfish”. You have to spend every day with that person- make sure you’ve found someone that you *want* to do that with, not someone that could just fill a void.

84. Sometimes ‘faking it till you make it’ doesn’t work, so always just try to do your best.

85. Gas appliances are so much better than electric appliances.

86. In a room that has had something extremely sad or traumatic happen in it, a fresh coat of new paint can do wonders.

87. Never stop doing what you love because you have found another thing you love, make time for both. If you don’t, you’ll end up missing an important part of who you are.

88. Drawing and painting helps to keep me balanced.

90. Don’t keep score. It’s not worth it.

91. Passion is important.

92. Forget John Mayer - stop waiting on the world to change. Get out there and change it.

93. When you are on an airplane with your baby and he won’t stop crying, remind yourself that everyone on that plane has been or will be one of two things, 1. that crying annoying baby, 2. you- the worried and embarrassed parent. It might not help your baby, it might not help the annoyed passengers, but it will help you.

94. This too shall pass.

95. If your will-power sucks, and you know you are going to give into whatever/whoever is going cause you pain/discomfort/or lower your self-esteem- throw it out, kick them out.

96. As much as I love plants, I am not good at keeping them alive. Succulent plants are the best!

97. I don’t ever want to quit coffee.

98. Traditions help to keep family close when you are so far. Skype helps too.

99. Learn from everything, it helps build character. Plus, who wants to keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

100. It’s nice to reflect on things you’ve learned…

Intentions

I have to admit, I've started many-a-blogs, and I have let them slip away into the unknown archives of the Internet. ::tisk::tisk:: So as I venture on yet another blog what are my intentions? What do I want to create here? What is my objective (a question my boss often asks us and our patients)?

Honestly, I just want to document my life. Last year while I was in the very big process of planning a wedding I blogged about it. About making the save the dates, invitations, about finding the dress and about the stress. It started as a way to keep our large family "in the loop" about events and fun things happening. It ended as a very cool way to immortalize my experience.

Admittedly, you may see a few old posts as I'm trying to combine all the old blogs to this one. Read 'em again if you'd like, if they're here, I clearly liked them enough to keep repost them. As I wrote in my "About Me", I am a Mom to a 7-year-old boy, and a Wife to a miracle-working Chiropractor, so expect to hear about these things. They are my life.

Really, I'm just looking to just have a place to record, think, and celebrate. Hopefully somewhere in this forum I can inspire, educate and warm some hearts along the way.

Welcome, to my, to The Heartfelt Life.