Fourth of July!

Fireworks!

So what is the fourth of July without fireworks? Well the correct answer to that question is BOREING! So here are some pictures of our 4th of July fireworks. Do not get to excited they were from Walmart.

He was so excited it was too cute.

Ooooh! Aaaaaah!

Are we not just the cutest little family you have ever seen.

Lets Ride!

New Bike

So Ethan has a new bike and we are trying to teach him how to ride it. He does not get how to peddle yet, but we are working on it. However here are some pictures of him trying.




I guess Will was just making sure that it works. He kinda looks like a circus clown on it don't yah think? I am just glad he did not pop the tires.

Ethan got tired of trying to ride the bike so he got on the back Joshua's stoller. Then Will took the boys for a stoll, a rather fast and wild one I might add. He was running around and almost crashing into Mom and I. I thought for sure he was going to at least run over my toes.

See here I am fearing for the safety off my bare toes.

Water Fun!

There's about two weeks in Portland where the heat is unbearable. Normally it is very comfortable. While Mom was in town we were trying to beat the heat so we sat outside while Will dragged Ethan through the sprinkler with Joshua in the other arm. Ethan was not amused. So here are some cute pictures.

Burger King Play land

So Mom was in town the first week of July and while she was here we did many fun things. This particular time we had gone to a Burger King that has a rather large indoor play land. Here are a couple of my favorite pics from the 179 pictures she took. Yes 179 pictures taken at the Burger King. She is obsessed! And we love her for it! Anyways if she did not take them we definately would not have, so thanks Mom for all the lovely pictures.

Will was just mad because you had to have socks to play on it and he was wearing flip-flops that day.
King Joshua! This was following his royal decree that dinner was over and play time was about to begin!
Oreo shakes... Mom spared no expense that night!Joshua thinks that teeth are funny. I think he is funny!

Yep there all mine and I love em!

It was a fun evening. More to come later!

You want me to sew what?

The Wonderful Posibilities of SEWING

My calling in our ward is the assistant weblos leader as some of you know. For camp I was asked to make the flag. With a lot of uncertainty I said yes. All the while in my mind thinking how on earth was I going to make a flag? My sewing experience is, well, I have none. Last christmas I sewed a banner for our ward. It was all straight lines and I did it on a very old hand-me-down of a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down sewing machine that is not user friendly let alone beginner friendly. Anyways I have been wanting a new machine sinse last Christmas when I sewed the banner so I bought one with my birthday money. WOW what a difference a machine will make! I love my new machine. I still do not really know how to sew but the machine made things a lot easier.

So here is the picture of my first sewing project. You probably can not tell but I used three different thread colors because I kept running out.

Here is the dreaded machine. I think it is a good machine if you know what you are doing and I clearly do not!

And here is my new baby! I love it! Very user friendly especially for a beginner sewer as myself. I am so excited for my next project, not sure what it will be but excited none-the-less.

And here is the flag. Not to shabby I think. Done with no pattern, a blind stich, shower curtain like tabs on the top and iron on graphics from my own computer.

This has got to be my favorite part of the whole flag! Look at that stitching! Some of you, maybe all of you, who read this think I am crazy but I had so much fun sewing that on with my NEW MACHINE!

And last of all the back. Not to shabby for my second sewing project. Well I just love it.

Chiro-practically speaking

Professional VS NonProfessional

On greater than one occasion, Challene has approached me with a headache, neckache, shoulder pain, or whatever in hopes of receiving a cure from my skilled hands. Of course, I oblige. Apparently, we had a little spy a few times because Ethan now asks for his neck and back to be worked on. "Fix my back," he'd say while diving on the ground. He'd hold still as I would adjust his back and neck.

Needless to say, I need to get me a table. Well, on greater than one occasion Ethan would be so greatful for my magic hands that he would want to return the favor. "Ethan fix Daddy's back. Lay down Daddy." He'd say excitedly. Of course, I'd oblige.

Not bad form on this one.
I think all his training must have gone out the window for this move. Honestly, I don't know what he was trying to accomplish here.
He was just finishing an 'Atomic Elbow Drop' in this photo. I quickly explained that patients don't appreciate that move as a therapeutic adjustment.

He learned from the best!




Mommy got a taste of it too!

Well, I'm two weeks into my next quarter and I'm loving it. Let me 'splain. It seems that 8th and 9th quarters are the most demanding of the entire program. As such, the school has created the split program where a student may opt to 'split' 8 and 9 into three different quarters. This I have chosen to do. I have but a mere 23 credit hours this quarter. Ahhhh, it's like a walk in the park. I never thought I'd be happy about 23 hours. But when you go from 38 to 23, it makes a big difference. At any rate, I now have Friday off completely and I get a half day off on Thursdays.

I have 5 patients. One of which is actually off this quarter, but if he needs to come in, I'm his intern. Two of my patients are upper quartermen which is good because they can tell me all their mistakes and give me pointers. I hope to take advantage of that.

As is custom, I suppose I'll give you a breakdown of my classes for this quarter:

• Physical Therapy II - Whereas last time we studied modalities (i.e.: electrical therapy, hot/cold, Ultrasound, Diathermy, etc.) this quarter we're focusing more on the rehabilitation aspect of physical therapy. For example, we're studying Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) which is an incredibly affective way to rehab torn muscle groups (rotator cuff for example). We did it in lab for our shoulders for about 30 minutes and I was hurting the next day. It really isolates the specific groups you need. Which..... is good.


• NeuroMusculoSkeletal III - The last in the NMS series. We finished the lower extremity last quarter, so we started the upper extremity this quarter. For the laboratory final we had to put together our own exam flows for the knee and ankle. "What does that mean, Will?" When a patient comes in, or if an injury occurs during a sporting event or something this is the exam that should be done. It screens for fractures and includes a complete exam of the entire area. Well, everybody (including me) was freaking out about putting these together. There were several "flows" floating around campus that people were using, but I put my own flow together that made sense to me and I kicked butt on the final. I mean, I nailed it! I ended up performing the knee regional exam for my instructor which was probably the harder one due to the incredible number of orthopedic tests included. I missed one point -- which was just a brain-fart on my part. My partner got the ankle exam and barely passed.


• Soft Tissue II - Part one was several quarters ago and focused on massage and stretching. This time, it is geared towards rehab like PTII. We're learning inovative ways to perform spinal traction without having to buy a $500,000 machine. Actually, all it involves is a long belt. Pretty cool.


• Clinic Phase II - A continuation of the clinic experience. We spent most of last quarter memorizing a general physical exam flow. This quarter is getting more specific. Last week we did an Eye Ear Nose and Throat exam. They hire people to act as patients for us, so it's kind of cool that way. My patient was complaining of a headache and vision changes. Well, after examining her, I discovered that she has Glaucoma (not really, but was pretending to be). It was kind of fun. Not so fun in this class are a couple of the other specific exams I have to perform. Let me explain. WSCC trains us to be "Port-of-entry" physicians. What does that mean? Just like an M.D. family doctor, I'm trained to diagnose pretty much anything. The only difference is my choice of treatment. As it is, the school is required to teach me according to the scope of practice for chiropractors in Oregon. Oregon has the biggest scope of practice in the nation for chiropractors. As a result, part of the program includes performing a certain number of Prostate Exams, Gynecological Exams, and Male/Female Genitourinary Exams. Those will be happening this quarter. They hire people to be patients for these too. Soooo.... that's nice.


• Cardiorespiratory - Ummm, studying diseases/conditions of the cardiorespiratory system. Beyond pathology we look into history, presenting signs/symptoms, diagnosis treatment, and prognosis. It's a great class, but the instructor is so dog-on boring! Honestly, the only way I can stay awake is to do a Sudoku or a crossword during class. Otherwise, I'd be sleeping.


• Cast Lab II - Last quarter we did the lower extremity, can you guess what we're doing this quarter? Upper extremity, that's right. Beyond plaster casts, we also do slings, taping, splinting, compression wraps, etc., etc. We actually only meet like four times throughout the quarter.

Looks like that's about it. I have actual scheduled time I have to be in the clinic. If I don't have patients that day, and am not asked to be the Intern-on-call, I do paperwork. There is a gargantuan amount of paperwork to do. You may be surprised.

Well, you made it to the end of this entry, here's a couple more pictures for your reward.

Ethan explaining his drawing of Nemo. He's never been able to recreate the drawing since.

My cute little Joshy. His whole mouth is white with approaching teeth. He's been pretty miserable lately.

Quinn and LauraLee came up for a visit during break. We plan on an entire entry dedicated to that trip, but here's a teaser. They took this of us at Multnomah Falls.

My bike during a nice ride up Larch Mountain recently. Nice way to end it I think.

Lazy Days of Summer

During some of the warmer holidays that I have off of school we like to go down to the "river-side" and enjoy the cool water, natural atmosphere, and the many, many Mexicanos. It's a lot of fun. We pack a picnic, get the beach umbrella out and hang out. This is what we did for Memorial Day.

Ethan all ready to go with sunglasses and all

Joshua sported more of a Gilligan motif.

Wait! Looks like Challene is wearing shorts and a jacket? What in the...? Well, that's what we get around here. She's always cold when we're always hot. The only time we really agree is when she's 8 months pregnant. Still, that is not motivation enough for another kid right now.

Ethan doesn't really get many sweets, so this was a real treat for him. Look how small of bites he is taking in attempt to savor every morsel.

This is our favorite part of the day, going to the riverside and throwing rocks into the water. The water was F-R-E... freezing! So we didn't wade in at all this year.

This is Joshua's protest for getting into the high-chair. He goes as stiff as a board and refuses to bend. So, we just let him stand until he gets tired and slumps into the chair. Note: we do not leave him alone in the chair, we watch and stand closely to ensure no falling of any kind occurs.

After dinner.

This was Joshy's eight month mark (he's going on ten now -- we're a little behind)
Joshy now has 4 teeth in. Two bottom central incisors, one top central incisor, and one top (left) lateral incisor. The rest are poised and ready to come in at any moment. The poor kid has been pretty miserable at times.

I guess you couldn't tell that from these pictures. He's a smiling boy. His whole face lights up when he smiles. As you can see.

I think Joshua may skip crawling all together. Perhaps he doesn't understand how critical crawling is for developing the curvature of your spine. Or perhaps he sees Ethan walking and wants to be like him. At any rate, he is climbing on things and furniture cruising with the best of them.
Poor kid gets worn out. Look how long he's gotten! He's in the 90th percentile for everything except head circumference (75%). I think Ethan knows Joshy's gonna be big and is picking on him as much as he can right now!

Yea, he's sawing logs! Gosh, he's getting big too. Hard to believe.

One last one of Joshy. He was a very big surprise when he decided to come to us, but I'm so glad he did. He's been such a joy to us. It is unbelievable how different he and Ethan are!