First I would like to apologize for my negligence and say that I will make an effort to update this blog more consistently and visit all of your blogs more consistently. I have been really out of touch with what everyone else out there has been up to so if I call or email and act like I don't know about something that happened 6 months ago - it's because I don't! But I miss all of you and being in the know so I am vowing to make more time to keep up on your lives.
Now for the excuses (which is also the news) from our family. Where to begin? After Andy's graduation and our move to California we have been getting settled. I have learned that it is a lot harder to make a cross country move with a 2 and 1 year old than with no kids like our last move. We are in a smaller house but this one has a fourth bedroom so we have been reconfiguring and organizing. The yard is great fun with a large patio and basketball court that the boys spend their time riding in the Cozy Coupes on. We have a steep hill (Temecula is very hilly) in the yard that the dogs love to run up and down and sleep on.
Andy's chiropractic license took over 3 months to arrive because of a mistake made by the fingerprinting company which caused the FBI to not give him clearance, the Livescan people resubmitting everything, and a whole big mess. He finally got his license and started off by devoting the majority of his time to the Encinitas office down by the beach. After a few months the commutes, gas, and increased difficulty of marketing in a town where we don't live caused us to re-evaluate and move his attention virtually 100% to the Temecula office. So starting January 1, 2010 he has been practicing in Temecula. It was like starting over yet again but we are really excited about it and looking forward to building a practice here.
I have been building up my nutrition practice once again, which I put on hold while in Texas, and am looking forward to working with Andy to give our patients some well-rounded holistic health care. We have a lot of exciting programs in the works! (Including a partnership with Dream Dinners - yum!) If I could just find enough time and energy to put all of those things into practice right now that would be heavenly... but it's not happening yet. Soon though... Patience is not something I am good at.
A HUGE amount of time has been devoted to developing our new website which is almost ready to launch to all of you. Once that's ready to go I will post the link on here. It takes a lot to get a website going! I expected maybe two weeks - not months of writing the text and picking photos, etc, etc. Then there are the new blogs for chiropractics and nutrition. They are sucking lots of time so will probably be simpler than I had hoped but we are still happy that soon we will be posting to these blogs to give our patients up-to-date health info and tips. In addition to that my other "job titles" are graphic designer, marketing manager, or whatever else you would call an amateur who is married to someone starting a business and trying to save by designing their own ads, marketing materials, etc. The business cards, postcards, ads, etc. and communicating with all the people we use to print, publish, market, etc. has been MORE than a full time job.
My etsy shop was very busy through the holidays as people ordered lots of christmas cards and christmas gifts. It is so much fun to have that creative outlet and watch my business grow. I am hoping I can keep the momentum going all year.
Then there are all the interruptions in working that come from my adorable little munchkins that cause me to pause in the middle of a project to stop a crisis or get them a snack or kiss a boo boo or just squeeze them tight. I wouldn't trade these little boys and their craziness for anything though! Being a Mom is my favorite job title. Every day I feel so blessed to have Keegan, Graham, and Andy in my life.
We have also made some time for fun! Some of the fun things will probably get their own blog posts but I'll list a few. I have been terrible at remembering my camera lately.
November brought a visit from the Melvins. They even brought their 8-week-old twins! Shelby got to have a daddy-daughter day at Disneyland and we got to visit an aquarium and hang out. We have missed Steph and Jeremy in Texas and had fun catching up and meeting Shelby's little brothers, Asher and Bridger.
New Year's was awesome with Aaron and Patrick coming for a couple of days. Andy, Aaron, and Patrick all had to keep up the polar plunge tradition. However, our neighborhood pool was closed so where did they do it? You guessed it - in the ocean!!!! They are nuts! We drove down to Moonlight Beach and they all ran in (all the way in) to the ocean and came out freezing but very proud of themselves. Then we had Brandon and Mandy and their twins over for New Year's Eve. Patrick introduced us to the Tim Tam Slam. I am afraid to even tell you what that is because many of you will get addicted I'm sure. I will just say that it is hot chocolaty, gooey, rich bliss. We made it to midnight this year too!
In January we had Sonya, Noah and Lyla visit us at our new house while Andy and her husband Loren were at a conference in Las Vegas. We had a good 'ol girls' night out - Heaven! Keegan and Noah were so happy to see each other and acted as if it hadn't been months. Their cute puppy Quincy came too and was a huge hit. I almost stole her from the Marshalls for myself!
Then Alex and Kim and their boys came for Martin Luther King weekend. What fun we had!! The cousins enjoyed each other and we spent a nice, cool day at the beach. Aaron also popped on down to Cali with a very cute girl - Melissa - and we had more fun playing games and hanging out. If you don't know, Alex and Kim are the king and queen of playing games and it is always a BLAST to play with them. It's serious business! Just be careful if you ever play Sorry with them.
February brought the Marshall family again and then a visit to their house in Running Springs for sledding, Rock Band until 2 am, and hanging out. I will post more photos of the boys and their first sledding experience.
We've had fun running up to Rancho Cucamonga to spend time with Andy's cousin Brandon, Mandy, and their kids too. Keegan thinks Andrew and Ethan are the coolest and asks us regularly to go fishing with them. We have seen Aunt Jana and some cousins lately at the Short's house which is always fun! It's nice to be closer to family. We really missed that in Texas.
The first week of March we got to visit with Dieter and Corola Schenk who were visiting from Germany. Andy lived with them in Germany for a summer as a teenager and their son Dominik and Andrew would go back and forth to visit each other in Germany and Las Vegas. They have been special friends to the Lowe family. I will post more on that visit too...
March has brought us Matthew and Tina Anthon! Matthew and Andrew became friends at a 7-11 on 5th North and University in Provo in their BYU days and now we will be family! We love these guys and hadn't seen them in way too long. I will post more about this...
This past week my Mom and cousin Kara popped over from Arizona to spend their spring break with us. It was so fun to have them here and just get to do something girly like go to a store with another girl. I know, that sounds pathetic, but I am surrounded by boys 99% of the time. We checked out Tai Pan Trading which was like home decor overload and I LOVED it! I got a girly Easter wreath because I need SOMETHING feminine in the house since I am outnumbered 3 to 1.
Finally, yesterday we saw our friends the Doolins that we went to chiropractic school with. They live in New Mexico now and came out to LA for the weekend. Keegan was happy to see Zayne and we enjoyed catching up and talking chiropractics. It hardly seems possible that we moved away almost 8 months ago.
This post is so long that I probably lost many of you. Thanks for sticking with me for those that have read this whole thing. I know all these things don't excuse me neglecting this poor little blog. But they have been keeping us busy! We have LOVED seeing so many friends and family since moving back West. In fact I may have even forgotten some, and if I did, forgive me and know that we just love you all. I hope life will become more manageable soon - or maybe I will just learn to be more organized and juggle it better. Sending love and hugs out into the blogosphere!
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