Liberty 5K

For the past month I have been training with some friends from class for the Liberty Annual 5k Race. Yes its true Carl and running same sentence!! Running was something that I never enjoyed in high school or college. Usually it involved some sort of discipline for having a bad game, making too many errors, etc. Well now that athletics are over I have found that I really enjoy getting out and going for a run with some friends after a long day of class. I believe it is the best stress relieving workout ever.

Anyways, today was the big day. I went to bed last night with butterflies in my stomach just thinking about this morning. Trish thought it was funny that I have played in all these big state championship games and I never got nervous before them but here I was at 5a.m. this morning absolutely FREAKING OUT about this race. I think it was because this was something new for me, I have never competed in any kind of race before, and I had no Idea what to expect.

We showed up and there were over 800 people registered in this race. I was put in the Clydesdale Under 30 group (Clydesdale is the group they put males over 195 lbs. in). I was excited I didnt have to try and beat the 140 lb. 21 yr old from Kenya. Thank God! I was still worried because some of the guys in Clydesdale were just over 200 lbs. and here I am weighing in at 228. Back to the story...Butterflies going like crazy, trying to stretch thinking I am gonna throw up. Ready to get the race over with, but excited about the opportunity to compete. Horn goes off, everybody takes off running, AC/DC blaring in my iPod, first two miles go by fast, third mile, fatigue starts setting in, still pushing hard...last turn, probably about 3/10 of a mile from the finish line. Freak of nature soccer mom pushing her 2 year old in a "racing stroller" starts to move like she is gonna pass me, competitive nature steps in and the adrenaline overpowers the fatigue and I take off. Dead sprint for the last quarter mile, a lot of friends from class come out to cheer us on, I see them running with me to the finish line. 24 min. 11 sec. Finished. Best feeling ever! Ended up taking first place in Clydesdale under 30! Couldn't believe it. My goal was to try and break 25 minutes, goal completed. Belinda, a girl from class that we have been running with, won first place in her age group females 20-24 with a time of 21:59. Incredible day! Next race July 19th, I will let you know how it goes. Here are some pictures from the race.

Before the Race.


Post-Race.


Belinda and I with our first place trophies!


"Da Eagle"

Arkansas

Trisha and I had a blast in Arkansas. Got to see all of our old buddies. It was a couple days packed of fishing, golfing, four wheeling, and scary movies. We went fishing both days, and Trisha got to come out on the first day. It was her first fishing experience, I think she enjoyed herself. On the second day it was just the guys. Hands down the best fishing day ever. 75 degrees, sunny, wednesday afternoon so not that many people on the river. Easily caught 60 Trout by the end of the day. 60 fish in 3 hours!! CRAZY. Got some good pictures. Hope you enjoy!

The crew at the driving range.


Trisha feeling sorry for the Fish. We catch and release, but she still felt like the hook was hurting their mouths. What a typical GIRL!!


Russ with a nice looking Rainbow.


The rule is you take a picture if you catch the first fish of the day, the largest fish of the day, or the smallest fish of the day. Here is my picture with the smallest! :)

Brum with a nice Rainbow, beautiful colors, proably one of the older fish we caught that day.

Tri 1 Complete

Yes it is true there has been a Carl sighting! Yesterday was my first day in 4 months of not having to go to the library to study. It was GREAT! Thanks for all the prayers, couldnt have got through TRI 1 without them. 25 out of 98 didnt pass, and unfortunately they have to spend another $15,000 to retake TRI 1.

I have the next two weeks off and then TRI 2 starts up, I have decided not to sleep the next two weeks so that I can take advantage of every hour I dont have to study! So if you want to hang out give me a call! Here are some pictures from the past 4 months, most of them are me and Trisha with my buddies from school. We had a couple weeks where we had 2 or 3 exams/practicals everyday straight, so common theme in the pictures is surviving and being happy you havent killed yourself. Most of us lost like 10 pounds over the 4 months, basically because eating took up valueable time that could be used for studying.

What is Chiropractic?

Hey guys, sorry that it has been so long since our last update, but as you can imagine things have been busy. Carl had an assignment for a class and he had me proof read it for him and I was completely blown away and told him that he should put it up on the blog. The assignment was to write in two pages "What Chriopractic is to you." It was really hard for him because he felt like he could write a hundred pages and still not cover every aspect of Chiropractic, but he condensed it down into two pages and this is what he got. He wanted me to make sure and let you know that this is extremely shortened and abbreviated but I think that was the whole idea. Until know I did not know what a Chiropractor does but this really cleared it up for me, maybe it will do the same for you? Hope you like it...

What is Chiropractic?

To me Chiropractic is an alternative approach to good health, without having to fill a prescription. We know that the human body was created to heal itself, and as long as the Central Nervous System is allowed to communicate with the body, then “good health” is attainable. Unfortunately there are things that we encounter everyday that cause interferences in this communication process. These things might be the fact that we have to sit at a desk and stare at a computer screen all day inevitably leading to improper posture and stress on our spine. Or our bodies may be involved in some kind of trauma, either a car accident or slipping and falling down. Probably one of the biggest stressors that are bodies encounter is the food that we put in it.

In today’s culture we have become so accustomed to this fast paced lifestyle with “instant gratification.” If we can throw down 5 dollars and get a meal at McDonalds in just a matter of minutes, most of us will. Our bodies are able to adapt to handle and process these types of foods everyonce in a while but not every day. These foods contain fillers, which are basically like toxins to our body, and these toxins cause stresses, which can lead to interferences in the nervous system. As time goes by all of these stressors add up and our nervous system begins to experience decreased function. Which is what today’s culture commonly refers to as “being sick.”

Where Chiropractic comes in to play is we have the ability to locate and remove these interferences, which are called “subluxations” and in essence restore proper function in the nervous system. This is a really simple analogy to a really complex and compound process, but when you have your foot on a water hose, you are keeping the water from coming out the end, when you remove your foot from the hose, water begins to flow normally through the hose. The same can be related to the nervous system in the human body. When you fall down or are involved in a car accident your vertebrae may become misaligned causing interference between the communication of the brain and spinal cord to different areas of the body. When this happens the body tries to heal itself, and this is when we notice pain and inflammation. Which is a natural process of healing, but the misconception in today’s world is I just need to take some “medicine.” When really all you are doing is reducing a symptom (i.e. headache, soreness) and not fixing the real problem at hand.

This is where a Doctor of Chiropractic is best utilized. He can evaluate the spine and find the area that is misaligned and with proper contact on the vertebrae he gives an adjustment putting it back into normal position. When this occurs it is just like taking your foot off the water hose and restoring normal function. The brain is able to communicate with the area of pain, allowing the body to be able to heal itself. The Chiropractor is not the one doing the healing, he is just removing the interference allowing the body to work its magic and heal itself the natural way without having to “go under the knife” and physically remove something that God designed and gave a specific function in the body.

Prayers for Carl

Hey guys I just wanted to ask that you keep Carl in your prayers. He has something like 15 exams over the next couple weeks. His first exam is tomorrow morning at 7. I cant even imagine the amount of stress he is feeling right now. I was looking at his calendar on his desk and he literally has an exam or a lab practical every day for the rest of the month. He has been doing really well on keeping up with the material, and he is extremely smart so I'm sure he will be okay, I just thought he could use a little extra support.

Thanks,
Trisha

Cowboys Playoff Game

A couple weeks back we got to enjoy the Cowboys devastating loss in person at Texas Stadium. Even though we were dissappointed we still had a blast. We got some great tickets (thanks to Ann Hastings), we were like 30 rows up in the endzone. Great view. We stood up the whole game, I think Caleb and I were solely responsible for the noise and confusion on the play when Eli got sacked. Got sick and had absolutely no voice the next day but it was worth it. Hopefully next year we will be able to enjoy the ride home, and maybe have a Super Bowl Party for the cowboys??? Here are some pictures, don't have that many because we were more interested in watching the game, sorry. The random guy with me and Trisha is Randy Rogers. Great Texas Country Musician, his hit song right now is "Kiss Me in The Dark." Probably one of Trisha and my favorite artists. He asked if he could tailgate with us! Not really, but it was still pretty cool running into him.

"A Tail Waggin' Day"

One of our gifts from Christmas was a puzzle, so Trisha and I spent a couple nights wrapped up in blankets on our couch putting together a puzzle called "A Tail Waggin' Day" Of course we had help from our own "Tail Wagger" Maddie. (P.S. You can now click on the picture and see the full size version. Special thanks to Staci Knowlton, the professional blogger!)