A Note From Dr. Nic

As the Note from Dr. Nic, I thought I'd share part of my 'Holiday Letter'. If you talk to me for more than 5 minutes, I'll probably mention my kids. I have a saying that "compass points to the E" in reference to Edwin, Estelle, and Emerin, and below is what I shared about them.  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Family and Friends Near and Far!

I haven’t written a Holiday letter since I was in 6th grade, I believe, when it was composed on an Apple IIe in my parents’ kitchen. However I can still remember the salutation of that letter reading exactly as this one does, and it has been good for me to put together this card and letter over the last couple of weeks.

2023 was an incredibly eventful year for myself and the kids and I wanted to share some photos as well as some stories…so here goes:

Edwin Nicholas (13.5 Years Old) continues to be my “Number 1 Buddy”, even wearing the Number 1 on his soccer and basketball teams. I am incredibly proud of him in many ways, and when I compare his maturity and mindset to my own when I was in 8th Grade, that admiration only grows. He excels in the classroom and in athletics, and still loves to spend time with his dad (and his Grandpa at the Plymouth Dirt Track, where he has attended at least one race for 10 straight years and my father has reached 73 consecutive years!), and his sisters (most of the time). Last Spring Eddy took 6th overall in the Mile at State, and last fall he was the STATE CHAMPION in Cross Country, running a 31-second PR in the process. He was the leading scorer on his soccer team and plays point guard on all THREE of his basketball teams, of which his father coaches. He was gifted my old Garmin GPS watch and loves the data it provides on his runs, his bike rides, and his hikes and dog walks, and his love for the outdoors and camping brings me much joy as well. Please, time…slow down.

Estelle Josephine (12 Years Old) is wise beyond her years and has definitely developed into a teenager a bit early. She is beautiful inside and out, with hair that is a sight to behold, and a strength that matches well with a joy for life. Her passion is riding cross country with her horse, Jack, and I thoroughly enjoy the times I get to witness her and Jack working together, jumping “oxers” and “verticals” and “triples” and even last week jumping a “Liverpool”. She earned 3 Blue Ribbons at her most recent show, and she loves to trail ride, which I join her and try to keep up! Estelle also sings in the school’s Gospel Light Choir, is an excellent speller and overall student. She is also a voracious reader, incredibly imaginative, and also enjoys her siblings (sometimes begrudgingly that little sister) and our adventures when camping and hiking and biking…especially after I upgraded her Huffy to a Trek last Spring! She is kind and patient with her dad as he works to furnish her bedroom and I think it’s safe to say Estelle and my mom are a pair, and not just because they’re both left-handed. Estelle also plays softball and basketball and does so with a smile at all times. While a lefty in writing, she shows great ambidexterity in sports, making me wonder if I bought her the correct softball glove or should have her switch her shooting form. To be determined on that…

Emerin Ellora (7.5 Years Old) is such a treasure. I often refer to her as the ‘Mascot’ as she has a way of lightening any mood, being goofy, and entertaining all of us with her antics. She always reminds me that we must say prayers at night if I forget or am in too much of a hurry at bedtime. She is goofy and fun to laugh with, and we joke often that her belly button is my all time favorite belly button, as is her Left Armpit (don’t ask). Like her brother and sister, she makes me incredibly proud in school, often earning perfect scores on not one, but TWO spelling tests per week. She also grew in to not one but two bike upgrades this year and continues to grow grow and grow, and play soccer for the Giebler Chiropractic team (the team’s Jerseys are pink—her choice) and basketball through the local YMCA. While her room is often the messiest, it is excused as she is only developing her imagination and creativity at every turn. Her favorite game is Kids Against Humanity, and she has a knack for cracking us all up with her gamecard plays. She is almost always the first to wake in the morning, and those morning snuggles, whether they’re in a tent when camping or in my bed at home, are my favorite snuggles.  

23 Things I Learned in 2023

Here we go! It's 2024, and as I write this (on Monday), we are awaiting a snowstorm! As you read this, it either arrived as expected, or was less than expected, or perhaps it was even worse! No matter what happens, we can learn! And along those lines, I thought I'd share 23 things I learned in 2023. In no particular order...here we go:



1.   One reason the United States didn’t adopt the metric system was because the ship crossing the Atlantic from France carrying a standard kilogram—yes, a real physical object—requested by Thomas Jefferson in 1793 was blown off course into the Caribbean and captured by pirates.

2.   You never know when you may need to 'know' basic first aid. Yet, it is estimated only 1 out of every 20 people have taken a class. In the span of about 2 weeks, my dad saved my mom's life using the Heimlich Maneuver, and I was the 'first responder' in two separate events. Take a class this year!  

3.   Cookie Monster eats approximately two dozen cookies for every Sesame Street episode filming. The cookies are baked at the home of Lara MacLean, and the ingredients—pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape-Nuts, instant coffee, with water, and black glue for the chocolate chips—are optimized to explode into crumbs without getting stuck in Cookie Monster’s fur. The last human to eat the cookies was Adam Sandler, in 2009.

4.   44.4% of people have one joint on their pinkie toe and 55.3% have two.

5.   10% of people have an extra vertebrae in their low back, which can dramatically affect the biomechanics of the lumbar spine, leading to pain. I see it often in the office!

6.   Simply trying to help is often as good as providing a solution. I often have found myself thinking that chiropractic care may not be 'enough' for an individual, but by simply be willing to work with the person, relief is found more often than not.

7.   Twelve plant species and five animal species are responsible for 75% of the world’s food supply. Any guesses on the five animal species?

8.   Children who were injured from a fall before the age of nine are less likely to be scared of heights when they get older.

9.   Tic Tacs are labeled as sugar free even though they are 94% sugar. As long as there’s less than half a gram of sugar, the FDA permits products to be labeled sugar free. Each Tic Tac has 0.49 grams of sugar.

10. In 15 years working in Kiel at Giebler Chiropractic, I still see something every week that surprises me. I hope I never stop being surprised by the people I'm fortunate enough to work with at the office.

11. Twice as many women get tattoos as men: 39% of women and 21% of men have tattoos. The ratio is the same for hidden tattoos, too: 30.2% of women have a hidden tattoo, compared to 16.7% of men.

12. In 2004, with the introduction of automated traffic lights, New York City disabled most of its 3,250 crosswalk buttons (it was cheaper than removing them), but pedestrians continue to press them, under the illusion that it changes the light so they can cross.

13. Birds are evolving smaller eyes to adapt to the brightness of cities at night. For two species, the Northern Cardinal and Carolina Wren, the eyes of birds in San Antonio are 5% smaller than their rural counterparts.

14. Feeling anxiety about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome...is literally just defining anxiety. It's a repeating cycle that can only change with you.

15. When feeling anxiety about an upcoming event or something with an uncertain outcome, do your best to take action. No matter whether it turns out good or bad and no matter whether you take action or remain paralized, the anxiety will still be there. 

16. Half the reason people are on TikTok and almost 80% of the reason people are on Instagram is only because their friends are. People would need to be paid $59 to quit TikTok and $47 to quit Instagram if everyone else continued to use it. However, they need only $28 and $10, respectively, if they knew everyone else was quitting, too.

17. Social Media is not 'good' or 'bad' in and of itself. But it is incredibly powerful and especially powerful the younger you are. Be careful with it, and fight back against the peer pressure your children feel in joining in or interacting if they've already joined.

Click here to finish reading.

Procrastination and Depression

It’s a New Year, and that inevitably means resolutions to change. Often we wait until it’s officially January 1^st to make those changes, procrastinating right up to the clock striking midnight. And sometimes we wait a little longer than that as well.

I recently read a phrase: “Procrastination means paying twice the price when you eventually must act.”

The relationship between procrastination and self-esteem not coincidental. The reason is that self-esteem slips whenever integrity is sacrificed, and procrastination always demands the offering up of a tiny piece of our integrity. Heavy-duty procrastination is also a first sign of depression in many people. 

I think there is a strong correlation between depression, self-esteem, procrastination, and failed or unacted-upon resolutions.

Suffering people say that when they are depressed, they feel overwhelmed, overburdened with “so much to do” that there’s no hope of ever getting it done. There’s a feeling of powerlessness in insurmountable odds. I often think about another phrase: “Want something done? Ask a busy person!” It is when we stop taking action—sometimes massive action and other times just a small first step—that we start to procrastinate and start to lose our self-esteem. Inaction and not “showing up” is an exponentially harmful decision to make.

Click here to finish reading.

Chrissy Debruine

https://www.nursecoachchrissy.com/