Episode 188: Kaci Chalfant - Faith & Family

Hello and welcome to the Kosh, the People's Podcast.

I'm your host, Timber Smith, and the Kosh is a podcast that spotlights people who've had an association with the Kosh in the surrounding Fox Cities region.

Kosh listeners, how are we doing today?

OK, so let me give you my report, the daily report that I'd like to give you.

Of course it is the weekend when we're recording.

It is just a little nipply out there is what I'm going to say.

And we have no sun.

This is still springtime though.

It's part of spring.

And once again, I am never mad at spring or fall because y'all know I love a good flannel and let's stretch out flannel season as long as we possibly can.

It makes me happy.

All right, Kosh listeners, also you already know, let me remind you that this episode of Akash is sponsored by Timber Ties.

Once again, y'all know, y'all have been on this journey with me.

Timber started a business and that is wooden bow ties.

Y'all already know that I was a bow tie fanatic.

These wooden bow ties are super stylish and guess what spring means it's wedding season.

So if you're out there, you're listening and you're trying to figure out what what is that thing that I can give those people in my wedding.

You know, this would look really good on some groomsmen or grooms people.

Please feel free to go check out Timber Ties.

It is timber-ties.com and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with what we're out here doing.

OK, so now on to real business at hand.

We have somebody really cool sitting in the chair today and I'm excited about this conversation because we are reaching out into the region and I can tell you this, I haven't had an opportunity.

I've had one person that I can remember from Amro and that was a pretty fantastic episode that we did with them.

And apparently Amro's out here and they listen to the Kosh a little bit.

So we, we thank them for that and more importantly, we are thankful for having an amazing guest.

So, so you already know what's coming.

You already know what's coming.

I don't know how we continue to get these amazing, amazing guests and this weeks not going to be any different.

So without any further ado, this weeks guest is Casey Chaufont.

Hey, Casey, how are you doing?

Good.

Doing great today and we could do without the rain.

Facts.

But you know, we need this little gloomy weather to help us out because garden season.

Absolutely.

Say we have about 230 by 100 foot beds.

We are all about tomatoes and salsa, and the hotter the better those.

Ghost Peppers so y'all get down like that?

We absolutely do.

Oh do you?

Do you plant Peppers also?

We do.

This is the first year that we actually save our pepper plants from last year, did not know they were perennials, somebody told me that.

So we actually let them go dormant in our basement.

So hopefully they are going to be larger, bigger and faster producing this year because we saved about 35 hot pepper plants.

I didn't know that was a thing.

I just go and buy new plants every year.

Yeah, we didn't either found out about it and tested it out in a Rubbermaid tote.

So we're going to see how it goes for us.

Very excited about it because some of those like the Carolina Reapers is one that's a hard one to find.

Oh yeah.

And we did seeds from that one.

So we're going to see how it goes this year.

OK.

Here in Oshkosh, we have the place that's over there down County A called Ferno's.

And Ferno's has like, because it's a farm and that stuff is legit legit and that stuff grows.

So I swear by them.

I was trying to think there's one in Rippen and I can't think of the name, but they also do hot Peppers and they're one of the few places that you can find all of the varieties of the different hot Peppers.

Well, I'm going to make sure that I'm going to bless you with a jar of fiery hot sauce and salsa.

That's awesome.

And it is nice to have friends who also grow hot things because, you know, sometimes one thing produces, the other thing doesn't produce.

And then like we need to do some trading.

Absolutely.

Because the seeds in itself, I mean, that's just having that plant around.

If it's an heirloom plant, some of those are going extinct.

I think you might be next level I might need to learn.

From you.

I'm no gardener, novice by any means.

Normally since we've had a garden, since we've been back in this area, I've been pregnant or haven't been able to.

And when I've been pregnant I can't go in the garden because tomato plants, just the leaves make me break out in hives.

So we go from having this amazing garden to holy cow, how did it get so weedy?

Oh, for real?

Yes, and it's miserable.

Yeah, I, I look, I don't know nothing about that, but nonetheless, that does doesn't sound like a good spot to be in.

Oh, it's, you know, it's wild how your body reacts.

Oh yeah, I can.

I can only imagine.

Okay, well Casey, can you please tell us a little something about yourself and your relationship with the Fox Cities region?

Absolutely.

So I was born and raised and Nina went to Nina High School.

And I'm trying to think what year it is.

I'm not going to admit the year because I don't want to admit how old I am.

But met my husband and moved to Georgia and then we moved back up here in the past two years.

We now have three kids.

They're the most amazing little people on the face of the planet.

And I know you said that your kids have long gone lost and left the nest, but we wanted to be closer to my mom.

She's still up in Neenah and she made the trip once a month to see them.

And it was one of those things where this is a no brainer.

We need to we need to move to Wisconsin.

So we did found the house that we fell in love with, fought for that house for nine months before we actually got it.

And it is an 1823 old farmhouse that we're slowly working our way through, and it's just so fun in the process.

And now with the kids being involved in everything, it makes everything that much more fun.

Hey, that's pretty awesome.

So you're you're taking on the whole rebuild of this farmhouse.

This is like.

No, so the people prior to us, I think we're third owners.

They, she was meticulous in this house.

So a lot of it was upgraded.

We just finished getting the rest of the knob and tube out.

We have a panel upgrade happening so that all of our electrical in our houses up to par and then we'll go from there and then it's working through plastering and drywall and windows and things like that.

But I will say that the previous owners did a fantastic job of up keeping it.

There's very few issues with this house.

I mean, we have been there for a little almost two years in August, excuse me two years and we haven't even had to paint anything yet RIP some cabinets out and just slowly working through it.

But I mean everything is she, she did a very good job of upkeeping the house and a house that was built back in that day.

I mean it, it'll, it'll withstand the test of time.

We'll say that.

OK, I want to back up a little bit.

Let's talk about these kiddos.

Absolutely.

How old are the kiddos?

So our oldest is 6, he'll be 7 this summer.

And then we have our middle who is 4 and then our most recent addition to the family, a little girl.

So we have two boys and then we have our daughter.

She will be two in August.

We're not done yet.

We, I want more kids are literally the greatest gift you gift you could possibly get from God.

And we just want to embrace that.

And they are the coolest little people on the face of the planet.

Every experience has been a new wild ride and the right, the things that they say, the things that they do, the innocence that they have, just the experience of them entering this world has been the most amazing thing.

And I don't personally understand people that don't like kids, that don't like children because they're missing out.

And if they only knew.

It's one of those scenarios where if you only knew what you were missing out on.

Yeah, yeah, I, I will say this.

My my thing with people and kids is I think kids show you who you really are.

I would agree.

That's the thing that I think you get out of kids.

They show you who you really are.

And I'm a firm believer.

Like I I question how well you can know yourself without having at least a child to show you who you are.

Because they are you, and they will remind you exactly of who you are at at the most basic core of your personality.

They 100% do.

I mean just that.

That raw filter that every person should have of it's just honest.

Yeah, it most definitely is.

But I also understand those who maybe it's not their path, right?

And so my thing is this, I, I want to respect those people because if you know, it's not in your heart, don't bring responsibility.

You don't bring responsibilities on your life that maybe maybe you're just that's not, that's not how you feel, right?

Yeah.

So I I respect all sides of it, but three kiddos, that type of girl, how do you have a life?

Our life is our family.

That was the goal.

You know why we'll sit here and say that for me, my life focus is my faith and my family right there.

Outside of those two things, nothing else matters in this life for me.

We were literally again, I'm coming from a a different perspective of this is my job.

My job is to raise these three amazing human beings and what however many more God is going to grace us with, to do amazing things, be amazing people and continue that message and anything outside of that scope.

We built this life to do life with our kids.

That is something that we enjoy.

We enjoy being around each other.

We enjoy being with our kids, whether that's playing baseball in the yard, going to the zoo, watching them do a puzzle, just watching how our oldest interacts with the other two, how he's so helpful with our youngest does it without asking.

I mean, even just yesterday we were a little busy doing some things and we picked him up from a friend's house.

Yesterday was the first time our kids ever went to a friend's house.

We keep our family very close knit.

We like to know the people that our kids are around.

So that way we know that our values are being instilled in our children.

So that spoke volumes of the people that our kids were with yesterday for a bit.

And he came home and he goes, Mom, I cleaned the pantry for you yesterday.

He's 6.

And obviously we, like our youngest is about to be two.

The gate wasn't in front of the pantry.

I mean, she's just, you can imagine, she rips everything off the shelf, every bags open, cereal, rice, noodles, I don't, you name it.

It's on the floor, it's throughout the house.

It's crunched everywhere.

And he cleaned the entire pantry just to pick it up as a thoughtful thing to do because he knew it's like, Oh my gosh, mom's going to see this.

And she's just, this is a mess.

We can't even get in the pantry without it.

So we do life with our kids every moment of every day.

It's them that's we chose to bring them in into this world and we need to grace every moment we can with them.

What's the ideal number?

My 6 year old will tell you 7 that that that mom wants 7.

I think I maybe said it one time and it's just like, I don't know, I, I will, I will.

I don't have a number set in my head, but I can tell you that whatever God is going to grace us with, I will willingly accept and you're good with it.

I'm good with.

It all right, that's what's up.

OK, so you know, I was having this conversation with somebody the other day and we were talking about how this region really is the boomerang like pal Kingdom.

And when when we say that, I can't tell you how many people I talked to who go to school or right after high school leave because they need to see things.

And I get that particularly, and I know this very well because I'm not originally from the region, but I've been in the region for over 30 and I watch people and they're like, aw man, I need to go.

And you do I think it is excellent.

You need to go see some other things, but after seeing some things, I can't tell you how often they boomerang back to the region. 100% I mean, I'm a product of that for the sole fact of, like I said, born and raised in Neenah, left.

We were in Georgia for a while, different facets of Georgia moved to Indiana and different areas from rural to suburban.

And end of the day it came back down to man, the valley really wasn't that bad when I was growing up.

When you see what the rest of the world was like, you know, it's kind of that bubble and you don't realize you're in the bubble until you leave.

And it was one of those concepts of I know that, like I said, we wanted more kids and we needed to come back here because my mom wanted to be around them.

We wanted our kids around around that.

And you do you come back.

I mean, I look at the number of people that I grew up with that went to Madison or Milwaukee or Marquette and they're back in Neenah within I'd say a mile or two of their parents.

That wasn't the case.

I'd say when I went to school, a lot of people, I was eclectic from the across the entire nation.

So for me to have ended up back in Wisconsin within 20 minutes of my hometown, if you would have asked me at 15 or 16 and it'd be like, Oh my gosh, no.

Get the heck out of you are You are exactly the person I'm talking about.

You were that person I.

Was that person, I mean, I needed out.

I was out of the sick of the valley.

Like nothing happens in Neenah.

There's nothing cool here.

And then you leave and you come back and you're like, Oh my gosh, our lakes alone are more amazing than some of these ponds.

People call that our lakes in other parts of the country.

And it's it floors you.

It just floors you the the beauties of the different areas.

But what you also take for granted when you come back.

I mean, I'll use I'm trying to think Riverside Park and Nina is one that comes to mind and same with I'm trying to think what park in Oshkosh.

I can't think of it right now on the lake.

Thank you.

I grew up playing at that park when it was the old wooden structure.

And to come back to that now, seeing what it is now and it's like if you only knew how like the park is cool, it's modern.

They did a fantastic job on redoing that area.

But that original Wood Park, I mean, that was just classic.

Yeah, no, Menominee is one of our favorites.

You're not that far from there.

This is that side of town.

I I that's Bosco, the podcast dog's favorite park.

He spends lots of time there.

Does he swim?

You know what?

We've never put Bosco in water.

I don't know if he's about that life.

My boy is kind of spoiled.

I don't know if he has that in him.

I'm sure he could if he needed to, right?

You know, he might like it and then then you might.

Those walks might look a little different.

Wait, I'm going to tell you what he might like it.

The wife won't.

I can.

I was going to say the lake flies and that smell that comes out of that water every once in a while during the spring.

We're not going to make Mama mad, that's what.

We're not going.

To be I don't.

I don't blame you.

All right.

So Casey, what else is going on with Casey?

What?

What else are we doing since you've come back?

Right now, say we opened up a chiropractic office in Amrel named Primal Chiropractic Amrel, kind of playing with that idea.

Love it.

My husband is a chiropractor.

Everything that we do again is family, faith and health.

So we're very big on the health and Wellness side.

Practice what you preach is another mantra that we live by within our family where we teach our kids that, you know, food can either fuel your body or poison it.

So we're very, very big on that topic right now.

I also work part time with Thrivent.

I come out of Fond du Lac for a private broker, a great company, Christian values, do some of their social media for them.

And then our family.

That's, that's what it looks like.

So I run the behind the scenes.

I do that, you know, we're just ramping up into sport season for our kids.

So seeing how this is all going to play out because now our middle son is at the age where he can finally do sports.

So that'll be fun because he's now understanding it better than I would say some of the older kids that we have done sports with because he's been watching his brother.

And it's, it's wild to see the difference from our your first kid doing sports where they're the first one.

And then you see them in comparison to another little boy that maybe has had four older brothers.

They've been watching for years play sports and just watching their little wheels click and turn.

And how our four year old might understand different concepts of things faster than some of the 10 year olds because they might be the only child and they've never witnessed that before.

So that's, that's 100% our life and navigating all this Dang construction.

That's what's up with with our lives right now.

Because every day I feel like there is another Rd. that's closed.

There's another detour sign.

I didn't think that construction season has started yet.

Oh man, it is wild.

I mean just the projects with an Oshkosh, the detour signs that are up.

I mean we have 21 being worked on, E being worked on, 9th being worked on.

They're going to be closing part of that bridge between Amro, Winnie, Connie at some point, yes.

So that's going to, I think wreak some havoc on some people and and change the dynamic of how you get around.

I'm pretty sure we are going to be in a construction phase at least until 2028 I believe.

Don't say that.

No, that's not the case.

I, I'm sorry, but you know, I, I, I just might happen to be associated with local government and, you know, and the dot and and have seen some seen some things.

OK, it's this is.

Insider information there just to.

Be well, I don't know how insider is they have it's all public.

Wait, they have brochures, right?

It's all.

Public.

It is all public.

But there is, there is lots coming.

But you know, at the end of the day, God knows I, it drives me as crazy as anyone else.

But I also know when it's said and done, it's, it's helping with our commerce.

It's it's helping with all the things that we need in our region. 100%.

And also it's probably a really good sign in a sense of the growth that's happening in our region because our region really is becoming or is already a destination location, you know, particularly in Wisconsin, this is one of the fastest growing regions in Wisconsin.

The valley is in Oshkosh and whatnot.

The Fox Cities, yeah, yes, hands down, Hands down.

I remember right.

If you really take what they refer to as the Fox Cities, the population is about 700,000.

Okay, yeah, I don't know what it was back in the day when I was a kid, but I mean, you, you know, you're, you're so removed from that as a kid because you just are in your, your bubbles.

Your job is to be a kid.

Yeah, You're supposed to know all that.

None of it.

And none of that is important.

What was important to me was BMX bikes and skateboards.

There you go.

I get it.

I get it.

All right, so we're doing, we're doing a little bit with thriving.

All right.

I'm assuming you're assisting with the new chiropractic business with your husband?

I am say, like I said, I do all the behind the scenes, the website, all of the patient facing materials, the booking.

I handle all of that.

That way my husband has the ability to be the doctor.

All right.

And your it sounds like maybe your chiropractic business focus is?

It has a, it's centered around health and food because we've had other chiropractic guests here on the Kosh and No2 are the same, right?

And where they put their focus in like everybody does it a little bit different.

So this is actually a new thing.

This is different than the others.

That I've had and that in my in my brain is wild that they can differ so much because the premise of what they do is very similar.

But some of them like they're, it's, it is very different.

I mean, you can have, I think of, my goodness, you can go down a street and in Oshkosh and you might have 15 that you could throw a rock to.

And not one of them is going to talk the same, do the same things.

They all have like their different focus as to what they prefer.

And they all essentially are coming from those same 33 principles.

Yeah.

It doesn't.

I guess it doesn't surprise me in a way because I mean, when you get into the expertise of something, right?

I kind of, I think of a maybe I think of it from a higher Ed framework, right?

You can be a history professor, but we're what you decide to get your PhD in or you what you're, you know, whatever you're going to specialize in, right?

Your discipline could be anywhere along that umbrella of history and there's probably 1000 things you could put under the umbrella.

And I love a good chiropractor.

Trust me, I've had the chiropractor I've been going to for Oh my God, I can't, I don't even know how long, but it's, it's a very, very long time.

But like most of us, I think we're highly ignorant about chiropractic work because all you're thinking about is usually something to do with your back or your spine and somebody making loud crackety crack noises with your spine or your back as they make these adjustments.

But from having these conversations with other chiropractic, I've just learned like that is not even the primary point of chiropractic.

Not at all.

End of the day chiropractors are central nervous system doctors and it is in reference to how your brain is connecting to the rest of your body.

So we were designed smart.

Our creator literally left his thumbprint on you in your DNA.

And with that being said, there is so many more facets that your body does very intelligent things and when you fuel it in the proper way, it has the ability to be function at a optimal level.

And too many people don't grasp that, like you said, because of back I would say in the 80s, I know a lot of chiropractors that graduated graduated in that time frame.

They used to call it the Mercedes 80s because of how insurance was and how it all changed because they could bill out for so many things and be reimbursed 100% for that.

So that concept of, OK, you were going to adjust your thumb, this portion of your back, this portion of your knee, everything was billable and they made money on all of it.

Where that concept is very different today and a lot of people are walking away from, we'll say insurance for that sole purpose of insurance was not ever designed to keep you healthy.

It was there like you have car insurance or life insurance and now that people can kind of see through, we'll say some of the advertising end of it or they're having those aha moments.

They're like, man, I hire them, they don't hire me.

And so they're kind of being pickier about who they put in their healthcare circle.

And so people have to have, we'll say that edge of what makes you different because there is 60 chiropractors, let's say an Oshkosh, and I'm not quoting a number.

I'm just throwing some random number out there.

And if there is 60 of them, how are you going to pick one?

You have to figure out what's important to you and go from there.

Yeah, I'm going to guess most people probably pick from whatever their family has been doing is, is I just think this is that region where, you know, somebody in your family went to them, aunt, uncle, grandma, whoever it is, and they're going to say, oh, you need to go to Doctor Charles and.

Right.

And you're going to say, OK, from there.

Yeah.

And from there it that's just who my observations, that's who this region is.

It, it very much is.

It's all, it's all who you know and it goes from there.

But then in the same breath, if somebody has one bad experience with said one and that it might not even be that.

It might be a front desk person or another client physically in the waiting room.

Something I know that you've talked about in the past is just the lack of respect people have for time.

I cannot stand being late.

We do not do that ever.

If it's I get, I don't want us to call it anxiety because I'm not anxious about anything, but I get flustered.

That's probably a better word where if we're running late to something or I don't like the chaos that brings to our family, to the kids.

If we're running late.

And I don't know how the number of times I've been in a doctor's office for the dentist appointments or whatnot, and you make an appointment for 11:00 and you're still sitting there at 11:45 and it's like just one more minute.

And it's like, I made my appointment for 11, It's 11:45 now.

Who has time to sit in a waiting room for 45 minutes?

That's the biggest thing where a lot of people are switching to a different type of practice.

Instead of having, we'll say, that waiting room full of people, let's keep make it more personal.

I, I appreciate that.

If that's the, if that is the new philosophy, I appreciate that.

And yes, you know, I apparently you've definitely heard me talk about my sensitivity towards time.

It's a.

Respect factor.

Well, I look at it as the gift you are given right there.

It is the one gift.

Once you know, time is that thing where you don't know how much of it you have.

You can't make more of it.

And once it's gone, it's gone.

So I look at it as the most valuable asset I can ever give anyone.

When I give you my time, I'm literally giving you the absolute most important thing that I have to offer.

And so I just want people to value my gift, no matter even if I'm paying for it.

Matter of fact, maybe even more importantly if I'm paying.

For it, yeah.

Because, you know, then I just really need, I'm, I'm paying you to respect that valuable gift of time 100%.

That's just I I just have this thing about time.

And I, I completely understand we are a, we try to leave early for everything.

Again with the construction, I mean we were here probably 30 minutes early.

You were here early waiting to make sure that we were catching it in between the rain.

And I mean it was trying to find that right sweet spot of between downpours and sprinkles.

Bosco was well aware.

He he was, he was letting everybody know.

Hey, just so you know, hey, Ma pop, there's this car out here.

I'm going to keep barking at this until somebody comes up to the door.

Exactly.

Bosco knows.

Podcast day.

That's what I'm going.

To say, OK, well, he's very well behaved, he's just hanging down by your feet.

Oh, that's because you don't have TRATS.

OK, we have to spell things in our house too.

Because he knows.

Let me ask this if you weren't doing what you're doing right now, what would you like to be doing?

This is a super easy question for me.

I after having our first kid I can sit here and say that I wanted to go into midwifery.

We are a home birth family and we had the most amazing midwife when we were in Indiana.

She was a hands off person.

This is what you were biologically designed to do.

I'm here in case an emergency happens.

Otherwise my hands are not touching you.

We're not doing any of that.

And it was just, it was eye opening.

I didn't grow up in that world.

I can say my mom had both my brother and myself via C-section and it just opened my eyes perspective wise.

Again, my husband's family, third generation chiropractor, there's lots of them in in his family and all of the kids except one of his siblings were born at home.

And this again, I had no idea, didn't know what I was walking into, but I was this is what I wanted to do.

And it was the most amazing experience seeing how she handled things and going from there.

Or I'd go be a lawyer.

One of those two things.

Polar opposite end of the.

Spectrum that doesn't even those don't even hang out in the same room.

And I mean I will I will go back to and I'm trying to think I think it was maybe Horace Mann middle school and Nina Mr. Pond Kratz's class and I don't I can't maybe 6th grade and we did it was debate right, Loved it.

It was amazing.

And we had, we took old trials and cases, then we would redo the actual court case.

And it was super fun.

And that was just as a kid, I loved it.

There are so many people in the world today that will put feelings over facts.

And in law, there are no feelings.

It is facts.

It's all case law.

And it would be, I think, such a fun job to do if you were in the right area of law.

Yeah, I I agree with that.

Like, I think law is fascinating, but the thing that scared me away from law, that's a lot of reading.

Oh my God, is that a lot of reading.

I don't get like, I get down like that.

If I could do law through audio books then I would be down for.

It well this day and age, you never know.

Well, I don't, I don't, but you still got to be able to read all the cases and stuff.

It is like you know and so but.

One of those two, hands down.

All right, you know what?

Now you brought this up, Casey.

So now we, we got to talk about it.

Midwifery.

Let's break that down because I think it's, I think it's fasting.

I actually think it's something like, I don't think it's talked about much out loud.

Out loud.

You know, I've learned some things, you know, I, I work with people.

So I meet all sorts of people all the time.

And so like I've learned within the last two years about doulas.

I didn't know what a doula was right and just different kind of people that are involved in this in the process of Childs of birthing children, right.

So what would you like to share with the cost listeners about a natural birth and maybe about midwifery?

Midwifery.

Midwifery.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's a tricky word just with that.

It's, I've probably pronounced it wrong so many times over the years because like, like you, it was, it was taboo.

I mean, and I think it's, it's less taboo now because so many people are talking about it, because even hospitals are now adding midwives to their teams.

There's water birth stations within hospitals.

I cannot attest to that.

I can't speak on behalf of that.

I have not walked into one.

Oh gosh, I couldn't even tell you when.

Just not something that fits my agenda.

If there was an emergency, I would.

But outside of that, there are so many different levels of midwives.

There are midwives that are certified midwives and I'm sure people are going to correct me on that as well.

There are nurse midwives that have the nursing background 1st and then they went into midwifery.

I'm not sure of Wisconsin statutes on that.

I can only speak on behalf of Indiana, where it used to be certified professional midwives where they did would not have to have the fun nursing degree because the goal was if you're choosing this home birth, it's hands off.

But lots of there's a there's a sliding spectrum with that with people.

And like you mentioned, doulas, there are so many different types of doulas, birth doulas after postpartum doulas, you know, if God forbid something happens and there is the just all of it, it's, it's such a sliding spectrum on all of it.

And there are so many fantastic ones within the area that you can pick from.

You know it's home birth wise is.

It is it difficult to find someone in this region?

Is it not at all?

Not at all.

So if you really want to, it's out there.

It's.

Out there, I mean there are, I think we want to say majority of hospitals have birthing suites with midwives on staff there.

We've met some fantastic people since moving back that truly understand the Physiology, the Physiology of birth as how your your females bodies are designed for it.

That baby is exiting, whether you want it to or not, it is going to come out.

And the fact that people try to stop it or speed it up.

There was a hilarious video I saw at one point of people talking about like, right, like I'm nine months pregnant and I, I want this baby out.

And a lot of people are giving tricks and tips of how to get the baby to exit faster, right?

And none of those work.

It's all, they're all myths like a, a baby will exit when a baby is ready to exit.

And sometimes it's for emergency reasons that they want to come out maybe early or if they need a little extra time.

I can sit here and speak on behalf of our first was 45 weeks, three days, our second was 43 weeks, 5 days and our last one was right on the money 39 weeks and it's the experience is just the most amazing thing in the world and right first time mom, you have no idea what you're walking into you just you can feel that baby moving inside of you and it that in itself is probably one of the coolest things in the world as a woman to experience.

But then add in the actual process of you have the unsolicited advice that you get from random people at a grocery store.

I'm telling you how, how to do this.

Men, women, it doesn't matter.

They all give their two cents.

And when you I can say for me, I had lots of people in my life that are said, OK, well, when, when it's that moment you need to be loud, like just be loud and it'll it'll make it hurt less.

I'm like, OK, so I did that with our first and that was in my book.

It was an amazing experience.

But then once you keep going down the line of for our second dead, no midwife, just at the so there's another concept within that whole natural birth world of just free birthing where you have nobody there.

It was my husband, myself and our at the time 2 year old had him at home, just us, nobody else.

And that experience was the most peaceful, calm experience that I've had in my entire life.

And then we had our third, and each one got better with how it went, The calmness of it, the stillness of it.

I mean, our kids were sleeping less than 20 feet away when our daughter exited and I didn't wake them up.

That is a story to tell.

I don't even know what to do with that.

Casey, that is.

It's a mental game.

That is like spectacular.

Like I've I've never heard of anything close to that.

That is, that is cool.

It is, it's, it's breathing techniques.

And like I said, just with from the first to the third, you know, they're like, oh, be loud.

I'm like, OK, I got this.

So I was loud outside on our deck in a pool with our first kid and the neighbors like, oh, Casey's having her baby today.

And because I was loud and it doesn't change anything, the loudness of it, if anything, I feel like it hindered the process.

And then once you realize that, that just how it just breathing in itself can change how the speed of everything and your entire body has the ability to relax.

And I mean, babies literally eject out of women when it's, it's, I mean, it's, it's a fetal ejection response.

It's there.

It's again designed to happen and we want to interfere with it there.

There are so many amazing options, amazing people, resources.

I mean, the Valley does a fantastic job of it.

I'm thinking of there was a mom and I can't think of her name right.

The second that her son was in basketball with Quinn and she is a nurse midwife at Aurora off of what is that on Amro Road and Oshkosh And she all of their kids were born that way too.

And it's, it's becoming more common because people are again, are understanding that they have the reins of their healthcare and nobody gets to tell them what to do with it.

And just kind of taking that power back from it because I, I, you know, back in the day, it was you were wealthy enough to have a child at a hospital.

You got that pause after having a baby.

You got that meal and they'd take the baby away to the nursery in the hospital.

And people want those moments back because they understand again, that time concept that you're not graced with unlimited time.

They're only little for a short amount of time.

And those moments matter.

And more moms are taking that power back.

You have feelings about this?

Very much so.

I mean, I you know, that's one of those things that just gives me the the warm and tinglies of people thinking they need to ask permission to do something when they're the one that's experiencing it.

I mean, my biggest, you know, we talked about pet peeves.

I can say one of my pet peeves is a people that aren't honest and don't.

Don't give these away because you might need these later on in the episode.

I know and but the other one is when people feel they need to ask permission to do things.

I can sit here and tell you I ate whenever I wanted to when I was having kids.

I did whatever I wanted if I wanted to get up and move, change.

But nobody told me that I couldn't.

And just that is such a huge thing.

And that's where the doulas come into play because you hear stories about how things go wrong and this and that.

And if you are a parent in any situation, whether you're new or you're, you've had 17 kids, whatever that looks like and there is an emergency with your kid, you hear nothing, you see nothing, you get tunnel vision.

And that's where those doulas in these situations come into play where they kind of are the voice of reason for these families.

So I I have friends that are doulas, a fantastic one that's out in Omeral and it's just the concept that somebody else is looking out for your benefit, your behalf in those moments because you're not understanding everything, you're not hearing everything.

It's like, no, this was the plan.

This is what they want back the heck off.

And that's, that's a major role in it is not only assisting you, but acting as that advocate in those moments of you're not, you're not yourself.

You're in Mama bear mode.

When a kid, when a child is exiting you and you don't hear everything that people are saying.

You don't want the stupid questions that people are asking.

And I use that first hand.

I love my husband with every ounce of my being.

And I can sit here and tell you that first one, we had a midwife in a doula and I will never forget this.

I had just bought new towels when we were having our our first kid and I had everything laid out on the kitchen table that I wanted her to go grab and use.

And we had some fantastic friends there at the time And she, our doula went and grabbed the brand new towels out of the closet instead of grabbing the dark towels on the table.

And I bought, I could not fixate on that.

And I got stuck for about 40 minutes just because of that one detail because it was not the right doula in that moment for me.

She was not listening.

She was not doing anything.

Fast forward to our second kid.

I was like, I want nobody here.

And again, my husband, he was born home birth, his mom did it with all of her kids except 1.

And I was like, I want nobody there.

I want us.

I want Quinn.

And he's like, Are you sure?

And I said, yes, I am positive.

I I need to be in control of this situation.

I want to feel what that feels like.

We have our fail safes because a midwife can't in that situation.

If there is a true emergency, it's going to take the same amount of time for 911 to get there whether she's here or not.

And that.

Calmness that was there.

I mean, he was watching our two year old at the time was watching Clifford.

We'll never forget the story.

And my husband asked me a question.

And mind you, I'm in the bathroom probably 30 minutes and into labor, you know, going through the thick of it.

And I'm like, I looked at him and I said, I, I don't even know what you just said.

Get out.

Just get out.

I needed a minute.

And he was asking me a question about something else about breakfast for, for our kid at the time.

And I couldn't answer since it was just, you don't mean to be snarky in that moment as a wife, but it was, it was just not the right, you're not in the right headspace to answer in a kind, loving manner.

And I mean with it, with this last one, I mean, it was, I think less than 39 minutes from the moment I felt it to the moment our daughter exited.

And it was, I almost kicked him out.

I want to stay out of the bathroom this one too, for this whole fact of a silly question about a camera or, or whatever it was.

But yeah, your headspace isn't there.

So the the doulas and the midwives, they're a fantastic asset for people that want them, but they still want that home birth.

But they want that little extra level of there's somebody other than myself and my husband because that's out of their comfort zone.

So you get to literally tailor, I mean, your birth plan exactly how you want it.

And their job is to try to stick to that as close as they possibly can and advocate for you in any situation that you're in.

OK, well, Casey, I hope that I didn't take from your topic of the week because because that felt like you or your soapbox because I I felt the passion about that.

There is a lot of passion there, but no, that is, I still have my my topics, don't you worry.

OK.

Well, at this time we are going to pivot so.

All right Kosh listeners, you already know when you hear that sounds.

That means we are going with the topic of the week.

And the topic of the week is chosen by our guests 99.9% of the time and this week isn't going to be any different.

So, Casey, what is our topic of the week?

Topic of the week is going to be integrity.

I'm going to use just one word and make that be the focus and every Ave. and conversation that would that stems from this.

OK, let's go.

So integrity to me is one of those words that I am the same person sitting here in this chair looking across from you that I am Sunday morning at church, that I am when I'm at home with our kids, when I'm in the library, when I'm at home school group, you name it.

This is me through and through.

I don't put on a facade.

And I think that a lot of people in life could benefit from being themselves more often and that level of just integrity and being honest of who you are and owning it and not catering to what is popular at the time, but being you through and through.

Tell me more because there's there's lots of stuff dancing in my head.

There there is.

And, and, you know, in an idealistic society, that would be awesome.

But I'm thinking of so many settings.

And there there is.

That, let's be honest, you aren't allowed to bring your most authentic self to those spaces without the possibility of repercussions.

Correct.

And that that kind of stems back to the concept of get deep on you, we'll say for the free speech concept, right, We have free speech, but free speech comes with a price.

And that's where people, I think, failed to understand that you have the right to to say what you want, but there might be a consequence with what exits your mouth more.

I guess maybe it maybe authenticity might be a better word or topic of the week than just integrity.

Because I mean, they all kind of weave and or ebb and flow with each other of be be the same person you are within the four walls of your home for what people might not see in public.

Be your private self in public.

Now, I'm not saying that everybody needs to agree with me on and on every topic.

That's not the point that I'm making.

It's more of have the conversations because you can learn a lot from people, as you all know, just by having the conversation.

Oh yeah, where?

I'm a big advocate, well, where where conversation is possible.

Right and respectful conversation.

I am a non non swearing person.

I don't agree with it.

I will instantly shut a conversation down if swear words exit somebody's mouth, even if it's not directed at me.

I don't like it.

It's to me it's just a disrespectful tone.

It just sets the mood and it puts the other person I would see on the defense.

And I don't know when that became so acceptable to the point where we're at the grocery store and people are using that as easily as they say hello to people.

And it's wild.

I never thought I would have to have the conversations with our six and four year old at a grocery store.

Well, sorry guys, I know we're in the milk aisle, but this is we have to have this conversation now.

This is why we don't use this word.

And they're like, why did that person say that?

And it's how do you frame that in a public space without sounding?

And I don't even know what the right word would be in that moment of what you would want to label yourself as, because you're trying to teach your kids a valuable lesson in that moment of why we don't behave that way.

But I can't give an actual valid reason on why somebody chooses the actions in which they choose to do.

And it's such a hard line of that.

And so I think my biggest thing is I try to be me again through and through in any situation I'm put in.

It's not always easy.

You get some Flack for it.

I am very much a it's just honest.

Life is so much easier if you're honest.

We talked about, we write the honesty of kids and the things that exit their mouth had right.

I've had three kids.

I'm not the same size I was when I was 18 and every once in a while or a six year old to be like mom, what's that?

And it's like, OK, this is my sign that I need to go work out.

I need to do something because he is honest in the most innocent, loving way that you could possibly tell somebody something.

I've had three kids.

My body doesn't look the same way as it did is when I was 18 or pre kids or when I got married.

And if everybody could just have the I made the comment, now I'm going to go play catch and I'm good.

And you can just move on as quickly as kids do when those things happen.

But people take too much offense to things that are not meant to be offensive, where the second you take offense to something, the communication is done and you can't have that conversation anymore because we're too worried about feelings.

But if we stuck more to factual answers, and I can agree to disagree, you're never going to change my mind on it.

I'm never going to change your mind on it.

But we can have a civil conversation about it.

I have friends from that I grew up with where we don't see eye to eye on anything, but they have always been that way and they know I've always been the way that I have been.

But we're still friends and we can still have conversations and we can have a valuable relationship.

Because I can sit here and say that when I have something that I need to put out publicly or talk about with people, they are the first person that I go and talk to about it.

Like, how does this sound?

Because we do not agree on any of these things.

I need your input because you're going to be my harshest critic because you oppose everything that I believe in and just the integrity honesty of conversation.

That is my topic.

Because I you just do this.

You stop talking to people and then assumptions get made and it just doesn't.

Life is too short time it everything stems back to time.

It does. 100% and it's, it just floors you, right?

You're always learning, you are always learning new things.

And yeah, it's, it's, it's a, it pauses you for a minute.

It truly does.

Oh yeah, most definitely, Most definitely.

OK, what else about integrity or or actually I like the term authenticity.

And I think it might be a better.

One, it might be, it just might integrity is so structured, right?

And I feel like integrity gives a little more flexibility to maybe the that verbal space of where what some of the things which you're putting into this box.

Right.

People think this is integrity when really it's not.

Yeah.

Well, integrity, you know, here's the thing.

We're am I at work right now?

We're doing some culture value stuff, right.

And you know, when you're trying to figure out your, the values of a organization and stuff like that, and they talk about integrity and they're like, integrity should never really be a value that's listed because it's, it's incorporated in all of the other values.

So like, OK, when you talk about a bridge, right, you, you say, oh, this bridge has a lot of integrity.

Well, what you're really saying is this beam, this beam, this, this foundational structure, this, this, this, this is what makes the integrity.

They it takes all these smaller integrities to make bigger integrities.

Right, they build on each other.

Right in the case of in humans, there's a lot of flexibility in in this thing we, we call humanity, right?

And so I think what we hope that we get to do, and I'm not trying to change your.

Words.

No, you're OK.

Not trying to change your words is about seeing if we can just get people to see our human and accept us the way we see human.

Yeah, I would.

I would say that.

I think for me, it's just if you're going to say something, own it.

I don't, I don't put anything out there that isn't that I wouldn't back it up with with that.

And I think that's the biggest key player where I live my life, where I'm not ashamed of the choices that are made.

And there is authenticity in that.

Whether you like my choice or not, whether I like your choice or not, we can still coexist in the in this space and have it be amicable.

What I would say the way I, the way I heard what you just said was I have built the infrastructure around me to allow me to, how do I want to say this?

Let others see me as the me that I authentically am, right.

But everybody doesn't have that infrastructure or around or in, I would agree the places of like you, everybody can't show up who they authentically are.

You know, and, and trust me in this, because this is where I'm going to frame it from, right?

I'm going to frame it from a person of color.

We can't in Northeast Wisconsin, we can't show up to most spaces professional the way we would like to.

We are constantly appeasing the unfamiliar because if we don't appease the unfamiliar, it costs us professionally.

You lose opportunities, you lose income, right?

You lose access, right?

And so it's nice if you are able to build the infrastructure around you, right?

So you can do that, but it's not something that I would think many of us have are actually positioned to do.

And I agree with you.

And I would say that's that societies fail.

Yeah, well, 100%.

We, we, we, we I I wish you know what but.

Because it's one of those things where.

We we don't do a very good job of getting to know each other, is what I want to say.

We don't and and that that all comes back down to you.

Look at we'll we'll take it to DNA.

We'll take it back to the most scientific of science.

There, there is no difference in in God's eyes, we are all mankind and I'm going to leave it right there because God created everything.

He created you just like he created me.

And man is imperfect.

We know this.

It is, it is written.

And if more people would pick up a Bible and understand it and read it more than they look at their phones, we might have a different society today.

My ask to society is to not live siloed and make sure you surround yourself with individuals who are different than you and have different everything's than you.

So then where I find that integrity of society breaks down is at the point of unfamiliar, right?

Because then what you're, what you're basing things on is stereotypes, assumptions in hearsay, correct?

And so, and I, and we've, we have this conversation a lot in, in circles, professional circles, I run it because we talk about like neighborhoods and stuff like that, right?

There's a lot of situations where people have their NIMBY, you know, and NIMBY is not in my backyard, right?

I didn't until you said that, so I'm glad.

I'm glad that you clarified.

Oh, no, I wouldn't leave you out there, Casey.

I'm not going to leave you out there.

But it's the acronym Not in my Backyard, right?

And so when people want to do things or their different families are moving in the neighborhoods and, or when people are sometimes they're talking about affordable housing getting built in neighborhoods and stuff like that.

And the first thing that rises up is not in my backyard kind of vibes or structurally form out formally like they go and they fight counsel and the things of such right.

But what I've always found is that once people actually get to know each other and live next to each other, right, even though they may look different, they they may worship different, but they worship.

They may eat different, but they eat, they have kids, so they may parent what parenting looks like may look slightly different, but they love their children and their parent.

We are all societally usually way more alike than we ever are different.

But not having those interactions or not, or having what I would call a, a siloed, that for lack of better terms of siloed life really breaks down those opportunities to get over the hump on some of these things to get to as you, you put in God's words, we're all God's children.

Correct and end of the day, it's one of those things of God created everything and everyone good, bad ugly.

We know that we're fallen.

It's man it's not trying to get deeper biblical on you.

I don't, but this, it's the presence of of what I built my life around.

And I say that as somebody who, who wasn't religious, you know, brought up in a certain particular way, brought up Lutheran, went to church my whole life, but it was this is, This is why you do it.

This is how you do it.

And there is only one way to do this.

And then, you know, you skirt away from it for a while because you were forced to do something.

And then when you come back to it, you, you understand it better.

And then you understand the why of why you do it because you want to, because you understand and it, it changes perspective.

Just like right, you can read a book at 12 and you read the same book again at 16, and then you read it at 20 and you read it at 36.

And you're taking away different lessons based on what you need to see.

Those blinders come off in your life.

The more often you read the.

Same book.

Well, maybe you.

Understand the perspective.

Maybe you just weren't old enough to be to have the the educational infrastructure to accept the things yet, right?

Because you do.

It's a building process. 100% you're you're going to see different lessons as as you move through it.

Absolutely.

OK, how'd that soapbox feel?

But good, good.

That's hey, I'm, I am unapologetically me, my faith, my family.

That's that's how I roll.

And I, you know, I will never in my life apologize for that.

And that that's the biggest soapbox that that I would say is, you know, there's lots of different cultures, religions, things like that.

Be respectful.

Facts.

OK, Casey, I like that you went hard.

OK, Stan, you stood 10 toes down.

That was fantastic.

Next segment.

Next segment is called 21 Questions.

This is where we got some questions.

There are not 21 questions, but there are enough questions of quality intent that we may get 21 answers.

I love this part.

We, we, we ask good things.

Yes.

All right, you ready?

I am.

Let's go.

OK, what motivates you?

My family 100% it is, they are my driving force and everything that that I do, you know, there's moments where you just you, you, you mess up as a parent, you do and you come back and you're like, oh, shoot, I didn't mean to do that.

You might have been frustrated about something or somebody spilled something.

You come back and you're like, OK, you know what?

I'm sorry, I made a mistake.

They are my driving force for everything I do of what did I do yesterday that I can do better today?

What mistake did I make?

Whether you know it's with a spouse, with your kids, with family, how can I correct that?

What can I do that you have that?

That's what motivates me is, is my family, my husband, my kids, my faith.

All of it comes for a full circle because they're all intertwined.

What does success look like to you?

For me, it's a happy marriage that I enjoy being around my husband.

There's I see a lot of people that don't enjoy time with their spouses.

There was actually a a ridiculous and I don't know who put it out YouTube video podcaster.

I guess it'd be more of a vlogger in that in that regard, because it was videos and was going around Costco asking husbands like, man, do you like shopping at Costco with your wife?

They're like, God, no, I'd rather be doing anything else.

And then they probably 30 of those responses, right?

Because and it's like, yeah, I love shopping with my wife.

It's another, it's a it's a date for us.

This is what we're doing.

This is we're spending time together.

How could I not like it?

And it's like, man, if I was a young person coming out into, we'll say, the dating market, the marriage market, that would skew so many things.

We're looking for a spouse of like.

This is miserable.

I hate this.

Why are you married then?

Success is a happy marriage and family.

You enjoy being around and you enjoy doing stuff with them.

I didn't have kids to escape my kids.

I had kids to enjoy life with them.

What irritates you?

People that say one thing and do something completely different, if you're going to say it, own it.

That is such an irritant to me and shoes, shoes in the house.

We talked about it when we first came here.

I had seen that on the bottom that we are a no shoe household.

And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I need to.

We are driving and I called my mom that she's watching our kids right now.

And I said, you need to send me the picture of the sign we have on our door because at our old house we had wooden signs that a friend painted for us that said kindly remove your shoes.

Now we have laminated signs for that very reason and I think even on our door entering from our service door from the garage into the house at our old house said if you're dirty, get naked.

I don't want this in my house.

And obviously it was a joke like but but in the same scheme, the number of times that you have to explain to somebody on why they cannot wear shoes in your house, it's wild.

That is the biggest pet peeve.

Or when people want to argue about it, why they have to take their shoes off in your house.

Yeah, I'm feeling you on that.

What worries or scares you?

I would say a culture that is pulling families apart and just pushing people away from being truthful, that scares me the most because every, everything that you see that's put out there and pushed, whether it's in a kid show or if people are watching news, regardless of where they're getting news from.

It's, I, I look back on my childhood of the number of people I knew that were, that didn't have two parents and it was not the normal, but we see that so much more right now because I, I don't know why I, I can't speculate on that.

I can just say that I see it and it's different.

And that scares me for the future kids of what they think that looks like, the future families.

It's it just, it's changing and it's changing in a scary way.

What are you grateful for?

I am grateful that I have my 3 kids, my husband, our business, my mom.

She does a lot for us.

She helps us out in more ways than I can count, whether it's a quick, hey, we need you to come watch the kids.

I mean, you know, I am.

I'm very particular in how I clean my kitchen and how I clean my house.

And I will say that yesterday when she was watching them, she only had our youngest who took a nap and I come home to a fully cleaned kitchen.

I don't like washing dishes.

I actually hate washing dishes.

When we redo our kitchen, we're going to have two dishwashers because I hate washing dishes that much and she washed all my dishes for me.

We we cook everything at home.

So that's a lot of lot of dishes, lots of plates, lots of pans.

I mean, you name it, we make it.

And my counter was spotless by the time I got home.

So those are the things I'm grateful for.

Two dishwashers, yes, you might be on to something.

I've never thought about that 2.

Dishwasher.

That's not a bad idea.

Same with, you know, if you're from AI, don't know who does the laundry at your house, but I can sit here and say that with three little people that are constantly in mud, sand, dirt, you're doing projects, whatever that looks like laundry wise.

It was actually my husbands aunt and uncle that had multiple washers and dryers in their house.

Because washing takes one time, drying takes a whole other amount of time, and your wash is always done in the wash machine before the dryer is done.

So having multiple dryers and dishwashers, yeah.

Well, since you since you made the statement, let me just go ahead and and put my statement out there real quickly of I give all blessings and love to my wife for washing my clothes and she has been forever.

I do the same.

So good looking.

How?

And baby, I love you.

All right, What do you want to be remembered for?

That I Oh man, that's a hard one.

I would say that in the face of any challenge, that I stood true to my morals and values.

And even in the midst of any trial that I went through in my life, that I stayed true to my faith in my family.

How do you define love?

For me, it's it's it's that feeling.

I knew my husband was the one from the minute we met.

The consistency.

It's showing up in the hard moments, not when it's just easy, right?

Because the, the amount of input you get when you're young and in love and people are like, oh, you just wait.

And they always frame it as something negative.

I would say that love is one of those things where it's, it's the moments of like you, you just had a kid and your husband who never makes coffee, made coffee and brings you a cup.

It's the subtleties that people take for granted, is what it is.

It's it's the pauses in between the big moments.

What is the most memorable life lesson that you learned from a parent, a guardian, or a mentor?

This one is is an easy one.

I will sit here and say my grandma Rosemary.

I will try not to cry if I talk about her because it's a very big possibility.

She was a huge component in my life growing up and she actually passed.

I'm going to forget the ear right now, but man, people think I'm fiery.

I get it from her.

And the lesson, I mean, she was widowed very early in life.

I had my mom and my uncle and the any story she would tell about my grandpa, whom I never met would be he never said a rude thing in his life.

When he got mad at me, he'd chop wood.

That was, I mean, it was just one of those things.

It was go chop wood.

And it was the funniest thing.

Word of advice is read your Bible, Casey, and you could tell Trevor when he's mad at you to go chop some wood.

And Oh my gosh, that right there.

I mean, as simple as it is, it's so wholesome because you never in all of my life heard her say one negative thing about him that they never argued.

Let's be real, you and your wife, how?

I don't know how long you've been married.

I've been with my husband for a while.

We're creeping on. 30 OK, Well that that that in itself is a milestone.

So congratulations to both of you on that and I hope you 3061 hundred more whatever God graces you with.

There are always arguments along the way and I hope that whoever passes first in that scenario can have that same mentality that my grandma did of she can't say an I'll word about them because that's how they live their life.

I appreciate that.

OK, Casey, let me set the setting.

You have been asked a keynote at a conference, right?

And his keynote is amongst your peers, those people who I don't even know what we're going to put it in, We're just going to leave it open to your imagination of who's in the audience.

But these are people that you are aligned with, that you celebrate with.

Maybe you're professionally aligned, maybe you're aligned in other pathways, right?

What is Casey's walk out song?

OK, I thought long and hard about this one.

I will sit here and say there's a couple that I couldn't narrow it down to just one in my head.

My hands down favorite where if it comes on, I, I, we do a lot of Pandora on our at our house.

And if this song comes on, my kids know that this is mom's song right now and it gets turned up full blast.

I mean, you want to talk to the neighbors across the street down the cul-de-sac.

They hear it because we are that loud.

It would be Can't stop this by Alex Warren.

It is just it is a fantastic song.

The words are amazing.

The beat is amazing, but I would say that I think it's eight O 8 Breezy makes a fantastic running with God and it I never knew there was such thing as Christian rap in my life.

I did not.

I didn't know that until a couple years ago.

Did not know that.

Again, the whole concept of of profanity.

I didn't like it.

So I don't didn't care how a song sounded that was popular back in the day.

The lyrics were horrible and I've just recently come to love some of these artists and man, it is eye opening and just, it leaves you speechless on how they're a fantastic, amazing ability to do what they do with the words that they do.

And it's like, why can't all of it sound like this?

But yeah, can't, Can't Stop This by Alex Warren, hands down would be my walkout sound coming out.

You know, if it was like a movie and I can sit here, it would be a a punching bag fight with where you have your hands up by your face with the boxing gloves on.

And that would be the song that I can hear playing in the background in my head.

Love it.

OK, you have survived 21 questions.

Woohoo.

We are moving to the next segment.

Fantastic.

Next segment is called word association.

I'm going to say some words.

You're going to tell us what comes to your mind.

OK, All right.

We have a long standing tradition here on the Kash and that is this.

We have always started with the same word, I believe almost in every episode, because it is the word of happiness, it is the word of family.

It is the word of unity, the word of community.

That word is food.

Oh, instantly.

I can sit here and tell you food for me is Tijuana's tacos.

They've been trolling around that is our there's a little Taco truck is a family that is actually I just learned the other day.

They also live in Omro of all places.

We've had them multiple Times Now.

They typically are parked outside of Omega brewing and Omro during summer so we can walk down from the house and my God, they are fantastic.

St. tacos great family.

We just did it again the other night.

They were outside of what is it?

I want to say Van Reedy's and Oshkosh and our kids get steak quesadillas.

No, mind you, they won't eat steak quesadillas at home, but they'll eat them from Tijuana tacos.

And I mean we started with six tacos and then we walked back up and he goes does was something wrong?

And I'm like no, no, no, no, we need 6 more tacos.

So they are some fantastic little St. tacos.

Hey now, you, you got me because tacos are my weakness.

I am all about that life.

Tijuana is not.

Now you're going to have me looking for this Taco truck.

They they're they're amazing and they make their own sauces.

I highly suggest.

I want to say I'm trying to remember if it's the red one that's the hotter one or if it's the green one, but they're labeled and they're good.

I think it's the orange one that's the hottest and it's fantastic.

Usually the orange is the one that you got to be weary of.

Oh.

It is so good.

So, well, Tijuana is if you're listening, can you come to the east side of Oshkosh?

That's what I need you to do.

Cocktailer beer.

You, we do not drink.

I don't drink.

I couldn't tell you that.

I can sit here and say if it was a a mocktail.

You could.

You couldn't throw in a mocktail.

Mojitos.

A mocktail mojito is superior to anything else out there.

Found out about those.

A girlfriend of mine would make them when I was pregnant with Quinn.

She because she also didn't drink and Oh my gosh, I was like, this is what these can taste like without that in it.

Well heck, sign me up because they were fantastic.

OK, that's fantastic.

All right, Mojitos it is.

Mocktails.

Shop local.

Not enough people do it.

I would say store wise, we like thrifting and our family, our kids understand the concept of that.

Somebody else might have passed on something, but it has so much time left and second hand Rose is a cool store.

They have just some unique little fines within them.

That would be my shop local for that in terms of items.

There's also some furniture store and I don't know where it is, so maybe you could.

I've driven past it before.

They redo furniture and I don't know where I've seen it in Oshkosh, but I've, I've driven past and it reminded me of a warehouse we had in in Indiana where it was just you.

You could not have dug enough in that little place.

And it was oh, what is?

It it's furniture.

It's furniture.

It's, it's, it's, I mean, it's, it's, it's antiques, it's a little bit of everything, but it's, Oh my gosh, I've driven past and I've seen the sign and I've taken a picture, but I can't think of it right now.

Those types of things where it's there is right wood furniture, things like that of the shopping local aspect because you know, you go order something and it's like what is this cardboard in those places.

There are so many gems all over the place, but this one is 1 that I walk to it.

That way I can limit what I'm bringing back because I have to walk back with a stroller.

So it really helps out in that regard.

Oh, Casey, I see you, I see you.

I love the good thrift.

I love rummage sales.

Don't even get me started because rummage sales season is quickly approaching.

I noticed yesterday there are signs out there already.

OK.

It just makes me happy when I see Robert Sales.

You and me both there.

I can sit here and say, so going back to the rum and sales and kids and all of that, we don't find out gender when we have kids.

So when we had our daughter, we obviously have oodles and oodles of boy clothes, but had nothing for a little girl.

So there is somebody that had a Rama's Dale and she's like, Yep.

So she is in my go to now.

Before I go anywhere else, I text her I'm like, OK, what, what size are we getting rid of now?

And I said, what do you got?

You know, it's like $0.50 an item and it's barely used.

I'm like, love it.

If used.

Right.

Oh my gosh, they wear it once they outgrow it and.

If they even got the wear, uh huh, because somebody gifted it to him and it got to the bottom of the drawer and the next thing you know that that little person then not so little.

Exactly.

Yeah, it just, it goes too quick.

So yeah, good rum and sale.

Man, I love the neighborhoods that do the rum and sales where it's like, OK, here's our spec sheet with this house has this size clothes.

We're heavy on the sporting goods.

I love those.

When they give you that shopping guide so you can map it out and you know what house to hit up and what 1's like, oh, you haven't had kids for 30 years.

Well, we know we might skip you for a little bit.

Oh, I feel you, music.

Forrest Frank Radio on Pandora, that is what's 99% of the time on.

Otherwise they I'm trying to think what the CD is that's in the car.

Yes, I do have ACD in the car because sometimes the kids do not want to wait if you hit a dead zone with Pandora and it doesn't want to load.

You know when you say things like CD that starts to date you?

It it truly does.

It truly does.

And I just, I wish I had the ability to burn and I and I don't even know if that's the right word anymore to burn a disc.

That's the right phrase.

You can still burn do.

You do you have a Mac?

I have a Mac so I can't.

I don't have the drive so I need to.

I would love to be able to burn a disc with my kids favorite songs on it because there is this one CD and there's songs on it I cannot stand.

But they come on all the time.

And there's a happy birthday song that that our now 4 year olds loved and would just sing and he belt it out at the top of his lungs.

And now that our youngest is, is talking, one of her favorite phrases after having my mom's birthday is happy birthday.

And she'll say it all the time.

I mean, even and it's the funniest thing ever.

And she just heard that song in the car and so she wants to sing it, but right.

That's oh, it's it's adorable and hilarious all at the same time.

OK, well somebody out there can help you with some burning I I know that even though most most systems nowadays, they don't put disk drives on them anymore.

They don't.

You know, but when I buy a system, I oh, you add it in.

No, I buy it.

I buy it 1 specifically.

Yeah, because I'm I'm old school.

I mean, I get it.

I got this too, yeah.

I mean, I, I get it.

I mean, I'm trying to think as a kid, but we had an A track player in the basement and I'm not and like, and I like and records and I know records kind of like right.

They have their phases where they come and go and but that that old, old school version of like scratch CD, right?

And you, you get to that because you threw it in your car when, right, you're 16, whatever and it's in your visor now and something stuck to it and you play it in there and it's like glitching out.

Like they will never understand the struggle.

Oh, that is fantastic streaming.

Currently it is monster trucks or creature cases, not shows that we personally watch.

I have an absolute hatred of TV.

If I could break the TV at our house, I probably would.

I'm just I, I don't love it.

I don't like kids in front of screens.

So we limit it to the 10 minutes and it's every other day.

Our kids get to pick a show based on behavior and how they treat each other.

And right now it's yeah, Hot Wheels monster trucks trying to think what it's called.

The camp crush is one of our kids current favorites that is always on in the background.

That's they pick the same darn episode.

So like they know it to a point where they could give you the verbiage of the entire 10 minutes because they've watched that particular 10 minutes that often.

Or creature cases, which is more of an animal factual.

We'll say it's a it's a twist on the want to say what is it crap brothers of my my my childhood.

It would be a turn on that.

So it's they go on little little cases, but not a lot of adult streaming.

So you.

All right, so you and your husband, no streaming, no shows, no podcast, none of that.

I right now at this phase that we're in, in our life, no, because if it is not something that I can do and have in front of the kids at all times or I'm getting paused.

So even if the attempt is there, it's, you get 2 minutes here.

I might get back to it next week.

And so it's just, it's the phase of life that we're in and I wouldn't change it for a second.

So nothing.

Nothing right now.

No, that makes sense.

Yeah.

You, you, you.

You're busy.

It's it's it's life.

And it's.

The best?

Kind of busy.

That's a.

That's an understatement.

The best kind?

Community.

We're met a lot of fantastic people along the way.

You know this, as much as I dislike social media, it is an Ave. for people to find groups for their kids.

We homeschool that is is our community in that in that regard and just the the connection and that sense of finding a homeschool group where it's not age specific.

Winn Akani has a fantastic homeschool group that we have been going to and that I would say where are the start of the community for us came from in that because that more and more people are homeschooling.

It looks different to every person as to how they do that.

But then you know, from there you, there's I think there's 90 families and that.

Particular group that might come, might show up here and there and then the similar interests and, you know, just kind of spaces from there.

But the, we're building it.

We're we're finding those people along the way through that through church.

I know there's a pretty significant one out of Appleton and I've ran into them and like they have gatherings at the park and it's a pretty cuz it's a pretty significant group of individuals.

Like, you know, when I say significant, I'm talking about the, the actual number of people, right?

And it's like, oh, OK, there's.

There's lots of options.

Just, you know, you, you, you, it's a tool, social, social media, all that.

It's a tool to get you to a different point.

You know, you can use it respectfully and responsibly.

And that's that community aspect of it is, you know, we have some fantastic neighbors that we are so incredibly thankful for that have helped us in, in different ways locally, you know, whether it's helping just recently with that snowstorm we had, my goodness.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

It was, you know, and just by the time you'd, you'd get out there and you'd have the sidewalk and your, your driveway shoveled and then the snowplow went by and it's like, OK, this, it's bigger than I am.

And it was wet and heavy and snow blowers weren't going through it.

And I will pause again.

The, my husband and I, we take turns shoveling.

He was at work and our neighbor came and finished the apron for me after the snow plow went through.

I mean, it was probably 4 feet wide, 5 feet high.

And, you know, he didn't have to do that, but he did.

Same with just the fact that they had, they just had a baby and we dropped off a whole bunch of stuff over to him.

The kids drew some stuff and that doesn't exist everywhere anymore.

My mom has some of the same neighbors that were there when I was born.

So over 30 years.

And that concept of community is so foreign.

And so we're trying really hard to keep the connections that are valid and true and build build the other ones because because we homeschool, we have to have that sense of community for our kids in those friendships and what not moving forward.

And you have completed word association.

OK, next segment.

Next segment is called the Kosh Hidden gems.

This is our guest opportunity to share a hidden gem with the Kosh listeners.

That hidden gem could be something you think everybody knows about, and maybe they don't know some really awesome details about it, or maybe it's something you don't think a lot of people know about and they need to know about.

Casey, what's your hidden gem?

I would say business wise, hidden gem, My goodness.

Oshkosh food Co-op 100% Oshkosh food Co-op or Thunderbird bakery.

I know we weren't here when Thunderbird started but they got really big and they do so many things that are fantastic.

I don't know if you guys do sourdough at all if your wife is.

We have an episode with them.

OK.

Yep, and they're they're fantastic.

They are amazing people.

They are.

They're awesome.

And I, we did sourdough at our house for a while, making it right the, the starters, all of that.

But it just came to a point where I had a 2 gallon container where I could not keep up with the amount of baking and doing things that I needed to do with it.

And so all sourdough related items are 100% in our household.

Thank you Thunderbird Bakery for all of it and and now and I found out since joining and being in the Co-op that they carry it.

So it it eliminates a stop for me when I do all of those things.

And Oshkosh food Co-op is amazing.

If people haven't been there, you don't have to be a member.

Go shop there.

They're awesome.

And just all of the products that they carry, the availability of produce.

I mean our kids have fallen in love with the red Bartlett pears and it's very hard to find those anywhere in grocery stores.

I'm trying to actually find a red Bartlett pear tree for our for our property and very few places even sell them.

They typically right around May they'll start getting those in and we cannot buy enough of them.

I'm talking like 1520 lbs of pears are gone in a week and they always oblige.

I mean to helping push the cart out.

They are just, they are an absolute gem in terms of store, the community aspect of it, they do a great job of everything.

Yes, they really, really do.

And for the cash listeners, we also have an episode with the store manager of the Food Coop.

Go check that out.

We've had the cool the food Co-op when we actually started the podcast was like this mysterious thing that everybody was really wondering about.

And so we took the time to get like the people who were on the board getting ready to start the food Co-op.

And then once it's open, we had to go back and revisit it because it is a cool hidden gem.

All right, next segment, my favorite segment and that segment is called Story Time.

And this is an opportunity for our guests to share a story with Akash listeners.

That story can be about absolutely anything.

So Casey, what's your story?

I will pick my story will be of our dogs, I will keep it light hearted and I will make it be about our dogs.

I know you're a dog person.

So it when River and I met and were dating all the things, I had just gotten a large dog.

I wanted a dog of my own and I wanted a big one.

I didn't care what it was.

I needed something big.

So we started out right, new relationship.

Who doesn't just go get a dog?

I got a Dane, if it puts anything into perspective.

And Fast forward, I said this dog needs a friend.

He needs a friend because he needs somebody to play with.

So then we got another dog.

This is all while he's in chiropractic school.

We are in a maybe 800 square foot townhome and we just kept adding dogs one after another after another.

So it gets to a point by the time he is done and graduating we have 5 dogs and 800 square feet.

And it was hilarious and fun.

And Fast forward some more, we get more dogs because who doesn't need that as dog, right?

Dogs unfortunately pass on and you get more but well in Atlanta their pitbulls.

We love pitbulls.

We very much or advocate for them.

There are some fantastic dogs, they are cool personalities.

I love the big old blockhead ones and we just fell in love with the breed and so we seek them out whenever we can.

Fast forward to now we have 2 dogs, a white boxer named Pickles.

We call her Pickle, pickle pie or pot pie as our two year old calls her.

Story wise, my goodness, I did not understand breeders.

They get rid of the white dogs.

They sell them on the cheap.

Some breeders will tell you probably won't admit to it, but we'll kill them under the table for the fact that there is a higher chance that those dogs have the ability to be deaf or blind.

So they do not want them associated with their litters.

And I, we wanted another white dog because we had a fantastic dog that we had actually found.

We like to rescue, find whatever that looks like and in the scheme of a dog because I don't love the concept of breeding, but some dogs wouldn't exist without it.

I can appreciate that some people do it responsibly like anything else, and some ruin it for for the many.

And Oh my gosh, this dog is the opposite of what are why we got her.

We got her for Quinn, our our now 6 year old and she is the wildest.

I mean, imagine a regular boxer on steroids.

She's white, she's zoomy, she's just crazy.

And then you bring in our latest addition.

So our rule of thumb is when our kids turn 2, they get a dog.

Every kid deserves to have that that concept.

We didn't really know what we wanted.

I wanted a really big dog.

Then I come across this horrific concept of a Facebook group of ditch your dog Wisconsin.

I don't think that's exactly what it's called, but that's that's the concept.

So people that don't want their dogs anymore and they just want to dump them and.

Wow, that's out.

There it's literally, there's so many Facebook groups with people rehoming their dogs and you know, we got it as a present for our kid and now we don't want it or it's like, Oh my goodness, it's, it's, it's a foreign concept to me.

But yes, people do that and it's disgusting.

But we benefited from it.

And so the story is we added a think I'm told she's English Bulldog to our crew.

We named her Noodles.

She is the goofiest, sweetest dog on the face of the planet and watching the way she bulldozes through literally everything including our kids.

I mean, we got it for our now 4 year old Parker.

And my goodness, he is petrified of her for the sole fact that she is a brick, brick house.

And when she goes running, I mean she is, she has taken him out to the point where he will do an absolute 360 flip in the air.

So he knows now when she comes running, he hugs a wall, he hugs a cabinet because she will lick you to death.

But she has no brakes.

And Oh my Lord, it is the yeah, that's my story.

That is it.

Just you can't think of her.

Like I said, when we're done, I'll show you a picture.

But my God, she is the funniest dog and this kid is just he's a he's a peanut and to watch his reaction when this dog goes running is the funniest thing in the world.

Because she got dumped.

She has no reason to love people, no reason to like people.

Previous owners bred her way too much and decided they could no longer make money on her and dumped her.

And she has no reason to be as sweet as she is.

And that's how we got noodles and Pickles.

Noodles and Pickles, yes, that's fantastic.

Well, I truly appreciate a good dog story.

Well, Bosco, the podcast dog decided he was going to pop in here, throw a toy down and then and then he dipped on out.

He sure did.

You know why?

Because Mama's.

I was going to say I was going to.

I heard a door.

I bet it.

Bet Mom's home.

Yeah, that's why.

OK, well, tasty.

I just want to take a moment.

We're not done yet, but this is the time of the show where I get ready to start wrapping up and I just want to take a moment and say thank you.

Absolutely it was, it was, it was a pleasure timber.

All right, cash listeners, all right, you know when we start that it means we're going to start wrapping up this episode.

So let me just say to you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for spending time with us.

Thank you for giving us your minds and ears.

Thank you for caring about another amazing community member out here making a difference, helping to make our community a better place.

I love this conversation.

It was fantastic.

We know that Casey stands 10 toes down on the things that Casey stands 10 toes downs on her faith, her family, her belief systems.

And we, you got to love that.

We can appreciate that for what it is.

Cash listeners, you already know I'm, I'm going to say to you is we are trying to become the number one podcast in Northeast Wisconsin and we can't do that without your help.

And So what does that look like as you listen to these episodes and you're thinking, I need to come and sit in the chair or timber, we need some new segments or timber, we need some different questions.

These are all things that you can reach out to me at askthekosh@gmail.com and let me know.

Also, I am a firm believer that this podcast is pretty special because it is so community based.

You know, the Kosh was built on us ripping down our silos and getting to know people more authentically.

And we used that word a whole lot during this episode.

And when you know your neighbors, it makes for a stronger community and it helps us respect each other.

And just that understanding goes so far.

But what I need your help with is to get in front of more people to get in in more eyes and ears.

And the way we do that, it's called analytics.

So while you're listening to this episode and you see those five stars, press them, you see the opportunity to leave us a review, write it, or you see the opportunity to subscribe do it.

These are all things that increase our analytics.

And the more the better our analytics are, the more people get to learn about this cool community podcast known as the Kosh.

OK, so Casey, we got just a little bit more to do and that is right now that sound means that it is shout out time.

Casey who you shout now?

Oh my goodness.

I will personally do a shout out to first of all, our kids and my mom.

I even though I know that they're not listening in reference to all of it, but I would say our favorite pizza place and ice cream place.

I will do a large shout out to them at Moore's Den because they are a family run amazing family.

The more family and their four kids work there.

They have $2.00 scoops at their pizza place and the pizza is phenomenal.

We had it last night.

Typically it's our Tuesday night thing and we did it on a Saturday.

So if it says anything, we're creatures of habit to the point where I call and I don't even have to tell her what it is.

They know by voice.

They know by voice what it is and she always gives me a receipt and they are fantastic with our kids when we're in there.

And I mean, end of the day, as a parent, if you're going to go out and do something fun with your kids, pizza and ice cream, $2.00 scoops, I mean, you can't beat that.

You really can't.

You can't.

And they're they're fantastic.

They're very much community based, just solid.

And it's always a perk when you have the ability just to walk down there and then typically walk to the park.

But at one of our main parks is going to be closing because they're working on the road.

But I would say that's the right now is my my biggest shout out.

OK, any other shout outs?

You don't have to give one.

If you got others, you can go.

Man, I'm just thinking, Oh heavens, like second hand rose again.

I would say that one because the, and we already did once, but I mean, they're, they're two sisters that run it and they're, they're great people.

OK, all right.

Love those shout outs.

OK, my shout outs.

I want to give a very special shout out to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and to Chancellor Manahar Singh.

Thank you for giving me a call up.

Timber is going to get to be the MC for the Chancellor's inauguration and y'all already know if you listen to episodes.

I am super tightened down and so this is super special to me and I appreciate it that y'all think I am worthy of getting up there.

And trust me, I am going to do my best to be on point and not kill anyone's name because that is my biggest fear about emceeing anything.

And and that is just how I get down.

And I just want to say I have been having a lot of conversations with community members lately.

And I just want to say thank you for everyone who takes time to just walk up to me and tell me what they like about the Kosh.

I'm always surprised that who's out there listening to it's more people out there listening than I than than the three people I always imagined.

And I just appreciate your kindness in in sharing what you like about it or what's memorable to you about it.

And even for some of you, how you're utilizing the podcast to get to know people before you go have meetings with them or maybe even contacting them for opportunities for partnership.

That is what it is meant for.

It is meant to build a stronger community.

So I appreciate everything y'all doing out there.

And my last never least shout out goes to the wife for continuing to let me make this podcast in the house.

Baby, I love you.

OK, so Casey, we got one last thing to do before we wrap up this episode and that is this.

You got some multiple choice option A share with the cash listeners, some parting words of wisdom.

Option B Tell us what would Casey today tell 13 year old Casey.

Option C good multiple choice has an all of the above so we you have one too.

How we getting down?

Let's do all of them.

Let's do it.

OK, I would say parting words of wisdom.

Oh, heavens.

It's don't try to fit in.

I mean, they're, it's kind of both actually.

I could I could sneak them into one.

Don't try to fit in do things honorably and the rest will follow.

I mean, I can I can you can apply that to so many things.

I mean, my gosh, as a 13 year old girl, you know, down to makeup and I'm to the clothing Yeah don't don't fit in.

Be honest, be true, be authentic.

That's been the, we'll say the subject matter from the beginning and it and it holds true right now all.

Right, Casey, would you think?

It was fun.

I appreciate it.

It was great.

Thank you for making time.

I appreciate it.

Lakash.