March Madness

It was a busy month of March for me. Work trips to Arizona & Oregon. Going up to the campsite to for Girls Camp to start to map out activities for June. But, the highlights were my dad's 60th birthday & Sean's birthday that we celebrated when cousin Cathy came to visit.

Below are some pictures capturing the last weekend in March. It was freezing!!

Cathy had never been to Fort Worth or a rodeo, so we went down to the Stockyards to eat great bbque @ Riscky's & attend the Rodeo. The kids had a blast when they got to go out to chase the sheep & try to get the ribbon off.

After going to the kids games on Saturday, we went to famous Babe's Chicken to eat. We thought we would throw in a Happy Birthday moment for Sean, since he LOVES (not) people singing to him at restaurants. He was a great sport though & did the Chicken dance. Babe's is all about the Southern cooking --fried chicken, biscuits, peach cobbler & all you can eat sides. Everyone was "fat & happy" afterwards! The waitresses line dance throughout the night, they have a juke box playing your requests the entire time. If you locals haven't checked it out, I recommend it.

We then hung out at Sean's to have cake & ice cream and let them open presents. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my two favorite guys !!! Thanks for all you do for me. I love you guys!

You'll notice my other favorite boys.....my 3 nephews (Matthew, Austin & Jake)

We are a dog lovin' family! Austin is w/ my Mackie & Dallas. Taylor with her Squirt (which was her 9th birthday present).

Cousin Cathy, my dad & I went to downtown McKinney to see the old shops, the Victorian homes & one of my favorite restaurants, Spoons.

Thanks again for coming to visit Cathy. We loved spending time w/ you!!

I have a new territory for work!

I'm with the same company but was assigned in January a new territory. I'll now be recruiting for Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon & Washington. I'm very excited as I'll get to see some of my friends in AZ & UT more often. I'm sad though that my great friend, Brooke, who lived in Seattle for 3 years just moved in December back to CA. Bad timing Brooke- sorry. Don't get too excited. It's not like I'll be there once a month but you'll see me more than you have probably.

I've already been to Utah. Love being able to go over to Amy's & hang out for dinner w/ friends. I'll miss seeing my family in Denver though & then my sister in Austin since I won't be traveling there anymore. Not going to miss going to Oklahoma though (sorry if offending anyone)....I've been through 2 tornado incidents & 2 ice storms. It's always been crappy weather when I go there. I think it was just once or maybe twice that my flight actually left on time.

Looking forward to seeing many of you....

He's Just Not That Into You...

Have you seen this movie yet? I'm not sure how I feel about it. My single friend Susan & I decided that we had to see the movie together. Really because we've both had situations lately where we were supposed to go out with a guy or a setup but then they bail.

There were very funny parts in the movie. I enjoyed it. I think I walked out of there thinking I'd have an "AAHHHH" (picture a lightbulb) moment and I would figure everything out. DIDN'T HAPPEN.

I always think of Charlotte in Sex in the City, when she said "I'm exhausted. I've been looking for Him since I was 15, where is he already. My hair hurts!!!" Love it.

There was a finder's fee on the table at one point, but in the economic state, I'm sorry to say it's been pulled. I will just have to settle for everyone keeping their eye out for me for FREE. :)

But, I realized I'm very blessed in so many ways. I am continuing to work on being happy with me, myself & I. If someone comes around, great. But if not...oh well. I have the best family & friends EVER!!

See it & let me know what you think. If I had to be any character in the movie, I'd want to be Jennifer Aniston.

Billy Bob's

I haven't been to Billy Bob's in soooo long. If you haven't heard of it, it's called Billy Bob's Texas The World's Largest Honky Tonk (only in Texas folks). It's a club but very family friendly. They have bands that come play, bull riding, restaurant, pool & arcade games, etc....

Well, me & 5 couples went to see Cross Canadian Ragweed (huh?). I hadn't heard of them but am always up for a good time. They don't look country & didn't sound like the typical country but, they were good. Yes, I was to have a date but he backed out. I was taken care of that night by all my friends husbands (thanks guys!). I might have a new blind date that comes out of it, we'll see.

BEST people watching scene in a long time. It's a hoot! Nice work Nikki (she's always driving the country concert banwagon. We went to a Casino to see Dierks Bentley a few months ago)! Had a blast.

My Sister's a Celebrity

Kristen works in Austin for a Recruiting firm. They asked her to be on TV to discuss how to find a job in this economy & give some tips. She said she didn't know the questions they were going to ask her. She did great on the fly!!

Nice work baby sister!!! Proud of you.
http://www.kvue.com/video/local-index.html?nvid=324133

Fiesta Bowl--Go Bucks!! OH --IO

Well, any of you that know me at all are aware of my family's passion for College Football & especially THE OHIO STATE BUCKEYES!! We lived in Columbus growing up, mom was born & raised in Ohio and graduated from OSU. You need to know that she brainwashed us all at a very young age to sing the fight song all by age 3 and now has passed this on to her grandchildren (Lyssa is thrilled).


So, for my mother's Christmas gift my Aunt Joyce & I took her to the Fiesta Bowl where Texas & Ohio State played. Ohio State was ranked 10th & Texas was ranked 3rd. We were supposed to be killed in this game but, we went anyway (as any true Buckeye fan would).


We did all the game festivites from the Pep Rally (which it was raining--in Arizona, really?), Pregame w/ the band & cheerleaders, a great Tailgating party and then the game. Fun weekend!!


Here is a sample of us die hard fans & other zealous fans. :)

This is Brutus, the mascot. By the way, for all of you who have wondered...a Buckeye is a nut that grows on trees. DO NOT EAT THOUGH. They are for good luck.

This is Ro. I worked w/ him at Liberty Mutual. He went to Texas & is a season ticket holder. He HAD to meet my mom & Joyce so he understood the stories I've told him.

At the Pep Rally. Can you tell it's the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl? I think the guy on the right has enough buckeye necklaces for all of Columbus.

Before the game. My mom was chasing the band down the street & trying to get up close to them. Christine & I didn't want to be associated with her :)

At the game. Ro actually sat one row up from my mom & aunt in the next section over. He would text me during the game to give me updates on what the two were doing. Ex. that my mom was running up & down the aisles telling the Buckeye fans to get on their feet, my aunt had pom pom's that she was almost knocking people over with them and that he thought my mom was going to charge the field with the team. He hadn't seen such hardcore fans before. Do you think I'm rethinking the fact that my friend now knows what "nuts" I have for relatives???


Christine & I were in another section. Yes, on purpose. We had great seats that were 13 rows up. This in the back is the Ohio State Band which is known as the "Best Damn Band In the Land". They are good!

At the end of the game. Yes, we told my mom she HAD to smile. They did lose but it was an AWESOME game. Texas was lucky to win!! They won in the last 26 seconds of the game by 3. Thanks for all of you that texted me with your condolences. Glad we went! Had a great time!

While I was there, I did have time to see my great girl friends!! Tawna hung out with me most of the weekend and then did lunch with old roommies and friends @ Paradise Bakery. Miss you guys so much!! Y'all mean the world to me!!

I'm ready for a New Year

New Year's Eve party at Anne & Cameron's. Anne, Kelly & Jenny were the hosts. Nice work ladies. I had fun with all the games. I almost was the Spoons Champion.

Me & like 12 other couples. Next year, I better have a companion to join me.

We also did a white elephant gift exchange. The girls added a little twist to it by wrapping one of their husbands prized possessions to give away in the exchange (examples: favorite baseball cards which were worth a lot of money, a BYU football helmet that had autographs on it, Favorite Cowboys sweatshirt, a framed picture of one of the guys w/ Cowboys cheerleaders, an expensive watch, etc.... None of the guys had any idea. I thought some would have a heart attack. Hilarious! Expressions were priceless. Great idea ladies.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I Love Christmas!! Love decorating the house. Love having Christmas Lights up. Love that it was cold & felt like Christmas in Dallas! Mainly I loved that I took off 2 weeks of work.

We celebrated w/ Sean's family the weekend before since they would be in Arizona for Christmas. It's so fun to see the kids open gifts. Isn't Christmas really for kids anymore?

LOVE that my Aunt Joyce & cousin Christine came for the whole week of Christmas to visit. Miss having Christine around (one of my many old roommies). We had fun playing CatchPhrase, cards, decorating letters for our homes, shopping, Furmaniting my dogs, getting mani's & pedi's, eating & more eating....

Kristen & Kelly were in town as well with their 3 dogs, so at one point there were 7 dogs in my house. Yes, you read it right. 1 dog for each person in the house (man on dog defense). Below you can see I'm starting to lose it with Dallas.

Nobody puts Baby in the corner...

I hosted a girls night this last Saturday. We were all going to hang out, eat of course & then watch a movie. Jenny picked Dirty Dancing. There were many laughs as always. Jenny made sure we all knew that she could do the last dance scene. Yes, she still has it! Quite the dance moves Jenny (takes me back to your dance competitions in high school --GO ROXY!!!). I secretly just want to have a guy walk up & say "nobody puts Heather in the corner" but, really when am I ever in a corner. I can assure you I wouldn't be leaping off stages & jumping into the swan lift at the end --not even when I was 100lbs lighter. Last movie night we watched Some Kind of Wonderful. Next time, it's Girls Just Want to Have Fun. 

Probably my favorite part is how the girls come over, get settled on the couch & go for my smut magazines. I consider them "the real news". You may be familiar with them...Us Weekly & People. 

  

Nikki & Amy B, we missed you! (Nikki, I have a bone to  pick w/ you. You can't miss the next one.)

Season of Giving

I'll tell you with everything going on with the economy right now, I feel very blessed for all I have. It's made me be a little more grateful then I usually am.

This year I've tried to get back into more volunteer work and give back in the community.

I joined the Red Cross' Disaster Action Team (DAT) where we help in Collin County those that have been victims to fires, floods, tornado's, etc... I had the opportunity to work the shelters when Hurricane Ike hit Texas. Lots of displaced families up in the Dallas area from Houston. I sign up a week out of each month to be on call w/ the DAT team. It's from 6pm to 7:30am & when you get a call, you go out w/ 1 -2 others from DAT to respond to fires mainly. Sometimes its a quiet week, others you'll be called out a few times. We had 2 fires last week to work, one w/ an apt & the other was a single family fire. It's neat to be able to provide them assistance & be there for them when they've lost everything. Everyone be careful w/ the Christmas lights. They cause a lot of problems this time of year!

My favorite event I've worked this year though had to be this last Friday when we went to the Bonham Veteran's Hospital for their Christmas program. My friend Susan & her family are part of one of the local chapters & had asked if our Ward would be able to make 50 dozen cookies to help their chapter be able to give homemade cookies to the 350 vets. My ward was amazing because they had committed to all 50 dozen & actually made quite a few more. Each Veteran gets a bag & goes around to all these tables which has different chapters or associations there to give them goodies or items they need. A bunch of us go through with bags for those in the nursing home that can't come over & then they let the rest of the vets in. I have never been so touched by how humble & grateful these men & women were for socks, pencil & notebook, fruit cups, cookies, oranges, $1 coupon booklets, etc... They were thanking us & saying God Bless You to us! We thanked them for all their service & what they've done for our country. They're so appreciative for that! I know when I worked my first event which was a Carnival for Vet Hospital, I was shocked at how many young men were there. Quite a few of them are back from Iraq & they have not necessarily health issues but mental issues from what they've gone through. It breaks your heart. I will never forget that day & can't wait to do it again next year.

Susan is seriously one of the most generous & unselfish people I've ever met. She has been such a good example to me to get involved more in the community. Thanks Susan for your great friendship!!

Black Friday --First & Last

I'm a little behind which is why I'm not sure doing a blog is a good idea for me. But, here is my story on Thanksgiving.....
My parents, Sean's family & me went down to Austin to do Thanksgiving at Kristen & Kelly's house. It was a little chaotic w/ everyone in the same house but we had a great time. Kristen decided that we as a family needed to go out on Thanksgiving morning to walk/run in on one of the trails. You all should know Kristen is the only workout Nazi in the family. (I hung up my shoes after the triathlon....in my mind that workout last me the rest of the year) Most of us thought it would be a better idea to walk after our big feast--novel idea. We did have a good time though. Kristen had talked me into bringing my bike down to ride some trails. I did & it sat in the car the entire time. Classic.

(us getting ready to go thinking you would see the time-ha)

Lyssa & I had decided we were going to get up early & go to Kohl's for the big sale, among other stores. Kristen said she would go with us but wanted to go to the outlet stores that opened at midnight by her house. So, we decided to take one for the team so all 3 of us could go. We left the house at 11:30pm & I couldn't believe the lines at the stores!! The parking lot was a mad house. They had a band playing Christmas music though so that was nice. We got some good deals but I was a little disappointed. I went with a list of gifts to buy & only bought stuff for my self (stop the laughter ladies --I had good intentions). Classic Kristen, as we went into some of the stores to get gifts for the niece & nephews, she was T minus freakout. The moms w/ the strollers were throwing us both of the edge. Why aren't the kids in bed?!?!?! She said she was going to the front of the line to say she would pay full price if she didn't have to stand in line. The fun was clearly over for her.

So, it's about 2:30am & we decide it's not worth going home or we'll fall asleep. We really just wanted to go to Kohl's more than anything which opened at 4am. Kristen was done so we dropped her off & then went to IHOP (or I- SLOP) & there were quite the characters out that evening. AND...did I really need that meal after I ate like it was the Last Supper? NOPE.

We arrive at Kohl's after being lost by Lola (my GPS in the car). I couldn't believe the lines circling around the building. After we got in, Lyssa & I made a mad dash for the toys since they were 50% off. Lyssa got pretty aggressive --I was so proud! :). Well, we got lots crossed off the list (for others). It was well worth the trip to Kohl's. We stood in line for about 35 min to check out & then headed home (lost again). We arrived home around 6:30am.

I slept for quite a few hours but poor Lyssa was up w/ the kids. Yes, this is a plus for still being single. HA. I had a great time w/ Lyssa. We agreed we would skip the outlets next time & just get up early for Kohl's & maybe some other stores. I can honestly say that was my first all nighter where I was shopping.

Utah Bound --have to get my Amy time

I went up to Utah the weekend after the triathlon to see Amy, Erin, Emily, Lauren, Kari....I love going up to spend time w/ the girls. I was there mainly to see Amy's newest addition, Abram (Abe). What a honey!! So sweet & I can't believe how big Eli & Maeve are getting. 

We did the usual...shopping (mainly me), massages, eating, eating w/ friends and eating (Market Street Brunch is always a must!). I brought a haunted house to make w/ Eli & Maeve, which they seemed to enjoy. I had a blast though going to dinner w/ all the girls one night so I could also see Kari & Lauren's new additions --both boys. What is in the Utah water girls?

Hopefully you all can come this Feb to Dallas for the annual girls weekend? (yeah right!)

I am a Triathlete --ha ha

I know you all are thinking...yeah right. I'm not sure at what point this was a good idea, but my friend, Anne & I decided we should start training for a Sprint Triathlon. We figured if we trained & had a goal we might lose weight. I had to open my big mouth & then it turned to a family event where my sister, Kristen & her boyfriend, Kelly, decided to do it with me. We researched a beginner training schedule & were very disciplined until I injured my back. I believe God was telling me, "this has bad idea written all over it" but, no I kept with it.


Long story short...we orignially signed up for an event in September but Hurricane Ike came that weekend so it was cancelled. Again, a co-worker said this is God's way of saying since you won't use common sense, then I will intervene. HA. Don't think the Ike victims would want to hear that. We signed up for another event in October & at this point I was cussing as it got closer saying let's just get this thing over with!


My goal was to just finish & in one piece. I'm glad I did it. Thought I did better than I thought I would. The swim was my best part, but I will say I didn't enjoy it in a pool. The bike was harder than I thought ---who knew there were hills in Plano. At one point, I was trying to get up a hill in the lowest gears & yelled out to a volunteer on the side, "Am I even moving???". He replied, "barely". My biggest problem with the race was you couldn't use an Ipod and then you couldn't ride next to each other on the bike. I wanted company & was bored.

I finished in 2hrs & min. My sister asked me right after we crossed the finish line together, if I wanted to do another one. Are you kidding me? That's like asking someone after labor if they want to have another kid. HA. Don't think I won't be putting this on a resume. Someone might be impressed by it & think I'm a real die hard athlete. HA! (Ask me how many times I've been to the gym since....once).












Thanks mom, dad, Anne, Jenny & their kids who came to support me.

Canton Bound

If you're ever in the Dallas area the first weekend of the month, you should try to go to Canton, TX. I think it has to be the biggest flea market in the country. It's called "Canton Trade Days" or "First Monday". Any & everything you can think of is there. My sis-in-law, Lyssa had never been & has lived here long enough so, it was time to take her!

We had a great time & bought a lot of stuff --well, I bought more than her (are we shocked?). I got some additional furniture pieces for my family room, clock, holiday decor, arrangements, Christmas gifts, High Chair (at what point was that a good idea?) etc... I should only be allowed to go one time a year because I can do some serious damage.

See the pics with the cart that I brought with us....filled to the brim within our 1st hour. You should've seen the two of us hauling our great purchases to the car, trying to board a trolley with all our crap & then having to drive back to pick up more of our great buys. WOW! Can't wait to go again Sis! I had a blast.

Farewell to Amy B

One of my favorite people ever is Amy Barlow. (Amy, you'll be missed more than you know!! You were the nicest to me when I moved to this area & included me in the groups. I'll never forget your kindness. I've had so much fun with you over the last year. I don't know who I'll go see the late movies with now. HA. Love you to death!! )

You all should know Amy is the one who talked me into doing a blog & insisted that "Becoming Heather" should be the title. She was one who dragged me to that ridiculous movie.

We had a great dinner for Amy & Jeff before they moved to Florida. Great time at Maggiano's.

The Start of Becoming Heather...

Well, the time has come for me to start my blog. I haven't wanted to start this as I knew it would be a lot of work and I thought who wants to read just about me? The best part of reading my friends blogs is seeing the updated pictures of their families. I'm giving in to my friends who think I should do a blog as they think it will be entertainment. Laugh with me though friends...not at me. HA.

The title "Becoming Heather"...what's it all about, you ask? Well, I'm a sucker for romance films and happy endings! Some of my favorite movies have been based on the Jane Austen books...Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, etc... Well, a new movie was coming out based on the story of Jane Austen's life called "Becoming Jane" (I'll tell you now, I'm not a reader. I'm a movie goer. If there are cliff notes, I'm on it. So some of you are already thinking, shame on you for not reading these novels.). So, this called for a Girl's Night Out. If you've seen the movie, I'm sure you understand why I hated it. Bottom line, she never got married. Lost the love of her life only to run into him and his family at the end, blah blah blah... As the lights come up, I'm beyond distraught and I shouted to my friends, "why don't they just call it 'Becoming Heather'!". They laughed and it's been the joke since. I know, it was a dramatic moment and one I call "bitter table for 1".

I'm always trying to find myself & figure myself out. I think I've changed a lot over the years through the different places I've lived, life experiences, trips, jobs, friends & family, etc...so, either way, the title fits.