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.