Ok, so back to the post… I’m reading it and she announces she’s teaming up with her daughters for a new online kit club!  Very cool! And the prize she’s giving away is 6 months membership to that club!  Even cooler!  And then… you’re not going to believe this… she drew MY name!!  Holy heck! Seriously?!?!  The video’s even there to prove it!

WOW!!!  Thank you Margie!!  This is so awesome! I am so excited about this, and here’s why… over the past year I’ve kind of lost the “spark” for scrapbooking. I’ve been needing a swift kick in the pants to get me back in the groove.  And on top of that, there’s the whole unemployed thing going on, so it’s an awesome, awesome, awesomely exciting thing! 

~Heather

Last weekend was the BP-MS150.  Day 1 was cancelled as previously reported.  We spent Saturday waiting around for instructions and then carting a team to Schulenburg where they were staying.  After that, Jack and I took a side trip to Waelder to see M&S’s new place out in the middle of nowhere!  lol  Sorry, M… it really is!

Day 2 was interesting, fun, stressful and everything you can imagine!  If you’re reading this and you rode in that ride, I’m going to say the same thing I said inside the van to other cyclists… We try REALLY hard not to hit you guys, but some of you are just nuts and make it really difficult!  I mean, riding on the wrong side of the yellow line?  C’mon people!!  Anyway, I didn’t hit anyone, and I only got yelled at by one cyclist and one DPS officer!  A good day!  lol  The coolest part of the day was after the last rest stop.  At that point, if they’ve made it that far, they’re making it to the finish.  Well we picked up one very emotional lady who was devastated when her bike had a catastrophic failure.  She’d worked so hard, and this was her first 150.  Well Jack and I broke all the rules and a couple of barricades and got her to the finish line where she was able to walk her broken bike across the finish line!  THAT was a very cool feeling!

The Monday after the MS150 was Cyclists in Suits day.  A lobbying day at the Texas Capitol for bike safety laws.  We visited the House and Senate chambers, then went off to visit our lawmakers.  I had appointments scheduled with both our Senator and our Representative.  Our Senator didn’t bother to show up that day.  I still have issues with that, and the fact that he didn’t show up for the vote on the bike legislation, but that’s another issue for another day.  Our Representative however… his office was awesome, and he even came off the House floor to meet us and hear what we had to say.  I was TOTALLY impressed with him!

We came back home, and I was in super solder mode to get a bulk custom order done by Friday for an event.  In the midst of that we had the Rest Stop captain training for the DFW Sam’s Club MS150, which is this next weekend!  It’s already here believe it or not!!

Jack and I both had doctor appointments this week.  He’s lost about 60 pounds as a result of his surgery, which is fantastic!!  I’m so proud of him!  He rode in the Muenster Metric Century bike ride this weekend.  He did the 65k route, which is about 40 miles.  And he’s been riding to work everyday when the weather or wind isn’t nasty.  He’s my studmuffin cyclist! :o)

Friday we had a bit of a scare.  I was letting the dogs out when Angel stumbled, fell and then had a seizure.  We took her to the veterinarian, who did bloodwork and reported that she has autoimmune hemoglobin anemia.  Basically her body is attacking her red blood cells.  We’re starting her on some steroids this week, which will compromise her immune system, which means no more dog park for her.  I’m going to call the vet and see if it’s ok to still take Spaz, or do we have to worry that he’ll bring something home.  He’d be devastated if he couldn’t go to the park anymore!

So it’s been pretty eventful around here.  We’re getting ready for the Sam’s Club MS150 this weekend… Jack is a HAM operator in a SAG van again… I’m helping with rest stops on Day 1, and captaining a rest stop on Day 2 (If you want to come help… I need the help!  Sunday from 8am until around 2:30 pm… you get a shirt, and I’m really desperate!!).  I’ve got to do some charms for that, and we have the last committee meeting this week.  Plus I’ve got a couple of events that I’m working on, so it’s going to be a busy, busy week!!

I’ll post some photos soon!

~Heather

Last weekend was the celebration of my grandfather’s 97th birthday.  I made him a cake that looked like his cowboy hat that he wears to church every Sunday.  I’ll post a photo soon.  Most of our extended family came up for it, so it was a great time of visiting and catching up with everyone!

This past weekend Jack rode in the Tour of Dallas bike ride.  20 miles!  I’m so proud of him!  I’ll post photos later once I get them off the camera.  I was supposed to ride too, but had some mechanical issues.  Instead I was his personal SAG vehicle. :o)

Later that day we took the dogs to the off-leash dog park (which is becoming a daily thing), and since I didn’t ride that morning I decided to walk them to the park!  It’s 2.05 miles… gulp!  Cool thing though, I bought the Nike+ sensor thing that you can put in your tennis shoes and it feeds information about your walk to you iPod.  I don’t have the Nike shoes, but there’s all kinds of ways to use it with other shoes too.  When I plug my iPod into the computer it uploads my walk/run information and keeps track of it online.  Cool, huh?  Even cooler is the little avatar thing that I can put on my blog so that YOU can see how far/fast/etc. I’ve walked/ran and keep me accountable!  Right now she’s on the right sidebar, down towards the bottom.  Check her out, my mini me is pretty rockin’!

This month is going to be super, super ACTIVE!!  Next weekend is Easter and we’ve got family egg hunts, and more.  The next weekend we travel to Houston and Austin to drive a SAG van in the BP MS 150 bike ride.  Monday, April 20th we’ll also be in Austin for the Cyclists in Suits lobbying day at the Capital.  Then there’s a soldering class I’m helping out with.  Then the next weekend (the first weekend in May) is the Sam’s Club MS 150 in Dallas/Fort Worth where Jack is HAM’ing, and I’m helping with the rest stops!  Whew!  So basically, if you don’t see me, don’t get responses to emails, etc. during the month of April, don’t send out a search party just yet!  lol

Today, I’m chilling out at Panera Bread, taking advantage of their free wi-fi while waiting to go to my doctor’s appointment, then heading to the office after that.  Also working on a new website for Jack, but more on that later.

Lots of stuff for “later!”  So I’ll definitely be posting again real soon!
~Heather

We had lunch today with my parents… my dad had LapBand surgery about 2 years ago… and they had much advice for us.  I had seen my dad go through it, but there was so much that I didn’t see that I learned about today.  Oh gracious!  But we can do this!  Jack is uber excited and anxious to get it done.  Me, I’m cautiously optomistic.  But that’s us!  lol

This week is crazy!  I’m visiting a bunch of different venues to try to nail down a place for our annual company banquet, we’re delivering lots of coinage to the MS Society from our coin drive at work (it’s MS Awareness Week, by the way!), and Jack has his pre-op appointment at the hospital, plus a bonus appointment with his plastic surgeon to take a last look at his leg before surgery.

Tonight we had dinner at a great mexican place for a friend’s 30th birthday (happy “getting older” Grant!).  We gave him nicely wrapped Geritol and Hemmroid cream!  lol

I took the plunge and signed up for Twitter this week.  It’s interesting.  I just wish I could merge Facebook, Twitter and my blog all in one place!  Then I’d actually be able to keep up! :o)  So if you’re interested, I’m at twitter.com/jackandheather.  I’m still learning though!

Ok, time to head to bed, start another week, another month (can you believe it’s March already?!?!), and get on with it!

~Heather

I’ve been working on a project for my dad, scanning all of his old slides. It’s been really neat seeing all of these old photos again, some things I remember and some I don’t. But mainly it’s been really neat seeing old friends from way back when. These are some of those photos.

It’s an amazing thing in life when you find a true friend. One that despite the years and despite the miles, it lasts. That’s us. Heather Showalter and Heather Krans (because our mothers always called us by our full names when we were together, that’s what we called each other too! Funny thing, now we’re both Heather B!) She was at my first birthday party, and she was my matron of honor (she beat me to the altar, lol!) Lifelong friendship like this is rare, and I will always, always treasure ours.

~Heather

P.S. She’s the blonde, I’m the brunette. Sorry Heather, I guess now I’ve revealed our true hair colors! :o)

I think these would have been 1978

And I’m guessing these are 1980 or ’81 (gotta love the indoor playground at McDonalds in Alaska!)




At my wedding in 2001.

In Colorado when I was visiting during a business trip in 2005.

Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in 2009?It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not your mother’s word or your spouse’s word or your child’s word – this is YOUR word.

One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. And here’s one thing that is totally interesting: sometimes a word will pop into your brain and it will not make any sense to you right now. Give it some time. Let it percolate a bit. I have often found that our hearts speak to us in very unique ways. Maybe this is a word you need to hear but just aren’t ready for it yet. Again, be open to the possibilities.

One. Little. Word.

Ali has posted this challenge on her blog for a couple of years now, and I always think about it, but can never seem to settle on a word.  Well this year is no different!  I have three.

Hope
Health
Happiness

Hope – Hope for what this year will bring, especially in the area of expanding our family.

Health – Because Jack and I both have plans to better our health this year.  It’s just something we can’t ignore anymore.

Happiness – I want to do what makes me happy.  If there’s something that doesn’t make me happy, make me smile, make me appreciate life, it’s not going into my life.  I’m tired of the negativity.

So, I guess it’s Three Little Words! :o)

~Heather

Yep, yesterday I aged a whole year… in one day!  lol  Seriously though, it was my birthday, and after a Multiple Sclerosis Society fundraiser in the morning, I had an awesome evening with Heather, Valita and Joanna!  Thanks ladies for a great birthday… and to Heather for the fabulous chocolate fondue!

Tomorrow morning we’re having a bake sale at the office for United Way, so of course I had to do a cake!  I had this great idea to do a bunch of little cakes with this new flower pan I bought, but um, they didn’t turn out so well.  So plan B was this… a Chocolate Irish Cream cake with Irish Buttercream Icing, and fondant flowers & leaves on top.

Here’s a few shots from the game… me and Jack, my guys (Jack, my dad and my brother), and a panorama of the game.

The panorama shot is actually four shots merged together (which is why you see players at both ends of the court! lol). If you have any version of Photoshop, go to File -> Automate -> Photomerge and Photoshop will automagically merge together photos that have common pieces. So it will put your panoramas together for you! Cool, huh? Now you can never say you didn’t learn anything from this blog! lol

Saturday was the Advanced Soldering class taught by the fabulous Heather Ales.  Afterwards we hung out at her house for workshop time.  I got quite a few charms done.  I’m hoping to get some up on Etsy sometime this week.

Today I spent most of the day finishing up a freelance graphic design project.  This thing has been an absolute BEAR!!  I swear I’ve been working on it for a month!  But it is DONE!!  Woo hoo!!

And now, we start another week…
Yes, I have another cake class this week.  We’re going to learn about fondant!
An intermediate soldering class on Saturday.
Then Saturday night we have a family birthday dinner… all the adults in our immediate family have birthdays in October or December (except Jack, whose birthday was at the tail end of September).  So we are celebrating them all with one dinner… which I’ll make the cake for, of course!  lol
As far as the week is concerned, lots of work stuff getting me stressed out, and I need to get focused on scanning my grandmother’s photos so I can take them back to her at Thanksgiving!

Whew!  It’s gonna be a week, people!  lol
~Heather

Sammich

Originally uploaded by dacriscloset

We’ve been using e-mealz.com for our menu planning lately. Everything
has been terrific and super easy, but I have to say this one is my
favorite so far! It’s a simple sandwich (nicknamed sammich now!).
Turkey, French bread (whole wheat in this case), add some butter and
garlic powder on one side, some apricot preserves on the other, bake on 350 for about 25 minutes and…. Yumminess!!! :o)

(NOTE: This photo was pre-baking, so just imagine the cheese all melted and runny for a post-baking picture!)

(OTHER NOTE: This is NOT a one person sammich!  It’s at least two, maybe even three with the half-loaf we used!  Do not try to eat this alone!)