The Heathpack and Africa

So I have a friend, Stacey Heath, that jumped on the blogging bandwagon recently and has decided to start a 101 list of her own!! She hasn't posted the full list just yet, but has already knocked one thing off (a rather creative one at that...way to go Stacey!). Keep a watch out on her blog for her list. I have to give props to the original list maker, my wedding photographer, Amelia Strauss. If I hadn't seen her list, I would have never come up with my own list. The weird thing is that making the list itself is causing me to try to knock things off much quicker than I would have without any incentive. It is my suggestion to everyone out there to make a list like this. Mind you, it is rather hard to come up with 101 things, as Stacey points out in her post, but it's worth it when you do.

One of the things on my list is going to climb Kilimanjaro in Africa and take a safari while there. We had originally not planned to do this until December 2011, however, as I have mentioned already and as you can clearly see by the countdown to the right of this, we couldn't wait that long and have started this planning process already. We leave on (or around) December 18th and return to the States January 2nd. And yes, that means that we will be celebrating Christmas and New Years in Tanzania. I did not have my passport previously so getting that was step one (and it was also something on my 101 list).

The next step is booking the flights, which is something Justin and I have been looking into for a while now. We are so incredibly close to finding what we want and booking it. The hold up right now is that we're trying to use miles to book my flight and you can't use miles out of certain airports AND Justin can't use his upgrade to first class on just any flight. We are pretty certain we'll be able to get first class from Birmingham to Amsterdam, but from Amsterdam to Tanzania is a different story. But on the plus side, one of the flights we're looking at booking has the SAME AWESOME first class seats that we had going to Hawaii on our honeymoon. You can see those bad boys here. We were playing with the idea of going through Paris, London, or Amsterdam for a two day connection to have a little sightseeing fun before wearing the same clothes for almost two weeks straight. My vote was for Paris for obvious reasons, but I really wanted to go to London too. After talking with Justin about it, we decided that WHEN we go to both of these places, we want to be able to spend more than two days there. There is so much to do in Paris and London, that they really need their own trips. Therefore, we have decided to go through Amsterdam (the plus is that going through there is cheaper). Justin looks at flight at least twenty times a day and he actually almost booked last night and again tonight, so I'm guessing we're pretty close.

I seriously cannot begin to portray how excited I am to be in Africa. It is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and to welcome the new year over there is just that much sweeter. Justin says that our guides website will post where we are throughout the hike as we do it (it takes 6 days total to hike the mountain). I don't know if they'll list our names or anything, but that would be a good way to keep up with us, since we will probably only have contact with our families and even that will be limited to a quick once a day phone call to confirm that we're not dead. We're both going to have to go through some crazy training to get in shape, a process that we have both already started, but as for what I am worried about the most...NO CAFFEINE FOR 16 DAYS!!!! I must start weening myself now...

Flashback Friday - Jen's Wedding

I completely missed last Friday's flashback, but to be honest, I don't think I'll be doing it every Friday because I'll run out of flashbacks!! I was running through old pictures again and found a few from my sisters wedding (Jennifer's). Jennifer married Jeff Cowley on September 8, 2007 (9-8-07). They got married at Reid Chapel and the reception was at the Wynfrey Hotel. It was a beautiful day! We had a brunch at my mom's house with the bridesmaids that morning and got ready at her house (that's where I got the idea to do it at my wedding) and then headed to the chapel to get dressed. Jen's favorite color is purple, so that was the dominant color in the wedding! Here's a recap in pics:



This was at their rehearsal dinner, which was at the Summit Club. Very nice dinner!!



This is Jen and I at Barking Kudu. A few of us went out to have one last celebration after the rehearsal and before her big day!



The three sisters the next morning, getting ready!



Isn't she pretty!?!?!?!



Look how small Anderson is!!!



Me and Lindsey Limbaugh (she was Lindsey Owens then)



Me and the other sis having a good ole time on the dance floor!

It was a fun night and I miss my sister :( She lives in Tampa, FL, but I'm sure most of the readers knew that :) Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!!

#47 - CHECK!

Number 47 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to grow my hair out long and then chop it all off. DONE!!!

My hair doesn't really grow all that long. However I do think that this was the longest it's been, EVER!



And now....



I have been going to the same hair stylist in Tuscaloosa forever and still go to her. She is truly amazing and knows what will and won't look good. She's always told me that my hair looks better short. She cut off about 4 1/2 inches. I didn't even realize my hair was that long :)

This picture of Justin and I was taken on Valentine's Day before going to church. Justin and I both wore green...on Valentine's Day, which we thought was kind of funny. That night we went to the Comedy Club. It was my first time going to the Comedy Club in Birmingham. We saw a comedian named Etta May. She was HILARIOUS!!! No pictures though, sorry.

Not much going on these days. It's my busy season, but actually, I haven't been as busy as I expected. We usually are working Saturdays by now and banking 60 hours a week. The most we've worked so far is 55 hour weeks and I haven't had to work a Saturday yet! Before I know it, busy season is going to be over. YAY :)

Happy Valentine's Day..

...From my amazingly wonderful husband!



Today, Justin and I are going to church and then to lunch with his parents and Jen and Aeron (our Sunday tradition, at least when Justin and Gordon are in town). Then, we're going to meet the Lobdell's at the YMCA in Pelham. We've been thinking about joining the Y for several reasons. I want to be able to take some classes like Yoga, Pilates, and even dance classes! Another reason we wanted to join is because of the pool. Justin and I are going to start some vigorous training soon for Kilimanjaro. It's a very intense hike and people usually train for months and months and months before heading over there for the 6 day long hike. Justin just bought a book called "Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro" and the people that wrote it trained for seven months!!! Anyway, swimming laps is the best cardio workout you can do so we wanted somewhere with a pool to be able to do that.

Yesterday we went to the Vestavia YMCA brach. It was kind of a blast from the past for us. It use to be SportsFirst back in high school and my church, First Baptist Church of Hoover, had a lock-in there my freshman year in high school. Justin came, and even though I knew him before then because he dated my sister (yes, we still talk about that at times) that was the first time we started liking each other. We flirted during the whole lock-in and after that was when we started walking home together from school. It was certainly strange to go back there and see it now that we're MARRIED!

On top of using a pool for that purpose, Justin has signed up for a triathalon at Oak Mountain on June 12, 2010, where he has to do a 750 meter swim. When we were getting certified for diving, we had to do a 250 meter swim. I LOVE swimming and could do it forever, but Justin isn't that much of a fan and when he did his 250 meter swim, he was tired afterwards, so he's a little nervous about a 750 meter swim. He's planning on swimming laps in the mornings before he goes to work and then doing an actual workout with me when I get off work at night. Even though we're going to the Pelham YMCA today, on a normal day we'll be going to the Shades Valley branch because it's closer to our home.

Tonight, I am making Justin a yummy dinner and then we're heading to the Comedy Club to see Etta Mae. I have no idea who she is, but going to the Comedy Club is something I've wanted to do since moving back to Birmingham because I've never been, so I'm really excited! Justin managed to reserve us one of the tables for only two people so we'll get some sort of privacy :)

I hope everyone has a very Happy Valentine's Day today!!

p.s. I put two more videos on the "Flashback Friday" by request :)

Flashback Friday - Dance Team

I actually started this post a couple of days ago because it took so long to gather pictures and videos, but I waited til today to post so I can officially call it a "Flashback Friday". Anyone who knows me the least bit, knows that I have a huge love for dance. I was on dance team from 7th grade all the way until junior year in college. My favorite times where high school and college, but I think if I had to pick between the two, I may have to go with high school. I managed to dig up some old pictures and even some videos from the "good ole days". Can I use that term since I'm only 26? Let's start with high school...

Sophmore Year:



Junior Year:



Senior Year:



Aren't you so jealous you didn't get to wear that every Friday night in front of the entire city of Hoover, even in the freezing weather??

My senior year at Hoover was probably by far the best when it comes to dance team. We made sure every dance we did was a "production", which is fancy talk for super long dance that you can barely make it through without major gasps for oxygen. My senior year, we had 8 seniors and 8 juniors and sophmores, so it made sense to do A LOT of group work. It helped get through the routine without dying ;) One of my FAVORTIE dances we did was to Britney's song "Satisfaction". Erin Cork was our captain and Jennifer Brooks and I were co-captains. We choreographed this dance together and had so much fun doing it! Who's the chick in all black you ask? Well, that would be our coach, Tanya Brock. She lost a bet with us, and I can't remember the bet, but because of it, she was required to do a dance with us at a pep rally.

Sorry for the video quality...video cameras weren't that awesome back in 2001 :) If you're trying to find me, at the very beginning, half of us are sitting in chairs. I'm on the front row far left. And when we join together to dance as one team in the middle, I am again, front row far left.



After graduating from high school, I started working for UDA, Universal Dance Association. At every camp, UDA instructors give a select few people "bids" to work for them during the summers. My sister, Jennifer, got a bid in 2000 and I got a bid in 2001. I thoroughly loved teaching camps all over the US during the summers. I only did it for two years though, because when I got deep into my major in school, I started taking some classes in summer school.



In 2001, I got to teach at the camp where Hoover competed. One would think that would be some kind of conflict of interest, but shockingly, it wasn't!



This is me and another instructor who was also on Bama's dance team with me, Jennifer Beasley.



Every year, all the instructors went to "work week" to learn the dances we were going to teach to high school and middle school dance teams. This particular work week was in Daytona, FL. My sister, along with Erin Cork, Natalie Pfau and Lacie Ingram (all from Hoover) were there that year.

Moving into college...

Being a member of the Crimson Cabaret at the University of Alabama was amazing. I think I learned more about technique than ever in my life while being a member.



This is us performing to Britney and Madonna's "Me Against the Music". Loved this dance too!



At the Homecoming parade my junior year in college.



This was our competition routine for College Camp in the summer. It was to Evanescence's "Taking Over Me".

My most proud moment in college was when we got 5th place at Nationals in Orlando, FL in 2002 out of about 30-40 teams. I put the video below. If you're asking yourself what was the reasoning behind the choice of music, the answer is that we were trying to go with a "bada$$ women" theme. So all the songs have to do with being a bada$$. Miss these girls so much! If you're trying to find me, good luck. The easiest way to say it is that when we form the first "organized" formation (which is right when the lyrics to "We Will Rock You" start), I'm in the front row far left (apparently my favorite spot), but we move A LOT so you'll probably lose me at some point :)



Being on dance team was a huge part of my life and I miss it everyday :(

UDPATE: I got a few requests by email to put up the other videos I had on youtube so here they are :)



This is "Thriller". It's one of the most talked about dances we did. Any of you heard of Michael Warren? He's currently living in LA pursuing a music career. Last I heard he was signed and working on an album. Well, he's our "Michael Jackson" in this dance. Captains (Erin, Jennifer and myself) used the actual "Thriller" video for most parts and then choreographed the rest. Remember when I said everything we did my senior year was a "production"? Well, we had the drama department build us a coffin and used dry ice and smoke makers to create fog. The fog actually makes it hard to see at times, so sorry about that. The dance teams after us used this dance for years from what I'm told. To find me, look for the person crawling out of the coffin in the white shirt, black pants, and ridiculously blonde hair that crawls towards the front.



This is from March Madness at U of A my freshman year. The video is kind of long. The first dance is hideous. We were required to do one dance with Big Al so it couldn't be hard and was pretty much required to be "lame" and didn't involve talent and I couldn't stand doing it (can you tell I didn't like it?). After that routine we do some cheers, during which time I'm easy to find because my crazy mother zooms in on me most of the time. To the part I actually like though...at 5:50 we go off the court and when we come back we do a pretty killer routine. It's blurry at the beginning but when it comes in focus, there are three people in the front row. I'm the one of the far right.

And a shout out to my girl Lindsey Limbaugh...during the "cheer" section, you hear someone talking on the phone. It was her. She came to see me that night :)

Welcome to the Lobdell's

My very best friend Tiffany and her husband Trevor have officially hopped on the blogging bandwagon!! She started a blog and you can visit their blog here. Follow them!! YAY for friends picking up on the trend. Oh and I also changed my header. I decided I wanted to have more than two pictures :)

#16 - CHECK!

Another thing off the list! And this one was DEFINITELY one that I wanted to do. Number 16 on my list was to get new countertops for our kitchen. When I moved into Justin's house, he had bright white appliances and blue countertops. It was absolutely awful. Upgrading to all stainless steel appliances is also on the list, but we still need one so I can't knock that off yet. Feast your eyes up what once was...




And now...





Justin and our friends Trevor and Wade worked on it for hours! When I got home from work I was completely shocked to find out that Justin had already bought a stainless dishwasher, something we were going to hold off on doing for a little bit. We already had a stainless stove and microwave, so we needed a sink, dishwasher and fridge. We knew we'd get the sink when we got the countertops because you have to install them together. When Justin realized that he had to take out the dishwasher to install the new countertops, he figured he'd rather not have to do that twice and just went ahead and bought us one.

Some pics of the boys hard at work...





Like I said, we are waiting on buying a fridge to be able to knock the all stainless kitchen appliances off the list. We haven't picked out the exact fridge, but we know what basic kind we want.



We know we want the double door with the bottom freezer and we've found a couple we like. We won't make this purchase until after we get back from Africa. Right now most of our funds are going to save for that bad boy! After we get back from Africa, we will purchase the fridge along with replacing the carpet in the living room with hardwood floors, another thing on my 101 List. I can't wait to see what our house is going to look like when we're finished with it. We're also planning on buying new dining room furniture and a new coffee and end tables for the living room. YAY for re-decorating :)

#49 - CHECK!

Taking Anderson to the McWane Center by ourselves was number 49 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. Since my mom is a sucker for those kids and she lives in Birmingham, there was no chance I would ever be able to take Anderson or Lydia to the McWane Center without her wanting to come. So today, my mother and I took Anderson and Lydia there for the morning. Anderson LOVES the McWane Center. Lydia loves it too, but she's a little too young to understand everything you can do. Pictures will sum it up :)



This is Anderson and I at the shark and sting ray tank. He was afraid to touch them though. And it was weird for me to touch a baby hammerhead considering they're one of the most dangerous types of sharks. Very cool stuff though!



Lydia on the other hand probably would have jumped in the tank and swam with them if we would have let her.



I love this picture of him! He just LOVES fish! He associates Justin and I with the salt water fish tank that we have at our house. Every time I talk to him, he wants to know about the fish and when we're going to get more.



Little man and little girl :)



If there's something Anderson loves more than fish....it's Dinosaurs!! They had a play area with dinosaur bones and it was covered in stones and the kids got little brushes to uncover the bones.



The funny thing was that apparently Lydia thought the brushes were for make up :)



Me and little girl playing in the dinosaur sand box!



Anderson and Lydia were competing for making handprints.



Sweet precious Lydia fell asleep sucking her thumb!!! She is so adorable!



And while at lunch with Justin and our friend Wade, Anderson learned how to cross his eyes. He was cracking Justin and Wade up and he just loves it when people laugh at him, so he kept crossing his eyes OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. It was hilarious!

I'm actually marking a bunch of things off the list this weekend so I'll post some more soon. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Flashback Friday - Car Wreck

So I've been noticing some of my friends doing posts called "Flashback Friday" and I figured I would jump on the bandwagon since I have nothing to blog about these days because I'm so busy with work. This week's Flashback Friday took place in February (I can't remember the actual day) of 2004. I was driving from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham late at night after I got off work at Applebee's. I was scheduled to judge the Alabama State Dance Competition being held at UAB the next day, but I needed to work the night before, so I drove back when I got off work, probably around 11pm.

When on the interstate, I noticed traffic was bumper to bumper on the other side of the interstate. I still have no idea why the traffic was so bad, but some people were driving out of the traffic into the median and turning around to go back towards Birmingham, the same direction I was going. I was in the far left lane and a grey explorer pulled directly in front of me. I guess he/she didn't see me in the lane, but I managed to swerve across three lanes of traffic (going 70+ mph) and hit a ditch. My car rolled up the hill on the right side of the interstate and then back down the hill. All in all, the report says that witnesses said they saw my car flip about 6-8 times. I don't remember any of it. I remember seeing the explorer and changing lanes, but nothing after that. I woke back up as soon as my car stopped flipping and got out of the car on my own. I remember freaking out and a TON of people stopping to make sure I was ok. I kept telling one woman "my mom is going to kill me, I am so dead". I guess I didn't realize how bad the accident was at that time. I just knew my hand was in an extreme amount of pain.

The ambulance got there, it seemed in seconds, and took me to DCH, the hospital in Tuscaloosa. I had seven stitches in my middle finger and the skin on my right hand was pretty much gone, but that was it. I had no concussion, no broken bones, nothing. This incident changed my life forever. I can't really explain the way it went in my head, but God talked to me that day, and it changed everything. Nothing has been the same for me since. I have a closer relationship with God because of this and I essentially rededicated my life to Him after this. Anyone that comes out of that car alive has someone upstairs watching out for them. That's what my doctors kept telling me. Everyone said I was incredibly lucky to be alive, not to mention to walk away with only seven stitches and a bad headache.











I had this cross on my rearview mirror at the time of the accident. It was the only thing in the car (other than me of course) that didn't get thrown out. My CD's were found outside the car on the hill that I flipped on, some of my school books got thrown out of the car as well, but this cross stayed in place. It had two rhinestones missing out of it, but it was still completely intact. This same exact cross is on my rearview mirror today.

The downside of the whole thing was that the person that pulled out in front of me causing the accident got away. Ten cars (and one 18-wheeler!!) stopped to check on me, but unfortunately no one ran after him/her. Since I didn't hit anyone, my insurance claimed the accident my fault and my car insurance sky rocketed for the next couple of years. But I guess that is nothing compared to what could have happened...