Heidi heads home

Heidi spiced things up around "our" (Susie's) place this week. She was still getting used to her diet food and worked up quite a thirst. Trying to keep water around for the two dogs proved to be a difficult task. They ran around so much that they drank a ton! They also barked at each other quite often so we joked that they needed to drink more from all that noise-making. In typical Indiana fashion, we had snow on the ground and a sunny, 50 degree day yesterday. That meant that when we got home from work we took the girls on a 3 mile walk. MacKenzie is used to such lengths. Heidi? Not so much.She was absolutely exhausted when we got home. She's down well over a pound, though, and she has a new pep in her step!

"Finally. That 90 mile walk ended!"- Heidi

MacKenzie also showed Heidi her favorite begging spots. The one below is where MacK sits each morning while I get ready and eat my breakfast in the bathroom. (I'm quite the multi-tasker when it means I can grab a few more minutes of sleep!)

"This is how it is done, Heidi!"

It was a lot different to have two dogs to care for, but we had a good week. Heidi is a good girl and I see why Milan loves her so much. You're welcome back anything, Heidi. (I don't think she'll take us up on that offer when she thinks about running stairs, jogging, diet food, no table scraps, carrots as treats and long, brisk walks- ha!)

Turning on her charm. I love this photo of Heidi!

"Our" Hoosiers lose

Tear. Our beloved Hoosiers didn't show up to play in the Sweet Sixteen last night. It was a great year to support our Indiana team!


Since my bracket is now busted I can cheer for a ton of teams which is my typical style anyhow:
Let's go Kansas! Rock Chalk, Jayhawk! (What? They have a Petefish drive on campus. They'll always be my #2 team for that reason!)

GO GATA! (Even thought Florida Gulf Coast is REALLY fun to watch, I have to stick with Tebow and root for the Florida Gators. Hush, Kortnee.)

Let's go Oregon! (I visited their campus and enjoyed it. That makes me cheer for them. Keep hushing, Kortnee.)

Let's go Michigan State! (Never thought I'd say that. Whew. It kind of hurt. It should prove just how much I hate Duke. Their campus is awesome, too. They just get constant bad publicity for being jerks and not even an awesome campus can cover for being meanies.)

Let's go Ohio State! (Ouch. It burns. It burns. This is just an effort to cheer for the Big Ten.)

Finally, I hope Marquette beats the crap out of Syracuse. (Sore loser? Yep.)

Alex's ABC Voicemail

Alex has learned his alphabet (Ok, most of it- who needs to really pronounce L,M,N,O,P anyway?!) Isn't this the cutest voicemail ever? I loved it!

P.S. I'm beyond proud of myself for figuring out how to move a voicemail to iTunes, an iTunes file to iMovie, an iPhoto file to iMovie and then upload to Youtube. Whew. It wasn't as exhausting as it sounds. And if you're a techy who knows an easier way by all means speak up! :)

Wrong Number Texting

I got this email from my friend Jenny today. I'm still laughing.

Actual text conversation from last night:
Jenny: At airport picking out flight magazine. Can I just say that the Kardashians have ruined celebrity gossip? And that was a low bar. Walked away empty handed.
Jenn's Phone: I agree with you and I think you have the wrong number. Safe travels.
Jenny: LOL, really? Isn't this Jenn P?
Jenn's Phone: Nope. I've had this number for a year now. I think Jen changed it. Good luck finding her. I still get calls from others like you. LOL.
Jenny: Oh crazy! Sorry, and thanks for agreeing with me on the Kardashians...they are the worst.
Jenn's Phone: You are so spot on.
Jenny: You and me and Jenn would get along great, haha. Take care!
Jenn's Phone: Thanks. I'm Mike.

HAHAHAHA poor, poor Mike. What a nice guy for answering. I wish I remembered my old number so I could text Mike to tell him to forward people on to me. ;)

Easter bunny- Indianapolis Division

One of my favorite roles in life is being an Aunt. It is like being a grandmother without the whole raising children of my own mess. That's what I call a deal. Anyway, being the loving Aunt that I am, I decided that Alex needed a jump start on Easter candy eating. Enter the long-loved Easter Bunny-Indianapolis Division. You see, there has been Cupid- Denver Division, Santa- Boston Division, etc. over the years because I love the silliness of it.
This isn't even close to all of the candy we The Easter Bunny- Indianapolis Division sent. Jackson actually thought he needed a jump on Easter candy eating, too, and that meant replenishing Alex's Easter basket (OK, it was a USPS box, but that's only because you can't easily mail a basket these days) before sending it along.

Speaking of the USPS box, it arrived in record time. It was sent Saturday night and Alex had it Monday afternoon. Jackson and I The Easter Bunny- Indianapolis Division was impressed with the speed of delivery.And look at that happy little face opening his goodies. Cuteness overload.
Kylie said he ate 10 pieces right away. I told her it was probably because he knew she'd sample his goodies, too. (You see, we The Easter Bunny- Indianapolis Division was really kind and sent down candy known to be favored by this cute little guy's Mommy.) HA! I see a ton of energy in this kid's near future.

Did I mention that I love being an Aunt?! :)

March snow is for the...dogs?

I must begin this post with a tribute to our Indiana Hoosiers who were able to survive a tight game against Temple and make it do the Sweet Sixteen. WOOT. I think it is all because we put our new IU flag up on the door. Just sayin'...

Purdue fans need not bother knocking as they're not welcome... :)

Heidi makes a run for it!

I posted previously about Jackson's antics with trying to help Heidi (the dog) lose weight. By Sunday morning (also known as day 2 of her visit) she was finished with "fat camp" and shot out the door and down the street. Thankfully she uses sidewalks and we don't live on a busy road. Jackson took off after her and I caught the photo above as they made their way home. I could hardly get my iPhone to take a photo I was laughing so hard. I'm actually still laughing as I type this two days later. :) Atta girl, Heidi!
We left the girls in their cages and headed to Upland for a family dinner. We came back to Fishers just as the bad weather was arriving. The girls enjoyed a little evening romp in the snow while Jackson and I shoveled.
You thought I was kidding about helping with shoveling, didn't you? Photographic evidence doesn't lie, folks.
Heidi had clearly forgotten that we restrict her food and have her jogging and running stairs because she actually stayed in our yard. Score. ;)

MacKenzie mildly enjoyed having another dog to play with in the snow. (Doesn't MacK look like this is flying in this photo?! Hilarious.) I say mildly because the two dogs would play for about 3 minutes before one would get mad and snap at the other. Oops. :)
Heidi was a natural snow dog. She stuck her whole head in a snow pile that we made while shoveling. Jackson said she was looking for food. HAAAAA!
MacKenzie got herself all snowy trying to catch snowballs. Hint: they cannot be caught. She's not figured that out in her 6+ years. Poor girl is a slow learner. That or she has an evil father. I'll let you decide.
All was well with our doggie guest until bedtime. Heidi sat in MacK's nighttime spot which meant MacKenzie had to sit on Heidi's pillow. She was not impressed.
The good news is that Heidi is stubborn and didn't move so MacKenzie gave up and got comfy on Heidi's pillow. It was pretty funny to see our little princess get put in her place. (I know. I'm a mean dog owner for that. Sue me.)

We got plenty of snow over the evening hours and woke up to a winter wonderland on MARCH 25TH. Yes, a winter wonderland only it is supposedly SPRING. Annoying. This meant to girls got another round of playing in the snow while we shoveled our driveway and the neighbor's drive, too. They loved it. I loved having a 2-hour delay (my first since high school) and getting to work from the comfort of home.

Harry Stamps

I stumbled across this article (who knows how on earth I ended up reading about an obituary- I refuse to spend time trying to figure out how I got from reading headline news to this. Honestly.) about a daughter who wrote her father's obituary to be a REAL tribute to him.

You can read the article here:
http://www.legacy.com/ns/news-story.aspx?t=harry-stamps-says-a-final-good-bye-to-daylight-savings-time&id=1278

And the actual obituary here:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sunherald/obituary.aspx?n=harry-stamps&pid=163538353&fhid=4025#fbLoggedOut

What a sweet, sweet tribute to a man she clearly adored.

Gunner steals socks..

I got this adorable series of photos yesterday. Let's just say they made me laugh. A lot. :)

MOM, Gunny has my sock!



I'll get it back!



Ok, maybe I won't.

Now seriously, could Jocelin get any cuter?! We need some J&J with "baby" J&J time STAT! :)

Tebow love

Just when I thought I could not love this guy anymore he gives a random pep talk to a team that is not HIS school. (Go Gata!)

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2015951

You can see his speech here:
http://youtu.be/nBjon1lRLaY

Swoon.

P.S. Please don't confuse this with my rooting for a different team than my beloved Indiana. Let's go Hoosiers!:)

Heidi (the dog) comes for a visit

Milan, my step-grandpa, had to move to a nursing home recently due to some health problems. This meant his schnauzer, Heidi, needed a place to land. She's been staying with my Aunt Jan and Uncle Duane but they're out in Vegas now so we were up to bat. Heidi has stayed with us before so MacKenzie wasn't completely shocked by the new addition. Poor Heidi arrived on bath day so she was greeted with a shower. I still haven't met a dog who likes being bathed. She did pretty well, though!


The girls side-by-side in their cages while we each went to our offices for a few hours this afternoon.


Heidi should weight about what MacK does (18 pounds), but Milan fed her a lot so she's at a hefty 33 pounds. Whoops! This meant she had to go through some extra exercise we like to call "Jackson's Bootcamp." She's also eating weight control food that she hasn't complained about yet. (I'll attribute this to her inability to speak!)


She had to run the stairs with him 10 times in a row. We also took her on two walk today. One was pretty long, too. The girls actually walked well together and we made them do a bit of jogging with us.


Heidi is now officially exhausted and has curled up on the couch next to Jackson watching the Butler game. Go Bulldogs!

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MacK loves hoops, too

Even MacKenzie has been watching hoops this weekend. She especially enjoyed the IU game. Duh! :)


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Winner

Yes, I did just post a 105 point word on Jackson! Woot!!!


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SkyRobics

My friend Amber and I finally tried out a place I'd wanted to visit for sometime now: SkyZone. It is in Fishers just off of 121st and Cumberland. You can see it Dom the interstate and I kept wondering what it was all about. I was not disappointed! We went for the Wednesday evening SkyRobics class and had SO MUCH FUN! It was only $12 for the one hour class (which is actually quite reasonable around here). The photo below is from their website. No one in our class looked that good jumping. Ha! It was like being a kid again. You run on the trampolines and do all kinds of exercises in them, too. We were exhausted by the end and hurt in places we didn't know existed. It is definitely a class that I'll be dragging Jackson to soon! I cannot say enough how fun this was so go try it out!


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MARCH MADNESS

I love the NCAA tournament. I LOVE it! This year I was able to take off all day today (Thursday) and 1/2 of the day Friday to watch games. Awesome!


Even Sports Illustrated is obsessed with Victor Oladipo and the INDIANA HOOSIERS. President Obama picked them to win the whole thing. See Cody Zeller's reaction to that here: (Cody Zeller). It is hilarious. :)


We watched the Butler game at Ale Emporium (is there a better place to catch a game? NO!) before coming home and settling in for an afternoon and evening of hoops. :)

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"I CAN DO IT!"

I saw an article about this video. It has warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. I love Gavin for saying, "I can do it!" and then facing what has to be such a scary, scary thing for him: stepping off a curb for the first time. Gavin was born blind due to a rare genetic issue and is learning to use his cane to get around. Can you imagine being 4 years old and having to learn to navigate the world without your eyesight? What a brave little guy! This was such a good reminder that we can do it! We can do whatever we put our minds to whether it is stepping off a curb or facing life's other challenges! 

El Salvador

Our dear friend Heidi is going on a short-term mission trip to El Salvador this summer. Yes, she's the one with two little ones at home. She is sacrificing her time and Andrew's sanity (I joke, I joke) to go help out some children less fortunate than her own. She's been raising money for her trip and has a cut-off of March 25th to finish raising funds. I'm sharing her letter below so you can see how passionate she is about this mission trip. If you have the means please help her reach her goal. We've given a donation already and she's raised $315 so far. This means she needs to raise $1,535 THIS WEEK to be funded. That's a big goal. Let's help her reach it! UPDATE: SHE REACHED HER GOAL! :)

From Heidi:
I wanted to share with you some exciting news in my life. I have the wonderful opportunity to travel back to San Salvador, El Salvador this June! You might remember that I traveled with a group from our church two years ago to visit Exodo, an orphanage that Hands of Hope (Grace's adoption and orphan care ministry) partners with and sponsors in El Salvador. During that trip, I was able to meet a young boy named Jose, that my family helps sponsor at Exodo, as well as several other children that I immediately fell in love with. Well, since my last trip, Jose has been reunited with his biological parents; therefore, he is no longer at the orphanage. While I am sad that I will not get to love on this adorable boy, I most certainly praise the Lord that he is able to be with his parents once again, as this very rarely happens. We continue to pray for him and his family as well as their health and safety.


Since we no longer are able to sponsor Jose, we now help sponsor another little boy named Christian Alexander. He is new to the orphanage and arrived with two other siblings. I am so excited to meet him, his brothers, and be reunited with the other children at Exodo. I not only bonded with Jose while I was there two years ago, but I bonded with many of the other younger children as I led them during Vacation Bible School that week. We will be doing another VBS this year as well as doing some painting and tile work at the orphanage.
God definitely changed my heart after my first trip to El Sal; it's impossible to come back from a short-term missions trip unchanged. After spending a week with children, who have been abandoned, have no mommy or daddy to tuck them in at night, and are still able to laugh and play and smile all the while, I was changed. It's ironic because these children desperately need us to pray for, support, and love on them, but I need to be the one there, loving on them just as much. I also need a reminder of those simple things we take for granted every day, such as drinking water from a faucet or flushing toilet paper down the toilet. I need my eyes to be opened once again to the poverty and injustices of this world, so that I can live out God's purpose in my life.

As I prepare for this trip, I am asking two things of you. First and foremost, please PRAY! I need your prayers along with our team, the children at Exodo, and those who we'll meet and help along the way both now and during our trip, the week of June 15-22. Secondly, please consider supporting my financially. The total cost of my trip is $1850. If you feel you are able to support me financially, I have included a couple of different ways of giving below.
Please, know that whether you can support me by praying or financially, you are making an impact not only in my life but in the lives of orphans! I appreciate your friendship and support!!!!
***Here is how you can give, keeping in mind that all funds are due March 25th and are tax deductible.

Pay on the Hands of Hope website by going to https://www.gracehandsofhope.org/Make-a-Donation.html&wd_stage=single Fill out the online form, selecting "2013 El Salvador Trip" in drop down menu and put my name, Heidi Porterfield, in the "Notes" section.

Sincerely,
Heidi

Favorites

I had to share this photo of two of my favorite ladies: Fran and "baby" Joss. I love how happy they both look! I cannot believe how BIG "my" Joss has gotten already! Thanks for sharing this with me, Heidi, looking at it makes my heart happy!


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Just dance!

Last night we had dinner with Shaya and Bates and were introduced to a really fun game on the Wii called "Just Dance." Listen, I know this is not a new game. We're just not big into video games even though we do have a Wii...somewhere. Anyway, Shaya and Bates recently got rid of cable and now spend more time watching movies and playing video games. They introduced us to just how fun the Wii can be on a Friday night!  

Shaya was the queen of the game

 The game shows you moves and you try to copy them. The songs are oldies and popular tunes so it was a nice mix. You compete against each other and the Wii sensor tells you if you're doing a good job of dancing like the person on the screen or not. I'm not good at this game. In fact, I lost every single game I played. True story. I lost against Bates in "Walk like an Egyptian," a song that I danced to every single day for years when I was a little girl. Jackson was actually able to beat Bates once, but Shaya was the queen. She just did not lose. I kept claiming it was because she danced for years when we were younger. I quit my dance lessons when I was quite young due to an "extended headache." (If my Mom has never shared this story with you then you've obviously never met her. She loves to tell people that when I was little and decided that I didn't like my dance lessons anymore I said I had a headache. When she told me I could go again next week when I felt better I assured her that I'd still have a headache. HA!)

Jackson and Bates getting down

Shaya schooling Jackson

I've included some videos for your viewing pleasure. Please excuse my laughing.  

 Jackson and Bates were so entertaining. Jackson was SO proud of his spin moves. Hilarious.

The plan (subject to change)

Ok, so now you know that I interviewed out East. How'd it go? It went well. Ultimately we decided it wasn't the right fit for us right now. Hanover is just too far from civilization. I just couldn't get excited about living in New Hampshire even for an Ivy League job. I know. It surprised us, too! As it turns out I'm happy and challenged at Ball State. I told Jackson that sometimes you have to date around to love the one you're with. He hated that analogy. ;)

Now what? We told our tenants that we would not let them renew their lease ending on June 30th. We also told them that if they wanted to move sooner that we wouldn't penalize them. We would like to move back in right away, but staying at Susie's and saving money doesn't stink. ;) (We will see how we all feel when Susie actually lives here again in April!)

We feel good that we finally have a plan and we're looking forward to some more fun in Indy with our family and friends. :)


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Dartmouth confession

Ok friends I've got a confession to make: I've been interviewing for a tax role with Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. (I know. I know. I know. A rolling stone gathers no moss!!)


Anyway, last Thursday morning they flew me out to campus for a final interview. I stayed at their campus hotel called the Hanover Inn. It was super fancy and quite nice. The best part? They had Shout wipes as a part of the bathroom kit. Genius! These people must be affiliated with an Ivy League school or something. ;) It snowed overnight and made the campus look gorgeous. I spent all of Friday interviewing. It was a loooong day. I seriously hate having to talk to 900 different people. Anyway, it went well on campus and then I headed back down to Manchester for the night. I stopped for dinner at a place Jackson and I dined at during our last visit. It wasn't as good this time around. Bummer. I think it was because I was alone. Traveling alone is so lame. I had some issues with my flights home and ended up delayed by about 3 hours.
A few notes on flying:
1. Packing a small bag doesn't guarantee that you'll get to carry it on. Even if your bag is a designer bag that you'd never want tucked under the plane.
2. Tiny planes are as awful as you've always suspected.
3. If you hate tiny planes and act nervous men around you will laugh at you.
4. If you end up in a row by yourself you must sleep. Those are the rules, folks.
5. Always thank your flight crew. It matters.
6. If the grandma next to you is drinking a beer and holding a baby don't bother making a funny comment or she'll talk your ear off
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La Ha

After my wild day of traveling we headed to Muncie for dinner with my folks and cousins. We really enjoyed getting to catch up with Darrell and Cheryl and can appreciate anyone who knows how great La Hacienda in the Muncie ghetto really is. From Muncie we headed to Upland to let MacKenzie play with Madison and Macy.


These girls go wild when they get together.


Sneaking a look into the toy drawer....


And then it is time for a nap!

It was nice after a wild day of travel to hang out in God's country for a bit.
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Adopt a Cardinal

I think I've posted in the past about my friend who is now a priest in Mexico. He emailed me a link to an admittedly kind of funny way to pray for the future of the Catholic church by "adopting" a Cardinal to pray for during the Conclave. Jackson adopted one, too. I hope he remembered to pray for his because I forget his guy's name. Anyway, I thought it was kind of funny and kind of cool. What is we all "adopted" a few people to really focus our prayers on? I think it is a novel idea. Please note: according to Jackson I'm not supposed to root for "my" Cardinal to win. Pssh. ;)

Hoops and...hoops!

Sunday our friend Derrik invited us to go to Dave-n-Buster's before heading to Ale Emporium (my new favorite sports bar) to catch the IU vs. Michigan game. He said he'd beat us in basketball. He wasn't lying. He kicked our tails all over the place.

Intense competition

He shoots, He scores!

Not surprisingly, I was the worst "player" of the day. It is a good thing that I was able to tone down my competitive nature for the afternoon. ;) We had a lot of fun playing all of the arcade games and even gave some little kid our tickets since none of us needed the junk they offered as prizes.

Hermanaki wings makes my world happy

Seriously folks, go to Ale Emporium. Next to Assembly Hall, there is not better place in Indiana to catch a HOOSIERS game. The place gets packed with IU fans and the food is awesome. We love going there. There were a few Michigan fans sprinkled in today for good measure, but the Hoosiers won and they slunk away home. HA!

Televisions for every sporting event possible

I was able to watch IU win while watching Tiger woods win. You tell me that isn't a dream come true and I'll call you a liar. ;)


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Gforce Vball

After a few delayed flights (more on that in a later post), I finally landed in Indianapolis in time to catch some of  Grace's volleyball games. Her traveling team played her two times this season and both times we were able to attend which made me really happy. She's gotten to be quite the player. She's also gotten almost as tall as her Aunt Jenna which really isn't that much of an accomplishment since I'm 5'3", but still.

How Gracie felt when she thought I could not make it to her game ;)

Grace and her Uncle Jack like to constantly give each other a hard time. I enjoy it. A lot. I was able to convince them both to smile for a photo, though. They look quite similar in this photo I think. It always freaks me out a little to see how much of a family resemblance there is there for Grace's sake. HAAA! ;)

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Big man

This handsome man fixed my foreign car for under $5! Yay! I'd had a warning light about a rear light being out for weeks and I kept trying to find time to go to the Audi (confession: I tried to type "audit" instead of "audi" about eight times- oh the life of a tax manager) dealership because I do not attempt any repairs on my own. After Guy offered to get it fixed for me Jackson was suddenly motivated to fix it himself. (Funny how that works.) He did it! He figured it out and only had to make one auto parts store run.


What a big man! Thanks, babe. :)

Side note: Have I explained the "big man" status before? It is from our premarital counseling. The one class where couples were separated consisted of a lecture on making your husband feel manly by thanking him profusely for doing things around the house. They told us this makes him feel good and like a "big man." We've mocked it ever since, but Jackson sure does like to get "big man" status so I'm not so sure this idea was as crazy as I first suspected. ;)

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March snow

Listen, I love winter as much as anyone. Ok, that's a lie. I hate winter. I especially hate when it lingers like a bad headache.


MacKenzie doesn't care as long as someone will throw the ball.


Tuesday night we were to get a ton of snow so I asked my friend Kort if I could stay at her place in Muncie. I didn't want to try to make my commute from Indianapolis to campus in a winter wonderland. (Kort has abandoned her apartment now that she's in love with a farmer so I had the place all to myself.) As you can see from my car the snow came as projected.


Kort warned me that she didn't have any food so I stopped at the grocery on my way home from work. I had real fears that I'd be snowed in at her place a mere 3-4 miles from my office. Did I mention we were expected to get a foot of snow? Jackson's co-worker thought I was a stoner for my grocery picks. The real reason for my wild grocery selection is simple: Jackson shops for us. My co-worker, Amy, saw me at the store and laughed at how lost I was. I needed to buy thing I knew how to "cook" which included cereal, pb&j,soup, prepared pasta salad and spaghetti-os. Stop lining up for me to cook for you. ;) I make a mean bowl of Lucky Charms. Just sayin'...


The best part of being snowed in was getting to FaceTime with Jackson and MacK. The little dog doesn't quite understand why I can't throw the ball through the phone. HA! I watched the disappointing IU game with Jackson via text message. Isn't technology the best?


By the time I got off of work on Wednesday the roads were fine but the surrounding trees were covered with a beautiful fresh frosting.


MacKenzie and I played while Jackson shoveled. That seems fair, right?! ;)

Thanks so much for letting me stay at your place, Kort! It was so nice not to have drive very far in the snowy mess!

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