Or a dead lizard.....

Wow, so out of all the boring posts I've written, I thought at least the "We're getting a house" post would get more buzz. I must be down from three readers to one. Maybe this will be more entertaining, but I doubt it. We've been in Keller for the past three days or so. Friday we drove in and then Saturday we went to a Casa Manana play with Mer's family and the girls. I haven't been there since like elementary school field trips. It was a pretty cute play minus all the smoke in the air for the lights. My eyes couldn't breathe through all of it. Other than that it was the best seeing the girls light up when Santa would come out. Ah, to be young again.
After the play, we headed over to Mer's parent's house and hung out for awhile. Mer took the girls home to put them in bed, and Ben stayed with us so he could watch the Cowboys game. We decided to spend the night over at Ben and Mer's so we took Ben to my parent's to get our things. Heath took Ally out and she was acting weird after that. She kept roaming in a circle around the couch. Mom thought it was because she knew we were leaving. I was thinking, "The only time she does this is when she has snatched something up and knows she's done wrong." So she jumped on the couch next to me and I opened her mouth and behold, there was a small piece of a stick in her mouth. Looked almost like a root of a plant or something. Then I looked closer, my eyes got wide, and in my best disgusted girly girl voice exclaimed "Or a dead lizard!!!". I was holding in my hand a tiny, shrunken, dead house lizard....from my dog's mouth! Yuck. I promptly threw it away, washed my hands, and reminded myself to not get "kisses" from Ally for a long time. Dog's do the darndest things!
So after all that excitement Sunday we went to church and then headed over to our friends Scot and Amy's house. They recently bought it about 7 months ago and we have yet to go and check it out. We had a great dinner, had fun catching up, and had a little friendly competition on the Xbox. Good times all around. Looking forward to more fun this week. Merry Christmas!

We're homeowners!

Well, not quite yet, but almost! A couple weeks ago we put an offer on a house that was exactly what we were looking for. We have been looking at houses ever since we lived in Roanoke, but then we found out we were moving to Austin. Once we got here, we kept looking, but nothing in our price range ever came up in North Austin (there were tons in South Austin but that area is scary).

So one Sunday, I did my usual search in Pflugerville and only one house popped up. Very unusual since there are normally at least three pages worth of results. This house was so cute. One of those row type homes with the cute white fences. Then I looked at the price. Awesome. So we decided to drive by and check out the neighborhood. It was the cutest neighborhood we'd ever seen. So three weeks later and after a ton of paperwork, the bank has accepted our offer and we will close on January 5th! We're pretty excited and can't wait to have guests in our new home! Come visit!

Also, in other good news, Heath has survived his first semester at UT and came out with some pretty awesome grades. I'm so proud of him and super excited to have him home all day during his break. Although it doesn't do much for my productivity :)

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and love you all.

P.S. I'll put pictures up soon. Our only computer decided to die right after we found out about the house so I'll have to download the ones we have on Heath's phone.

One second

One second can change your life. One second can change everything. One second can put you in field goal range, you make the field goal, and then your favorite team is going to the National Championship game. Thank goodness for that one second :)
Hehe I bet you thought this was some profound blog about a life changing event. Nope, just about the most stressful, yet exciting game I've ever experienced. Saturday, Texas played Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship game and it was a nailbiter. It was insane. Neither defense was letting anyone by, both offenses were playing pretty bad, and the officials seemed to have been taken off the street and offered the job right before the game. So it came down to the last play with one second left and a kicker who is now my hero. I sat at the tip top of the Cowboy stadium swaying with nausea, knees feeling like they were going to buckle, and a slight feeling that if something didn't happen soon then I would certainly pass out. See Nebraska thought the game was over when McCoy threw his last pass and so they stormed the field and started to celebrate. Tisk, tisk Huskers. But there was a review and whispers in the stands that the clock was wrong. The judgement on the field: there was ONE second left of game play. Mack sends out our kicker and there is a hush among Horns fans. I can't take it anymore. I sit in my chair, pound my head into my hands, and begin fervently praying to Heavenly Father that we will not lose this game. A selfish and unimportant prayer to most, but you don't don't know my father. The guy who's life revolves around Texas Longhorn football, the guy who chose his career around the football schedule, and the guy who already had his reservations set in Pasadena, CA banking on this win. Yes, THAT guy. I did not want to drive home with that guy, spend the rest of the weekend with that guy, and gosh darn it I did not want him to be unhappy. So I kept my head down and my eyes closed. There was a hush, then cheering, and I looked up to see a smile on my dad's face which can mean only one thing. We won! We WON! One second and one point, and Texas is heading to the National Championship. Now all this obsession may seem crazy to you, but for me, the little girl in the cheerleading outfit who held her dad's hand as they entered the stadium all those years ago, it was pretty darn awesome. Hook em Horns, and thanks for an awesome game.

As you can tell, we spent the weekend in Keller attending the Big 12 game. Thanks so much to mom and dad for a great weekend and for taking us. We loved it. We also got to meet up with Tami and Jason to eat before the game and tailgate before and after. Seriously, best game ever. Then on Sunday we got to see Ben, Mer, and the girls. A great weekend all around.

Catching Up...

Lots has happened lately but I just haven't been in front of the computer long enough to write it all down.
On the 13th, Ben, Mer, and the girls headed down from Ft. Worth to visit us. It was so great to see them and so much fun having them here with us. Friday, we met up with the Mathis' to eat. We were going to eat at our favorite Mexican food place (Trudy's), but the wait was so long we bailed on them and walked over to Chili's where they seated us immediately. Saturday, we rode the bus to Campus. It was funny to see Mallory's face in amazement as she realized she didn't have to be buckled in on the bus. We showed them where Xhaxhi goes to school, the store where you can buy anything Longhorn, and the Tower/Capital. Then we headed back home via bus and rested for a bit. After that we headed to everyone's favorite place....Chuck E. Cheese's! 300 tokens later we had Syd walking out proud with this awesome Tink toy and 4 bags of cotton candy. It was pure awesomeness. Then the boys headed back to the apartment to "put the girls to sleep" which means feed them tons of cotton candy and let them stay up :) Mer and I headed to Round Rock to shop at the Outlets. I always enjoy me some Mer time. All in all it was a great weekend and we are so grateful for them coming and sharing in the magic that is Austin :) Love you guys! Oh, a funny side note. Syd knows we live pretty far from her, but it was funny, she kept saying "When I get back to Texas..." and we tried explaining to her that she was still in Texas, just another city. Her words were" Yes I know, its just another country" Hehe, so apparently we live further away than Mom and Dad Breinholt.

This last week we headed home to Keller for Thanksgiving. We headed down Wednesday afternoon and our three hour drive turned into 5 1/2. No bueno. The break was awesome. It was nice to have 4 days of fun. Mom and Gran cooked up a great Thanksgiving dinner which we enjoyed throughout the weekend. My mom had a small disaster with her water valves the day after Thanksgiving and so Jeremy(and JaeLyn) were nice enough to come over and fix them all. Thanks again! My family is helpless with things like that so it is nice that the Breinholt's are so hands on. Then Saturday, we ate dinner with Ben and Mer and had a fun game night after that. Then we had a 6 hour drive back, and will be doing it all over again next weekend for the Big 12 Championship game. I'm a little ready to be in just one place for awhile. We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season and are truly grateful for all the many blessings we have in our lives. Happy holidays ya'll and Hook Em' Horns!

A Wedding and a Win

This was one crazy weekend but an awesome one at that. Friday afternoon we flew out to Utah for Heath's sister's Wedding. They were sealed at a new Temple (pictured above) that was absolutely beautiful and the reception was amazing also. I love going to the Temple, especially for Sealings, and hearing those same blessings that were given to Heath and I almost four years ago. I know that the work that goes on in Temples brings together families for eternity and I'm so grateful to have that in my life. I am so happy for Kam-a-roo and it was nice to finally meet her husband Chapan. He seems like a really sweet guy and I couldn't be happier for Kami. So after flying in late Friday night, we woke up early Saturday and headed to the Temple, attended the Sealing, took lots of pictures (some which I will post as soon as I get them from Mer/Bandaid), went home for a little bit so I could watch Texas get a touchdown (It was Texas/OU weekend), headed out for lunch at Carino's, headed to set up for the reception, took some more pictures, had the reception, cleaned up the recpetion, woke up for church, went to church, took a nap, then flew back to Austin, arrived in Austin at 11:00pm, went to bed, woke up for work/school at 7am. PHEW! I told you, a crazy weekend, but well worth it. It was so nice to see Mom and Dad Breinholt, K&K, J&J, and all the kids. K&K's kids are getting so big! It's crazy how fast they grow when you don't live near by. Hopefully we'll get have a longer visit to Utah sometime soon. So thanks everyone for a great weekend in Utah and we were so glad we could be there for Kami's special day!

P.S Texas beat OU! Heath and I (and Kent and Ben) were checking on the score via our phones throughout the day. The nailbiting game ended with a Texas win which allowed me to wear my O Who? shirt home with pride. Great job Horns! Now let's just finish the season off with all wins! Hook 'Em!

The Flu Epidemic Strikes The Breinholt House!

Okay, so it might not be the flu but both of us have been sick for about two weeks now. Fun stuff. Heath brought home this lovely vistor from school and he has been lounging around in our throats ever since. But hey, if we just got our flu fun time over for the season then I am grateful. There is some pretty nasty stuff going around and it seems like we got the milder of it all.

In other....more interesting news. We went to our first UT game last weekend. We missed our first one due to my cousin's funeral and the second one was an away game. The best part was that our friends Tami and Jason came for this one. My parents have 4 season tickets and their best friends usually go but they were away this weekend and so Tami and Jason bought them. They stayed with us (and hopefully don't get sick) and we had a blast hanging out with them. The game was pathetic. We won but made a lot of mistakes. Our seats are pretty cool but the students never sit down so needless to say my lower back was killing me by the end of the game. All in all a great time.

Last night we finally made plans with Heath parents to go up to SLC for Kami's wedding. We are really excited to see everyone up there and share in Kami's special day.

That is pretty much it for the updates. Just school, UT football, and work around here right now.

Mourning an Early Morning Call

Last night I was woken up by a phone call. Late night phone calls are never good, especially if they come from my parents. Mom just came out with it " Colin was in an accident and he didn't make it." What? This was a dream right. It wasn't. It was real and for the third time my life has been changed by someone I know being in a fatal car accident. Being in Austin it is hard to feel the true impact of this situation yet. I don't even know what to think, what to say, what to do. I just laid there silently crying for my aunt and uncle, who would now have to bury their only son.

My emotions are so mixed because I have the peace and knowledge that comes from the Gospel and know with all my heart that this life is not the end, but the beginning. But also you cannot help but miss those people who are taken from this life and grieve that missing part of your life that you used to know. I know I will see him again someday, but it doesn't lessen the grief and sadness I feel right now, right here.

We grew up visiting my aunt, uncle, and two cousins in Wolf City. I had fun walking all over town, buying sack fulls of candy at the only gas station, and playing with my two wonderful cousins in a beautiful victorian home that belonged to my aunt and uncle. I spent a few weeks there almost every summer. Colin could be a little stubborn, but he was a great uncle to my cousin Heather's kids and was active in almost everything in that small town of Wolf City. I remember when I got married and the first Christmas he met Heath and the two got along so well. They exchanged numbers in case Heath ever wanted to hear stories about me growing up. That was Colin. A people person of people of all generations. I know he is in a better place, but we will miss him a lot down here.