Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Heaths!

We hope that this blog finds all of you happy and healthy! It has been a fun and exciting year for us as we moved from Central Georgia to the beach. In late August, we moved to Sonya’s hometown of Charleston, South Carolina.

                                         


Sonya is now the weekend meteorologist at WCIV, which is known as Channel 4 by folks in the Lowcountry. She not only does weather but reports three days a week, which means covering anything from sea turtles being released to school board meetings. Her new gig keeps her busy, but she is enjoying it so far. She has also rejoined the Charleston Community Band which she played with in high school.

Ed has almost completed his MBA and will finish his last class online this spring. He is still working part-time for his old company in Wilmington as well. The hope is that he’ll “land” a job here in Charleston soon. He is still playing soccer as often as he can. The fall season wasn’t what you would call “winning”, but he did get a lot of play time.

We competed in our first sprint triathlon in April. It was a 500 meter swim, 12.4 mile bike ride, and 3.1 mile bike ride in Charleston. We liked it so much that we did another one in June in Macon. We are happy to say that we are triathletes and are looking forward to doing more in the spring when it warms back up! We are also planning on doing a half marathon this winter, which Sonya says will be her one and only. We have already done two 5ks, the Race for the Cure and the James Island Connector Run, and plan on doing the Bridge Run in the spring, which is a 10k. Since we both hit 30 this year, we are trying to stay active!
                                         

Abbie and Blondie love being back in the Charleston. They have 3 pet sitters at their fingertips: Sonya’s mom, Sonya’s dad and Sonya’s brother. It’s a safe bet that they will never be boarded here!

We hope that you’ll come visit us in Charleston…after all it was named the #1 city in the country to visit by Conde Nast. J We do have an extra bedroom at our apartment in Mt. Pleasant and always love to see family and friends.                                        

It's Almost August??

Wow...time really does fly! I keep meaning to sit down and write another blog, but it just never happens...so here I go!

Since my last post, Ed and I completed another triathlon. It was at Lake Tobesofkee in Macon. The bike ride was hilly and the run had a slight incline, but we both made it (of course Ed was waiting for me at the finish line). We are hoping to do another late summer or early fall...I think it's in our blood now :)

Ed and I are both 30 now, which was harder for me than him. We spend his birthday weekend in the mountains with good friends. We went tubing down Deep Creek in Bryson City, NC, which was quite the adventure! Ed and I also camped out one night...I think my favorite part of camping is roasting marshmallows as you can see from the pictures :)

We have spent the rest of our time this summer battling the heat and humidity! And there doesn't look to be much relief in sight, but it's not like I'm a meteorologist or anything! :p

Hope everyone is doing well and staying cool!

We are Triathletes!!

Ed and I completed our first sprint triathlon in late April in Charleston...that's right we are now triathletes!!

We have been training off and on since last fall. Where did we get the bright idea to do a race that includes swimming, bike riding, and running? I blame my former co-anchor (Just kidding Tyler)! He and his wife told us about the race they did, so Ed and I thought it would be fun to do one together...although it definitely took a lot of convincing on Ed's part!

Ed and I were both in the novice category, which was nice since we got to start at the same time. I swam past him quickly as I'm the better swimmer and was on my bike before he finished the 500 meter swim.

He passed me on the bike though about a third of the way through the 12.4 mile bike ride. I was left in his dust at that point and didn't see him again until I ran huffing and puffing across the finish line. For those of you that don’t know, I’m not a strong runner, but I can HANDLE a 5k. The bottom line is that Ed is much more athletic than me!!

Ed finished 3rd among the guys in the novice division with a time of 1 hour and 28 minutes. I didn't place, but was just happy I wasn't last! My time was 1 hour and 44 minutes.

I guess you could say we got bit by the sprint triathlon bug since we are doing another one this month. Several of our friends have gotten bit to, so if you haven’t done one…we encourage you to “tri” it! I mean if the Heaths can do it….anyone can do it! 

Happy Belated Birthday to the best brother in the world!

My younger brother, Blake, turned 26 this past Saturday. Since we are 4 years apart, it means I'll hit 30 next month...yikes!

My dad threw a party for Blake Saturday night. Ed and I were able to come home for it and had a great time, but it was a huge success for other reasons. My mom and dad were both there, which meant alot to Blake and I. We were thrilled to have them both in one place at the same time! We hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...ok well just an amicable friendship in the future :)

The other thing I discovered at the party is that everyone loves my brother just as much as I do! Of course, our family loves him very much, but he had people of all ages at the party that just adore him. It melted my heart to see that all those people recognize my brother's heart of gold. He is always willing to help people out, and always puts other before himself. I'm truly blessed to have such a great brother, who is always one of my best friends.

So happy belated birthday bubba...I love you!
I'll post a few pictures from his party this weekend!

Frantic February

Is it me or did February just fly by? It was a busy month at our house, so maybe that's why the 28 days of the month went by so quickly. To start off, February is a ratings period in television. For those of you not in the "business", it means that we aren't allowed to take any vacation and often times we have more on our plate! I had the bright idea to do two stories on climate change. Since it is such a controversial topic, it was a big envdeavour and I took the weekend meteorologist along for the ride (one of these days he will forgive me.) Everyone, including us, was happy with the final product, but it was a stressful process!

Meanwhile at home, Ed and I started some projects on the house that we had been putting of for months! We painted the living room and music/dining room. We finished painting the kitchen cabinets and removed the old countertops (clarification...Ed did that). We had granite countertops installed, which look awesome! After admiring the new kitchen look for about a week, we got ready for the bamboo floors to be installed. This meant moving almost all of the furniture to the back of the house. It was worth it though because the floors in the front half of the house look emaculent!

On top of everything else, Abbie has been continuing to heal from her surgery. She finally had her bandage removed last Friday and is allowed to take short walks.

Despite how busy we have been, life is good. I do hope March is a little less busy though!

Abbie is Home!

Just a quick update...

Abbie's surgery was a success. We went to visit her afterwards and she was very out of it...poor thing! She spent the night at the vet's but came home this morning. She is doing well, but will have to take it very easy over the next 6 weeks. I see lots of spoiling in her future. :)

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers. We are so blessed to have a supportive family and amazing friends!

Prayers for Abbie

Please pray for little Abbie this week! She tore the canine equivalent of her ACL last week and has surgery this Wednesday to repair it. The vet says she should be good as new eventually, but the recovery period is about 6 weeks. She is such a spunky dog, it's going to be hard to keep her from playing during that period.

We just want the surgery to go well and to get her back home. Blondie will miss Abbie like crazy as it's going to be one or two nights at the vet's office. We will have to spoil Blondie even more then usual during this time, which is good because it will keep us busy.

I'm sure it will go fine, but I'm anxious about the middle of the week. I keep trying to remind myself of Philippians 4:6:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

First Race of 2011

We have completed our first race of the New Year. We ran the Museum of Aviation 5k down in Warner Robins this morning. The course was a loop around a small part of Robins Air Force Base. The course was easy, but it was a bit chilly (21 degrees when the race started)!! We were layered up and once we got started it wasn't that bad. We started out together, but then Ed ran ahead. He finished the 

3.1 miles in 26 minutes and I crossed the finish line about 7 minutes later at 33:56. I ran the whole way, but want to improve my time for future races.

This is just the beginning of an active year for us...sprint triathlon this spring! We still haven't decided which one yet, so the training continues!

Camping in December?

Ed and I decided to go camping the weekend before Christmas! It wasn't the smartest idea we have ever had, but we did have the good sense to drag my brother along! For those of you that don't know Blake, he is about as outdoorsy as one can get. He is an Eagle scout, he hunts and fishes on a regular basis, and practically lives in Carhartts. He definitely made the trip better with all of his camping experience with the boy scouts.

Ed and Blake had both been camping before, but our adventure on Cumberland Island was my first time. The trip taught me some valuable lessons about camping in the winter.

1. Toe warmers are amazing..they work 10 times better than hand warmers!
2. When it's in the 30s at night, you can never have too many layers. I strongly suggest CuddleDuds!
3. There is such a thing as comfortable hiking boots, but you shouldn't wear them 3 days in a  row!
4. Some camping gear may be overrated, but a warm sleeping bag is not one of them!
5. Unless you want to wake up every 2 hours, invest in a comfortable pad to go under your sleeping bag.
6. Anything tastes good hot ...even summer sausage heated in the fire.
7. You can completely burn the outside of a gigantic marshmellow and the inside will still be cold, but it's still delicious!
8. Rock and rye tastes horrible, but really helps to get the campfire going.
9. Wild horses on Cumberland Island will poop anywhere...don't take a step without looking!
10. After 2 and a half days of camping, a hot shower feels really good.

Maybe next time we'll go camping in the summer...actually spring sounds like the perfect time of year!

We're Joining the Blogosphere!

That's right...we have decided to start blogging. I have been thinking about it for a while and thought why not start with the New Year! Not sure how it will go, but we are going to give it a shot! I'll probably write most of them but may be able to convince Ed to write a few too.

Hope 2011 is going well for all of you so far! More with the Heaths to come… :)

Sonya