What I'll Miss About the Big Country

What will I miss about Abilene and the Big Country? All of it.

This place has been my home, my life, my passion. My best friends are from here, and some of my favorite places in the whole world have been right around the corner my whole life. I just want everyone to know that I never took my time here in Abilene for granted. I cherished every minute of it, and I can't wait to bring my kids here to see where I grew up.

Through our different community outreach programs, I have seen more generosity in this place than I have and ever will in any other. I will miss the West Texas sunsets, I will miss high school football, I will miss my family and friends. And I will absolutely miss my work. I will miss the opportunity to be in your homes every night. I will miss my fabulous co-workers, who are some of my best friends in the world. And I will miss all of you, the faithful viewers of KRBC.

Thank you so much for the support you have given me. This has been the best experience of my life!

Last Hurrah

If you didn't see the news at ten, then I need to fill you in on a bit of news in my life. In a little under a month, I will be leaving KRBC as well as the Big Country. So how do I put into perspective what this place has done for me? I owe everything to this area. This is the place where I grew up. It's the place where I went to school, watched high school football, learned my multiplication tables. This is the place where I found my passion, my career for the last 5 years. This is where my family lives, and where I feel like I am always home. So to say that my departure is bitter sweet is a drastic understatement. My husband and I will be moving to Malibu California. He took a job at Pepperdine University. It is an exciting new chapter in our lives. I can't wait to see what life has in store for me. Before I go however, on KRBC I will be crossing things off of my Big Country Bucket List. Everything from restaraunts I have always wanted to try, to conquering a fear of mine. It will be my last hurrah, for now, in the friendly frontier.

New Subway with Drive-Thru

I am a hypocrite. I go to Subway in order to try and live a healthy life. Yet I drive across town, passing up two perfectly good Subways, in order to not have to get out of my car to eat a sandwich. The new drive-thru at the Subway across from Abilene Regional is my latest addiction. I am obsessed with Subway's Chicken Sandwich, and now I can get it through my driver side window. Why didn't Subway do this earlier? We may never know. But I do know this; my dinner breaks will never be the same. No longer must I watch the Subway sandwich artists make my sandwich through those oddly shaped windows. No longer will I get the "Subway Odor".(You know that really strong bread smell) Thank you Subway… from the bottom of my couch potato heart.

Spider Attack At Ten!

One of my worst nightmares happened on the news set. First off, you should know that I have this weird trait. Spiders seem to follow me wherever I go. When I was a kid, a spider jumped on my face while I was watching a horror movie about giant spiders that attack people, I swore up and down that it came from the TV. When I was a little older, I went to see a movie at the theater and a spider came all the way from the tall ceiling and decided to slide down its web in front of my face and land right in my popcorn. Just last week, a giant wolf spider was lurking in my bedroom, waiting for me to come home and then pounce. Our reporter Tim Johnston had to come kill it for me. I got a package in the mail the other day. What was underneath? You guessed it… a tiny death machine with 8 legs. So you can imagine how I reacted when I was doing the news, and a spider dropped down attached to a web from the ceiling of the KRBC studio… during the beginning of the show no less. We are reading these serious stories, and an arachnid is preying on me like an insect stuck in its web. I was of course terrified, but what made me lose it was the look on Randy's face. He stared down the spider like a hunter on the prowl. So what does he do? He immediately smacks it with his script, but in my direction! So the whole first part of the newscast, I just KNOW, that the spider is crawling all over me. Luckily, during the commercial break, Randy stepped on the spider, getting rid of my arachnophobia at least for a little while...until I get home and have to leave all the lights on! Anybody have a cure for a spider curse?
View this link to see the spider drop from the ceiling!
http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=296235

Abilene High on ESPNU

It's not everyday you get to see one of your home teams play on national television. Randy and I along with the rest of the KRBC crew had a great time broadcasting live before the big game. Thousands of Big Country residents showed up to get in on the action. A High quarterback Ronnell Sims scored four touchdowns. This sent the warbirds into a win of 27 to 17 against the Plant Panthers from Florida. I'm not sure though if I had more fun watching the game or watching all the rowdy fans in the stands. It was a sea of black and gold at Shotwell Stadium. I saw so many people with face paint, noise makers, I even saw a woman in a black and gold wig. What a fun night. Way to go Eagles!

MDA Telethon Success

What a great telethon! We collected over $165,000 for people living with Muscular Dystrophy, ALS, and other neuromuscular diseases this year. I also had the privilege of meeting my new friend Brady Smith between one of the cut-ins we did that day. He reminded me that events like this are the reason I do what I do for a living. It is because of guys like Brady that so many people in the Big Country supported this year’s telethon. He gave me and others hope that we will find a cure for MD. Thanks Brady for our new friendship and thank you to everyone that supports MDA.

West Texas Friday Nights

It's time. Time to dust off the cleats. Time to grab the stadium chairs and cowbells. Time to fill plastic jugs full of pennies. Time to revolve our lives around something besides work, school, television, shopping. Time to believe that camping out all night for something isn't crazy. Time to believe that this could be the year. Time to paint our faces. Time to stock up on bug spray. Time to use words that we haven't used in a while: yellowhammers, pied pipers, blizzards, indians, cougars, eagles, badgers, bulldogs, and even bears. Time to fight for parking. Time to eat frito pies, sausage wraps, and nachos with extra jalapeños. Time to savor the glory of victory, and despise the agony of defeat. Time for our young heroes to run out of giant inflatable objects. Time for shoe polish on windows. Time for pep rallys. Time for kickoff, halftime, and really really loud horns after touchdowns. Time for FNL. Time to dig into the trenches. Time to go over the middle. Time to run the "Dirty Bird". Time for the cross-town showdown. Time to fight for extra yards. Time to believe in the impossible. Time to ride on the yellow dog. Time to turn on the lights that have been dimmed for 8 excruciating months, sit back, do anything but relax, and enjoy the show. It's time, for football.