Long Time, No See

Well, I’m back! I can’t believe how fast time has gone! One minute I am talking about my resolutions for 2015, and the next, it’s 2017?? Well as I am sure as anyone can imagine, time has flown by and Loren and I have gone through some MAJOR life changes since talking about my resolutions for 2015.

The first change being that our family has grown by one person! That’s right, Loren and I welcomed a precious baby girl, Madison Elizabeth, on December 11th of 2015. Our whole journey has been such a humbling and rewarding experience, and we are very blessed that we were able to welcome such a sweet little girl into our lives. I am also excited to be able to share that journey with you all.

the week before I had Madison

our sweet baby girl

The other change that happened for our family was that both Loren and I started new jobs. I switched districts and grade levels. While I was so sad to be leaving my amazing team that I had spent 2 years with; I was excited to start my new journey teaching 4th grade math, science, and Texas history. It is the complete opposite of what I have taught in the past, but it is so much and I am learning so much from the experience. I have also come to meet some really amazing women who make coming to work each day a joy. Loren also started a new job. He is now an assistant band director at the high school level. It is sort of a dream job for him, but does require a lot more of a time commitment. I couldn’t be prouder of the work he has put in, and although we are very busy, we wouldn’t change it for the world.

one of Loren’s very first football games

these wonderful women make coming to work everyday a joy

my wonderful partner, I literally wouldn’t know what to do without her

If you are friends with either of this on Facebook, none of this is a surprise, but as we begin 2017, I hope to dive in a little deeper into my pregnancy journey, motherhood, and trying to balance home, work, and play. Can’t wait to share with you!

XOXO, Amie

 

Living The Healthy Life… Or Trying To

So far I have absolutely been horrible at the new year resolution of blogging more, still hoping to get better at this! 🙂 Let me catch everyone up to speed with what has been going on in the month of January and February. Loren got a smoker from his parents for Christmas, so that has been like the best thing ever. For super bowl, Loren smoked a pulled pork and it was amazing of course! These past two months have basically been us getting back into the swing of things with school, and hanging out with family. A couple of really exciting things have happened though, one, my cousin got confirmed last Monday and she asked me to be her sponsor. That was a really special time for me in my life and I was so honored that she asked me to be there on her journey. The other really exciting thing is that my wonderful co- worker (the one that I helped throw the gender party for) had her beautiful baby boy, Bradley Royce Hansen, he was born on February 20th. My whole team went to go see them the next day. It was the greatest thing being able to hold this sweet little boy; I cannot wait to see him as he grows.

How precious is he????

SO proud of her!

As you know, another resolution that I have is to loose some weight and try and have a better/ healthier lifestyle. I have started running again which has always been a love hate relationship with me. I love it because it is such a great way to loose weight, but hate it because, well it is running. I have also been trying to eat a lot healthier, which is hard because I love food. Loren is really great about eating healthy so that is a plus for me. I still eat what I want for the most part, but a big thing in portion control in our life. Everything is okay for you to eat if you control your portions. so that is a big part of my healthy eating. Another tip is getting sauces on the side. If you go out to eat and your dish comes with a sauce ask for it on the side. You would not believe how much of the sauce you actually eat (hint: it is not as much as they drench your food in). For the most part, during the week we eat at home. I got very lucky because Loren loves to cook, so he does most of the cooking. We are usually pretty good about having all meats in the house, we love to mix it up. We typically eat chicken and really the only replacement we do is ground turkey for ground beef, to me it tastes the same.

Lately we have been into cauliflower. I know we have all seen the pinterest posts about mashed cauliflower and cauliflower pizza, etc, so we wanted to see what all the rage is about. So the couple of things we have tried in rice cauliflower and mashed cauliflower. Now, the rice cauliflower is great. You basically chop the cauliflower up in the food processor and the put it in a skillet on the stove to flavor to your liking. The great thing about this is you can choose to season as you like. The past couple of meals where we have used it when we made Asian food. For the first meal we had it with stir fry which was amazing, instead of the rice we did the cauliflower, couldn’t tell the difference. The second time we did fried rice cauliflower, which basically consisted of some soy sauce, chicken, and egg with some few other spices and seasonings. It was great! As far as the mashed cauliflower goes, not the biggest of fans. I think more of its natural taste comes through. When I eat it as rice, we are mixing other things with it so you kinda forget you are eating cauliflower. With the mashed cauliflower, not so much. I just went about making the mashed cauliflower as I would regular mashed potatoes. We boiled the cauliflower, mashed it (I put it in the food processor to chop it up more), and added milk, butter, and salt. One thing I noticed when making the mashed cauliflower, it pretty much soaks up the milk; I ended up adding more milk than I would if I was making mashed potatoes. It wasn’t the worst thing ever, but I don’t know if I could replace mashed potatoes with cauliflower. It was my first go at it so I might just need to look up some recipes to see if I can improve. If you are looking for an alternative or trying to find replacement food for those heavy starches,  I would definitely give cauliflower a try since it is way lower in carbs and calories than rice and potatoes. I am excited that we gave cauliflower a try and can’t wait to try out more recipes. If you have had any success with cauliflower please leave a comment, I would love to try it out!

Until next time…

Love always,

Amie

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by!! It feels like just yesterday that we were ringing in 2014! Like everyone else I have been thinking about some things to work on for 2015, so here are some of my resolutions for this year:

1. Lose some lbs. and eat healthier. I am sure this is on about 95% of people’s list. I have gained a little of my weight back since the wedding, and with me being diagnosed PCOS in March it is very important that I keep my weight and eating habits in check.
2. Be organized. I tend for the most part to be somewhat organized, but I have a long way to go to be as organized as I truly want to be. I want to pick up some really good habits that are achievable to incorporate into my daily life whether it is at home or school.
3. Travel. We try to do a lot of that already, but with kids moving closer on her horizon I will want to make the most of our travel adventures in 2015.
4. Spend more time together. This kinda goes with the one before, and we already do a lot together, but I just want to make sure to make time for each other. When we get into the thick of spring semester things get really busy, and there are times where we hardly see each other, so during those times I want to make sure we are still taking some time for us.
5. Blog MORE. So in July is when I decided to start the blog, and since then I have not been as faithful to this blog as I had imagined I would be. So, I plan to continue the blog, and hopefully get a little faster and frequent about posting.

Here are some pictures from this past year!

Loren ran the Disney Marathon in January!

Strawberry Picking over Spring Break

Running in May

Loren’s parent’s 30th anniversary!

College World Series in June

4th of July from the valley!

Beautiful Wedding

Girl’s weekend in Vegas

Texas State Homecoming game!

My wonderful co- workers gender reveal.

Thanksgiving in McAllen

Loren started the year off with a marathon, and he ended the year with one.

Zoo light with the family

Our Christmas Trip to Alabama

This year has been more than I could’ve ever imagine. I am so thankful that I have had wonderful friends and family that have surrounded both Loren and I with continued love and support. I am looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store for our little family. Wishing you and your family the happiest New Year!

Love always,

Amie

Bobcats, Band, Babies, and Boo

So I have blinked and magically it is Oct… scratch that, DECEMBER!! I cannot even believe that is coming out of my mouth, where has the time gone?? Things in the Gray household are trucking along, we are two weeks out from Christmas, and it cannot come soon enough. I am not going to lie Thanksgiving was great, but the bad thing about Thanksgiving break is that you get a little taste of what is to come with winter break, and it is so hard to get back into the swing things. The other exciting thing that has happened is that Loren and I have celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!! It was definitely a very exciting time for us! We are took a quick little trip to start our break, and the traveled down to McAllen to spend Thanksgiving with his family. All of which I will post about in a later post. Now to get you caught up for the month of October (and eventually November). I promise not to keep you all waiting this long ever again!!

We started out the beginning of the month with a trip to San Marcos for the Homecoming football game. As you may or may not know, both Loren and I went to Texas State, and we often love to visit the area to see football games and catch up with old friends. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend with our first taste of fall weather. Being from Texas, we really don’t experience the seasons of fall or spring, we just kinda go in between summer and winter. We had an awesome weekend and were able to see our friends and former teachers.

Loren and I at the game.

After we got back from our wonderful weekend, it was back to work. Loren is a band director at an intermediate school, and every other year the intermediates get together at the district stadium, and watch the high schools march their competition show. At the end the intermediates and high schools perform a couple of songs together, it is super cute and I enjoy seeing all the kids. It is also a great way for the kids to see what is in store if they continue band into high school. Here are a few pictures from the night.

All the students in band in CCISD

Now we move onto the babies, are you keeping up? 🙂 My wonderful co- worker bestie is expecting a beautiful baby in March. We both started teaching the same year, and it was wonderful having her as we made it through our first year. Mid October is when she found out the gender of her baby. During one of our morning phone conversations (yes, we have conversations in the morning on the way to work), I asked her if she was going to do anything special for her gender reveal, and she was like “well I was just going to invite my family over for dinner and tell them then.” The party planner in my died a little, I am a person that will through a party for a premier of a T.V. show, so I told her that I would take care of helping her get a few things together. My philosophy is that a few special touches can go a long way for the important things in your life. Plus, it is her first baby and she needs to go all out! So I wanted to share a few pictures from that night.

Cookies in the shape of onesies that my aunt made, she gave them out as favors.

How precious is the table? Here is the cake that she cut into to reveal the gender, and the cuts we used to take a group picture to see what team everyone was on.

This is the entry table. As you came in, we had the guests tally their vote of whether it was a boy or girl, and then they grabbed a clothespin (which we painted the tips of using a paint pen) and pinned it on their shirt so we could see what their vote was.

The beautiful star of the show with her Old Wives Tales chalkboard sign (you cannot even tell she is preggers).

To top all of it off, she is also pregnant with her sister, which I think is the most exciting thing. They are both having boys, so after the reveal they were able to take some really cute pictures.

How cute? Such a special thing to be able to share with a sister!

Haha the hubbies had to show off their bellies too!

It was such an absolute honor to be a part of their wonderful night. I was so happy to be able to help plan to make the night special. I cannot wait to meet this precious baby boy come March.

Now we close the month of October with Halloween, which is a personal favorite because it is the start of fall; a season I have grown to love very much. At school, we had to dress up as a team based off of book characters. We choose the book “The Day the Crayons Quit.” If you have not read this book you definitely should. It is super cute!

How cute do we look?

Later that night we went with some friends to the Museum of Natural Science for Spirits and Skeletons. It was definitely a lot of fun, but for what we paid it would not be an event we attend every year. I would definitely recommend it if you haven’t been.

Loren and I, we went for the 1920s theme this year.

A picture of the group, we had such a wonderful time!

All in all, it has been a great fall semester for Loren and I. We are definitely looking forward to Winter break and spending time with family. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love Always,

Amie

To Walk or Not to Walk… That is the Question

Recently I went to the doctor to have a PCOS check up to make sure everything is okay, since being diagnosed in March I have been trying some different medications to help me become regular. I also go to an endocrinologist because I was born without a thyroid, so I am on medicine for that as well, as I tell Loren, nothing is simple with me! 🙂 Well in my last round of doctor’s appointments my doctor’s have finally broke down and told me that I need to loose some weight, as if I wasn’t aware of this fact… duh! Before our wedding I lost about 20 lbs, which was amazing, women you know what I am talking about, it was like I had climbed Mt. Everest! Well since married life has settled in I have gained, I would say, about 15 ish pounds back, bummer! Now realize that I am by no means overweight, which with the combination of PCOS and hyprthyroidism, I am very lucky that I am not overweight. Nonetheless, I still need to keep my weight under control, so I can continue to eat Chick-fil-a (something I refuse to give up).

This bring me to the question, to walk or not to walk? One of the biggest reasons why I had so much success with losing weight is cardio. Cue the moaning and groaning. I agree with you completely, I hate running, but when paired with weight training and toning, it is the most effective way to lose weight. Well if you have been following me for the past couple of months you know that back in July I dropped a 4 lbs weight on my toe, which if you can imagine, has put a damper on my running game. Those of you reading who know me personally, know that I am always on the go, so within the month I was back exercising again. Well since I couldn’t run I have been walking, but during this time I have been wondering, have I really been burning THAT many calories, so I have done some research and have an answer. You burn more calories running than walking. Now there are some articles out there that can be a bit confusing, so I am going to explain it best I can, if you want to read the couple of articles that I read I will post the links. Basically, if you run for 20 minutes or walk for 20 minutes you will burn more calories running. If you run for 20 minutes, but walk for 50 minutes you will burn about the same, the other question is, do you have the time. The other factor is the amount of time that you stick with the exercising. Bottom line is with PCOS exercise and diet can be your best friend, so I will be walking as much as I can to help me loose weight.

The websites where I got this information from are runner’s world and active.com. Both are great sources of information for running and walking info. Well, wish me luck as I continue to lose weight!

Love always,

Amie

We have PCOS

When life hands you lemons…

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Is the grass truly greener on the other side?

This is my first post. I am the husband, the other half of this dynamic duo, though honestly I would say that I am the other 25% of this couple. First off, thank you to everyone that has chosen to read our blog. When Amie first came up with the idea of a blog, I was hesitant. Being a shy and quiet person, putting myself on the interweb and dictating my life is something that I am weary of. Yes, I had a Myspace page, I think I even had a Livejournal for a while. When you’re a freshmen in college, the more vulnerable you are the more attention you will receive, whether you want it or not. The older, wiser students will want to take you under their wing and show you the errors of their ways and hope to save you from bad decisions; their antagonists, the hip older kids that are taking remedial freshmen courses for the third time, will see your vulnerability as a chance for cheap entertainment, either through meaningless friendships with more personal satisfaction for themselves or as a free source of entertainment through the consumption of mass amounts of alcohol. Needless to say, Mr. Gray had a little bit of both. A learning experience indeed, one that soon hardened my exterior and led to a cautiousness toward life that has both been a virtue and a vice.

And then there is Amie. She is the brighter, shinier, better part of everything. Her continued optimism, even through the darkest of times, is something that I constantly am in a state of awe of. I have seen this as her greatest strength, as well as her greatest weakness. There are times when I am wanting to turn away from a given situation, hoping that my reclusive behavior will same me from unneeded headaches; instead, with my wife’s encouragement and impervious optimism, I have instead been able to open my eyes to new experiences that in the past I would have quickly shied away from. Has this led to headaches? Yup. Has this led to some of the happiest moments of my life? Yup. Like I said, she is my better half and greatest confidant.

We have PCOS. Polycystic ovary syndrome. This is a hormone imbalance that Amie and I have been living with for about a year now. When we first noticed the signs, we soon started visiting doctors. And then more doctors. And no answers were given, only guesses and treatment plans. When an ultrasound was done and the unknown condition was named, Amie soon started to research her condition. We are still in the process of balancing her hormones and becoming “healthy”, as well as “happy.”

As a person who is naturally a control freak and moderately OCD about things (I am a teacher, right?) I naturally have been having a hard time coping with the “unknown” of what we are going through. There is not a ultimate “cure” for PCOS, not now anyways, only procedures and means of handling the symptoms and eventually finding a balance. This is a situation that I personally have had a very difficult time coping with, and I will admit that this has caused some tension between Amie and I over the past year. I like absolutes. I enjoy logic and simple answers.

If an instrument is sharp, make it longer. If it is flat, make it short. You have a headache, take Advil. You hit your toe, put ice on it. Your wife has a hormone imbalance that consists of a guessing game and hopefully finding a solution. You wait.

And wait.

I’m impatient. I’m selfish. And scared. Its the feeling of helplessness that keeps me awake at night, that causes stress and work and at home. Its why I run everyday, wondering if the next stride that I take will be one step closer to helping my wife, my best friend, find a procedure that helps, a pill that eases her stress, a cure! I know at times I am difficult and that I can be an unwanted stress in Amie’s life.

It’s when I’m at my worst that suddenly, she is the strong one. She is the braver of the two of us. And I’m reminded that at the end of the day, after teaching and running and everything else that we are involved in…it’s us.

PCOS has brought us closer. My wife’s ability to continue to stay positive, even when I am a wreck, helps me make it to the next day. I take her for granted everyday. I forget that she is stronger then I can imagine, and that in the end, we will find an answer.

Until next time.

I Wear Teal for Me

September is PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) awareness month, and this has become a cause very near and dear to my heart. In March, I was diagnosed with PCOS after going through several blood tests and ultra sounds. Before March I had never heard of the disorder, and come to find out that 1 in 10 women have this disorder and over half of those women don’t even know they have the disorder. To me, that has been the most astonishing statistic, and it is because of that I decided to write this post; to bring awareness and information to people who may not have any idea about PCOS. Hopefully there will be women (and men) out there who read this post, and gain some insight on the disorder.

Here are the facts:

1. PCOS is a hormonal imbalance, which can cause anxiety and depression in patients who have PCOS.
2. PCOS is one of the most common endocrine disorders among women of the reproductive age group, which makes my 1 in 10 statistic even more astounding since so many women do not know they have PCOS.
3. The cause of PCOS is unknown. The research tends to lead towards genetic mutations, which means that if you have it more than likely your mother or sister could have it too, and it can be passed on.
4. PCOS looks different in every woman. Since there are so many symptoms and factors that go into diagnosing the syndrome it is hard to get a picture of what PCOS “looks like.”
5. Since there is no cause, PCOS is a life long syndrome. The symptoms can be managed and balanced with medicines and with a healthy diet and exercise.
6. All women with PCOS have insulin resistance to some level. PCOS has been linked to insulin resistance, which is one of the reasons why obesity is linked to PCOS.
7. Women with PCOS CAN get pregnant. It can be more difficult and take more time compared to women who do not have the disorder, but it is possibly.
8. Women with PCOS tend to hold their weight more in their abdomen area than any other place.
9. About 40%- 50% of women who have PCOS are considered to be “thin” or “of normal weight.”
10. There is still so much patients and doctor don’t know about the cause and cure of PCOS, but awareness helps.

As I said before, there is still so little doctors really know about the cause of PCOS, and awareness is what will help women with PCOS become better educated on this disorder. Since March, I have had to deal with a lot of doctor appointments and emotions that are really hard for me to express, but I know that everything will be okay. There are millions of women who struggle with this disorder on a whole different level than myself. I am very lucky to have my wonderful husband who has been to every doctor’s appointment, and been absolutely supportive and understanding as we go along this journey together. I have also been very lucky to have supportive family and close friends who have been there to tell me it will all be okay, when I haven’t been able to tell myself that.

In honor of PCOS awareness month, there is a 5K that I will be doing on September 21st. Any family and friends who would like to register and walk with me may do so. Here is the link to the 2014 Bayou City Step Challenge to register, and my team name is Bleep the Cysts. Thank you to all of you who have registered or are planning to register to walk with me, it means more than you know. I hope this gives you some insight and information on PCOS, and please feel free to ask questions about how I manage my PCOS.

Love Always,

Amie

What Happens at Meet the Teacher… Stays in Vegas

Okay, so I know this title is super cheesy, but I am combining two posts into one. This past week has dawned the beginning of yet another school year in the Gray household, but not before meet the teacher and a very fun girl’s weekend in Vegas (hence the title). So here we go!

Meet the teacher night is always a pretty hectic day, there is a lot to get ready in a short amount of time. For the most part I had my room ready to go with a few exceptions. At my school, our second and third grades loop, which means we keep our same kids from second to third grade. This is going to be my first year experiencing the loop, and so far it has been great. Usually, meet the teacher is a little nerve racking just meeting my new students and their parents. I pretty much had my same class from last year, so it was really good seeing all of my kiddos and their families. Here are a few pictures of my room.

My classroom library

Half of my class

The other half of my class.

My door

All and all it was a successful night!

So the day after meet the teacher night I went on a girls weekend to Las Vegas. I was pretty excited because I had never been to Vegas before. We stayed at Caesar’s, which is a huge hotel. Once we got in on Friday we just walked around on the Strip which was entertainment alone. We went to Sprinkles Cupcake and Ice Cream. The Sprinkles in Houston only serves cupcakes so we took advantage of the ice cream. The ice cream was pretty good and worth the try. If you are ever in the Dallas area it is the closest Sprinkles that has ice cream. On Saturday, we got up to make our 9:00 reservation at Mon Ami Gabi, which is at Paris Las Vegas. It was a recommendation given to us and it was a good one that I am passing along. It is definitely worth the try. I had the Salmon Eggs Benedict, the eggs were a little overdone, but the hollandaise sauce and salmon were amazing, and even though the eggs were slightly over done the meal was not at all horrible. After breakfast we began our day at the pool. The group that I was with were not big gamblers, so we were just fine with a couple of spins on the slots, but the main thing we knew we were going to want to do is sit by the pool all day. I would definitely recommend staying at Caesar’s. The staff is very friendly and the rooms and pools are out of this world. There is plenty to do just at Caesar’s. This of course is my first time in Vegas so I am sure the other hotels are just as amazing. If you are an avid pool goer I would definitely recommend getting a day bed, especially if you have a group. The day bed was $250 for the day. I know some of you are probably in shock just for a day bed, but if you have a group the split of the cost per person is not that bad, and trust me, it is totally worth it. It was in a really good location and the service was really good for as many people were around. I think they were a little backed up in the kitchen, but our waitress was really nice and she kept the drinks coming. That night we planned to go to the Brittney concert, and had dinner reservations at 6:00. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants at Caesar’s called Nobu, which is a Japanese restaurant. All of us love sushi and it was another recommendation from one of the girls co- workers. The had some different rolls and it was very good, and I thought it was also reasonably priced for Vegas. Dinner was cheaper than breakfast, but we also had drinks at breakfast, which is honestly what will get you in Vegas. I will say that being from Houston has made somewhat of a food snob (I mean our restaurant week lasts a month). If you know anything about Houstonians, know that they love their food and they love to eat out, so I have had my fair share of five star food. Nobu was definitely amazing and the food was absolutely five star worthy, but it isn’t anything that I couldn’t find at my favorite sushi restaurant here in Houston. Again, it is so worth the recommendation and a place I would recommend to others. To end our night we went to the Brittney concert, which was absolutely amazing. Now don’t get me wrong she is no Beyoncé, but for her being one of my favorite childhood pop stars she put on a really good show. She played all of her hits and then some, and kept me on my feet the whole time. She comes on about 15- 30 mins late and she plays for about an hour and a half, but the best thing is that she costume changes every three songs. After the concert we went back to the hotel because we had an early flight the next morning. Here are just a few pictures from the weekend.

Paris Las Vegas

Caesar’s

Bellagio

Breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi

The Britney concert

The girls at the concert

It was a wonderful weekend and my last quick trip before the school year. This past week went great. It was tiring, but great seeing all my students again. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend!

Love Always,

Amie

Our Summer Adventures

I am back a little sooner this time, which I am sure everyone is very happy about! 🙂 Since, sadly, summer is coming to an end I wanted to give everyone a recap of our very busy summer. Loren and I teach in neighboring school districts, and we are very lucky to have the big holidays off together, so for us school ended at the beginning of June (crazy right??). We started off our summer working the Texas State University Band Camps, which is something that we really enjoy. As I tell people, who look at me crazy when I tell them that I went straight from teaching into being a counselor at camps, we basically get paid to hang out with our friends for a week. We get to reconnect with our friends and faculty, learn from some amazing Texas band directors (well Loren does), and get to interact with some pretty amazing kids. If you have middle school or high school kids in band I would strongly recommend you sending them to some type of band camp. It lets the students explore their instrument deeper and get to play some awesome band literature, all from the best band directors in the state. If you click on the link in the paragraph it will take you to this past summer’s band camp page, but it will give you prices and some information about the band camp in case you are interested. All in all it was a great, tiring, and fun filled week of seeing and meeting new friends.

Our next adventure takes us to Omaha, Nebraska for the NCAA College World Series. Loren, his best friend, Sean, and myself started this tradition in 2010. We are all big baseball fans so this is the perfect vacation for us. In years past, we have had friends come with us and Loren and I also missed last year since we had a wedding to pay for, but this year it was the original three that started it all. Loren and I usually drive to Austin and spend the night and then make the trek from Austin to Omaha. Yes the drive is long, but totally manageable in a day especially with three of us. We just take I 35 North, and if you ever decide to drive to Omaha beware of Kansas. I 35 going through Kansas is a tollway so be prepared to pay $12 to get through the state. Also, make sure you fill your gas tank up before you go through. There are not many towns along the way and the towns you do run into you have to get off of the tollway to get to the gas station. It is not really easy accessible. While they do have gas station and food combos in the middle of the highway where you can get out to rest the gas is usually pretty expensive. Other than that Kansas is great! We usually stay in Council Bluffs, Iowa which is just on the other side of the Missouri River, it is really close to the park and downtown, and you can gamble. 🙂 Omaha is a really cool town with some good restaurants and interesting sights. One of the must sees of Omaha is the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, it has been voted one of the best zoos in the US. There are also a handful of museums and historical sites to see, as well as shopping and outdoor activities. Along with all the attractions Omaha has there is also a lot of things around the ballpark, including sports memorabilia for the teams that participated in the world series, and a lot of games and booths for the kids. For a list of restaurants, attractions, and places to stay in the Omaha area, click here. We go for the finals which is the best of three games. This year it was the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt playing in the finals. Sean is a huge UT fan, so we were rooting for the University of Virginia since Vanderbilt beat UT for the spot in the finals. We all had a really good time, and I was glad to make it out for another year.

My first posts were about my trips in July going to the valley and camping. Well we went back down to the valley for the wedding of our really good friend, which was absolutely beautiful. The one other trip that we took was to Austin. Loren got nominated to be on a textbook review committee, which was at the Hilton Austin Airport, so the state paid for us to stay at the hotel for the week and meals, well they paid for Loren, but I got to come along. While Loren was off in textbook land I was thoroughly enjoying my time doing absolutely nothing!!! Both Loren and I are ALWAYS on the go, which I am sure you will pick up on that soon, so it was so nice just going out to Austin and not have a single thing to do. I spent a lot of time lounging in bed (it was a king, what up) watching HGTV, eating, and sitting out at the pool. For me it was a really great, relaxing week. We were also to able to see our best friends who still live out there.

Although I am so sad to see summer come to an end (I am still in denial that school starts in 3 weeks) Loren and I had such an amazing summer. This is our first summer married and it was really great not having to worry about flowers, food, decorations, and how we were going to pay for everything. Plus, I didn’t attempt to kill him once, I guess we are still in the honeymoon phase. 🙂 So here is the end to a wonderful summer and the beginning of a great school year! Until next time…

Love always,

Amie

Our Camping Menu

So I was definitely supposed to have this post up a LONG time ago, but I have been a little out of commission this past couple of weeks. I dropped a freaking 4 lbs weight on my toe about two weeks ago at my barre class, so I have been dealing with that, working at the museum, and this past weekend attended a wonderful wedding, but there should be no excuses. So, this post is going to be about the food we made and ate during our camping trip that we took at the beginning of the month. Now of course, this isn’t really true camping, we were not in a tent. We were in cabins and one of the awesome things about the cabins is they had a kitchen, so we were able to buy groceries before getting there and save a little money at the same time. As you all know I am new at blogging so I don’t have pictures of any the recipes I am talking about, but feel free to ask me any questions you have at all about the recipes (I promise I will get better at this)!

For breakfast, we kept it fairly simple, all the meals we had could be prepared in about 30 minutes or less. This was great because it allowed us to have a good breakfast and start our day early (it also allowed me to sleep in a little bit, which is a favorite thing of mine). The first day we did ham and cheese croissants, which consisted of three ingredients, ham, cheese, and croissants. We get our croissants from the bakery at our grocery store, we are a Kroger and HEB family, and we do the deli ham sliced at about a 1 and the Kraft American cheese singles. We cut the croissants and assemble them with the ham on one side and cheese on the other, and place them in the broiler. You do not have to put the croissant together until after it comes out of the broiler, but I will say that you will need to watch the croissant since the broiler is so hot. We usually cook them until we can see that the cheese is melted. I love this breakfast because the options are endless. The next day was the day we went hiking so we just ate cereal and fruit. On the day before we left we had sausage and egg breakfast tacos, another easy favorite of ours. Loren and I stumbled upon a little jewel a couple of months ago, it is in the refrigerated section and it is called Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles. The wonderful thing about them is they are already cooked, so for the tacos you can just throw them in the skillet and add the egg. We also had fruit everyday with our breakfast

For lunch, we bought sandwich stuff, so we had that for lunch each day. Again, something easy and we could take it down to the river with us.

For dinner, we had meals each night except our last night there. On the first night we were there we had fish tacos, which was perfect because they are so easy to prepare. We buy tilapia and cook it in a skillet with oil. My Dad found this really great slaw mixture to put on top of it. Dole makes it and it is the Chopped Asian Blend, and while it may not be exactly what you find at your local Mexican food restaurant, it sure does do the trick. To top off our tacos we slice avocado and make a chipotle ranch sauce to go on top. The chipotle ranch sauce is really easy to make, and you only need two ingredients, chipotle peppers and ranch dressing. You can get canned chipotle peppers at your grocery store; we buy the brand La Costeña. You only need about three to four peppers, and you need to make sure you open them up and clean the seeds out of the peppers; you can also chop the peppers into smaller pieces, which will be easier to mix when the time comes. After you clean and chop the peppers, put them into a blender or food processor and add the ranch dressing (we used hidden valley). Now I did not measure out exactly how much dressing i put in there, but I would start with at least a cup. The great thing about this sauce is that you can adjust the recipe to fit your family or crowd that you are cooking for. To garnish the tacos off we had slices of avocado to put on top. The next night we had steak, which was delicious! My Dad and Loren got ribeyes and we had baked sweet potatoes and a salad to go with it. Loren and my Dad cooked the steaks on the grill and we backed the potatoes in the oven; a fairly easy meal, but time consuming. For the last night, we had my absolute favorite meal, which is chicken spaghetti. My Dad makes the best chicken spaghetti and I so happen to have his recipe. I took a picture so I am going to go ahead and just upload the picture for everyone. Now, my dad does not put the pimento or peas in the recipe, but feel free to customize to fit the likes of your family.

Chicken Spaghetti Recipe

For dessert, I made blondie brownies that are like the blondie brownies from Applebee’s. They were super simple to make, and are the perfect dessert to have since they are so easy to serve and keep fresh for the week. I made an executive change to put white chocolate chips instead of chocolate chips, which the recipe calls for. Click on the link to go to the original post. The other dessert we had was strawberry shortcake. I love strawberries, especially paired with pound cake and cool whip. We added blueberries too, we were still living it up from the 4th of July.

So there you have it, our camping menu. Remember that this was my first food post, so it will only get better from here! Again, if you have any questions about any of the food don’t hesitate to ask.

Love always,

Amie