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

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

Mini Family Vacay

We made it back home! Loren and I have been out of town for a week now, but have made it back to Houston safely. If you read my very first post from earlier this week you noticed that we were in McAllen, TX. From there we made the trek up to the Hill Country to meet my wonderful parents for a short vacation.

Growing up, both Loren and myself have spent our fair share in the hill country, and now that we are married we get to spend time together and with our family in this area. It is a lot of fun showing each other where we used to travel and hang out before we met. This week we spent time in an area that is near and dear to the both of us. We stayed at some great cabins called Foxfire Cabins in Vanderpool, TX. There is not much to this quiet little town, but it is the perfect getaway for the weekend. It is about 35 miles from Bandera, TX, about 85 miles from San Antonio, and it takes us about 5 hours to there from Houston. Click here to see where we stayed!

Before we got to the cabins we made a stop at HEB to buy our groceries, which is a must whenever we go to the cabins. We usually eat out one meal while we are cabining, which is the great thing about being some place, on vacations, where you have your own kitchen, you can really save money that way. I will have a separate post about the food we cooked while staying at Foxfire. 

After arriving on Tuesday and all day Wednesday, we hung out at the Sabinal River which runs through the property. On Thursday, we got up pretty early and headed to Lost Maples State Natural Area to do some hiking. This park has some really beautiful areas and great hiking trails, but it is most known for its wonderful fall colors (yes you can actually find fall foliage in Texas). We ended up hiking about 10 miles, which for me is a huge accomplishment for me, considering I am a mix between city girl and country girl ( a little more city at times).

View from one of the scenic overlooks.

A cave we saw along the way.

Another gorgeous view from the hike.

It is amazing to see all the awesome rock formations.

Loren and I on the hiking trail.

I survived the hike and took a long shower, ate, and took an awesome nap when we got back to the cabins. 🙂 On Friday, we went into Bandera which is one of the bigger towns closest to the cabin. Both Loren and I have wonderful memories there and it was great to share those memories with each other. My mom and I love going into antique shops and Bandera has some great ones right off of the main street. One of the must sees there is Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar Saloon, a true Texas honky tonk named after the singer and songwriter. They have a street level entrance, but the saloon is underground which is really cool. Inside, they have a juke box and an 8- track player and the floor is cover with wood chips for dancing. There is also a city park where we took a break and had our lunch that we packed; the park is seated along the Medina River.

My parents dancing at Arkey Blue’s.

Friday evening we ate an Mac and Ernie’s Roadside Eatery, which is an amazing restaurant in the small town of Tarpley, about 30 miles from where we were staying. Loren knows the owners of the restaurant and it has also been featured on Diners, Drive- Ins, and Dives, so it was a place my dad has been dying to go and try out. The food at this restaurant was absolutely amazing for being in the middle of no where. The atmosphere was great, you can sit inside or outside and they sell beer and wine or you can BYOB. I had the spicy crab cake with sriracha aioli for starters and then for my main entree I had the Yucatan style pork ribs. The crab cake was amazing, definitely a must for spicy lovers, and the ribs were so tender and the rub on them was so good. Loren got the chicken kebab with honey mustard glaze another great choice. All the entrees come with a salad and your choice of a baked potato or green beans. I got the baked potato and Loren got the green beans, and I would definitely recommend the green beans. The baked potato was good, but it wasn’t anything impressive, the green beans were way better. One of the specialties there is the honey basted quail, which is so freaking delicious and tender. It was by far one of the best meals I have had in a long time and is definitely worth the paragraph that I just wrote. Click here to visit their website for their menu and hours of operation.

We began the drive back home today, but not before stopping in New Braunfels to eat lunch at one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants, Herbert’s Taco Hut. The original Herbert’s is in San Marcos and is an absolute must restaurant to stop and get a bite to eat. I have never been to the one in New Braunfels, but let me just say it is awesome. It is a lot bigger than the one in San Marcos, but the food is just as good.

All in all we definitely enjoyed our mini vacay with the family, and we are glad to be safely back in Houston.

Love Always,

Amie

Fourth of July Weekend

During the summer Loren and I work at the Museum of Natural Science doing summer camps. The camps are two weeks teaching and one week off, so we were very lucky to have a long fourth of July weekend and the following week off, and we decided to visit Loren’s parents, who live in McAllen, TX.

Our trip down was very exciting, we are exchanging Loren’s car for a couple of weeks while his wonderful dad does some MAJOR work on it. First, there is no AC, it’s hot, it’s July, it’s Texas, and it takes 6 hours to get the valley (McAllen). So you can only imagine how much fun I was having packed into a car with our dog. Luckily we left at 5am so it wasn’t in the heat of the day, but still equally miserable. The drive was going as good as it could go until about 45 minutes from our destination when we got a flat tire, that is right a flat tire. Of course we happened to get this flat tire on the stretch of the trip with nothing around, so here we are with a flat tired, a hot dog, and now a hot wife. So we unpacked the car and Loren began to attempt to fix the tire while I was convinced that this is where we were going to die. We broke down on the side of a four lane highway so the cars where going pretty fast with some of them not changing lanes, which really ticked me off.

Lily and I on the side of the road waiting on Loren as he changed the tire.

About 30 minutes into our tire changing experience a Brooks County Sheriff pulled over, and believe me I have never been so happy to see a sheriff in my life. In the wonderful state of Texas it is the law to have an empty lane of traffic between you and the officer, so with him behind us the people who weren’t pulling over now had to, thank goodness. If you ever end up on the side of the road like that you should definitely call the non emergency line so they can have some sort of law enforcement agent come to assist you, if definitely put me at ease knowing if something happened at least there was someone else there with us. Soon after that we were back on the road and got to McAllen safely.

When we got to Loren’s parents they had an awesome lunch ready to go for us with even better desserts. After we ate, rehydrated, and showered we headed over to Loren’s grandma’s house to watch the fireworks. The fireworks are shot from the high school which is about two blocks from his grandma’s so it was the perfect place to set up. We cut up our watermelon and enjoyed the awesome fireworks.

Loren and I

Jacyln (Loren’s sister) and I

Funny Dad photo bomb

Photo with Grandma

Mom and her girls

We are so blessed to have such an amazing family and friends and it is always an adventure coming down here. We will be leaving tomorrow to meet my parents for the second part of our vacation, which you can be sure I will be posting about once we get back into Houston.

Love always,

Amie