Disneyworld 2010

 "Jeremy and Katie you have almost finished your first school year in Houston, where are you going to go?" "We're going to Disneyworld!"

Well, we didn't exactly just pick up and go to Disneyworld. It was band trip time! Woohoo! We went to Florida for 5 days with 65 high school band kids. We had a blast. We went to Epcot, Universal Studios, MGM Studios, and Magic Kingdom. We rode just about every ride...twice. I went to Disneyworld 12 years ago for high school band trip, and holy cow this time I could tell I was 12 years older! By hour number 14 at Magic Kingdom I was ready for bed!

Here are a few pictures from our time there:

Epcot at night

Us in front of the Hulk RollerCoaster (awesome btw)

Tower of Terror! We rode this four times! Never gets old :)

Mickey's Hat at MGM Studios

Us in front of Thunder Railroad (I think that's what it was called)

Cinderella's Castle at night! Sorry its blurry

This was band trip, so the band performed at a contest! These two pictures are good "action" shots of Jeremy conducting the band! They did a great job :)

We had such a good time and Jeremy really does get to work with a great bunch of kids. We had no lost kids, no real problems, just a couple of missed curfews. But it was great to spend time with my husband and watch him interact with the kids. God has truly blessed him with a great talent!

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

We have been doing a lot of work lately on our flower bed. A month or so ago I blogged about how our tulips were starting to bloom. Well now they are in full bloom. And they are beautiful! They are a dark purple and it seems like everyday I see more and more coming up.

A few weeks ago my brother came down to visit. While he was here he helped us plant a bunch of spring flowers. He is a pretty good landscaper :) He helped so much and was so diligent in placing all of the flowers in the perfect spot.

We also planted these palm bush things. I forgot the technical name for them, but they look like miniature palm trees. They don't get tall like palm trees, but they do really well down here in Humid-Hot Town, lol. We put one on either side of the driveway.

There are also pots of cilantro, rosemary, and basil (in that order for the pic) too! When we bought these, they were so small, and they have really started growing like crazy!

We have done a little in the backyard, too. We put hanging plants on the fence, put up a bird feeder that is attracting some beautiful birds to eat there now! We have a pair of Cardinals and a pair of Mockingbirds that make the rounds every day!  We also bought a neat temperature gauge from Kohl's.

Now all I need is for my mom and brother to come down and help us landscape our backyard :)

Heavy Heart

I haven't had a blog post in a while. There are plenty of great things going on right now, but I just haven't been able to muster the energy to make a happy go lucky post.
On March 7, 2010 my dad passed away at the very young age of 48. This has been devastating to me and my family. He was the rock, heart, and soul of our family. He was such an amazing, kind, and caring person. I have always said that he had the kindest heart of anyone I've ever met. And luckily my brother has that same heart too. I was very proud to have him as my father. He made so many sacrifices for our family that included him being gone a lot for his job. When he was sick, he never complained. When you saw him, if you didn't know he was sick, you couldn't tell. He had a thirst for life, and for his family. He stayed strong for so long because of 3 people: my mom, my brother, and myself.
He very much was a believer. He always read the Bible and was constantly expanding in his walk with Christ. Because of this, I am happy to say that I know he is in Heaven watching down on us. I know that he is in a better place, one without pain and hurt.
For us still here on Earth, it is the hardest thing in the world. I miss my dad, as does my brother. And my mom, she misses her husband and her best friend. We miss his direction, his outlook on life, just everything that he was.
I know people say with time it will get easier. I will never stop missing him, and I will always have a heavy place in my heart.
I love and miss you so much. May you rest in peace with God, and be my angel forever.

We have tulips!

Today the weather was prettier than it has been in a while. So we went to the grocery store, and then came home and pulled some weeds out of the front yard. It was nice to open up the windows, and do some work outside! I am ready for Spring! I'm not ready for the 100+ heat of the summer, but spring is nice. Back in December we planted some tulip bulbs so they would bloom in the early spring. Well today when I was pulling weeds, this is what I found.....

We have tulips! Well...we are closer to having tulips! I was SO excited to see these little buds showing! Now that makes me want to go spend lots of money at the Garden Center on more spring flowers. I need to wait a little longer though to make sure it won't freeze anymore. With the weather lately, you never know.

I'm through with the painting of the bedroom conversation

Wow it's been a while since I blogged...oops. :) A few weeks after we repainted our master bathroom, we painted our master bedroom. I think after painting this room we are on a painting freeze. The bathroom seemed so easy, but then we started the bedroom, and it took forever. Of course, the bedroom is bigger, but geez, lol.

Here are a few before pictures:

 

And the during pics:

 Our finished bedroom:

 

Our next project will be the living room. When we moved in, everything in the house was beige. Which is better than white, but our couches are beige, too. There is no definition between the walls, carpet and the furniture. The problem is, I cannot for the life of me decide what I want to do. When we did the bathroom and bedroom, we knew exactly what we wanted. But the living room is a different story. We have spent hours in the paint department at Home Depot, but nothing is sticking out. So we will keep waiting until we know for sure. I have been told by my wonderful hubby that we need to know what we want to do before we do it because there is nothing worse than spending a ton of time on something, just to not like it. :)

Bathroom Redo!!

Happy New Year! I can't believe that it is 2010! More than anything, I can't believe it is a new decade. Let's see, a lot happened in the last decade for me: I graduated from high school, graduated from college, got married, moved 4 hours from my hometown, and bought a house. I am SO excited to see what the next decade holds for me and my family! :-)
Jeremy and I have been off together for the last 11 days. I can't remember the last time we were both off for that long without having something planned. We had Christmas and time with family, but other than that, we were just going to enjoy the time off. And it was great! We saw a few movies, cleaned house, re-stained a table, and the most exciting thing...painted our bathroom!
First here is the stained table. I forgot to take a picture of it before, but it was black. Jeremy sanded it down, and restained it. I think it looks beautiful.

I had been searching for the perfect knobs to go on it. We went to Anthropologie and found the cutest knobs for the table.

Next we tackled our master bathroom. That was a lot of fun! We went to Home Depot and loaded up on supplies, and we got all of it done in 1 day!

Here are the before pics:

And the during pics:

And the FINISHED bathroom! Which I just absolutely LOVE!! It turned out SO good!

Now its back to work until the next vacation. I am looking forward to going to San Antonio in February for Jeremy's music convention, and then going to DisneyWorld in May for band trip! Happy 2010 everyone!

Christmas Concert and Christmas 2009 at the Gray House!

Jeremy had his Christmas concert right before the Christmas break! It was great! I know I am biased, but it was really neat to see the work that he has done with his band.

We had our first Christmas in our house this year! My grandparents came down and we had such a good time! Jeremy and I cooked the normal Christmas fixins, we made a pumpkin cheesecake that was delicious! Overall I think it was a success!

Our beautiful Christmas tree!

 

Christmas stockings

My grandparents left on Saturday, and Saturday night we headed out to Katy to visit with Jeremy's aunts and uncles. Sunday morning his Aunt Kama and Uncle Steve stopped by to see the house before they headed back to Rockwall. It was fun to have so many people come over! Next is 11 days off...woo hoo!

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating!

I can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone! We headed up to Rockwall for a few days. We got there on Wednesday night. Thursday we cooked up the turkey and all the fixin's! After we ate, we went over to Jeremy's aunt's house for dessert and the Cowboys game. While we were there we mapped out our plan of action for Black Friday. Jeremy and I went to Target early on Friday morning (well...8:00am early) and got a new coffee maker, and some towels for when we paint the bathroom! Then we headed to Northpark. We saw the trains, which was a lot of fun. It really wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. We left to come back home on Saturday.

We got out Christmas decorations and decorated the inside of the house on Sunday. I have always said that when we got a house, I wanted to have the Christmas tree in the front window, so people can see it when they drive by. Well Jeremy wanted a real Christmas tree, and wanted it in the living room because we never go in our dining room (the room that faces the front). So we put our fake tree up in the dining room.

This past Saturday we went and picked out our real tree! It was a lot of fun! Here is our real tree all decorated in the Living room.

My grandparents sent us a beautiful wreath from Maine! It smells sooo good.

And in the middle of all of that, my wonderful husband celebrated his 27th birthday! He was originally going to have to judge All-Region Band auditions on his birthday, BUT it decided to SNOW in Houston on that day, so they cancelled the auditions! We went to Melting Pot, which happens to be the Grays' favorite restaurant for birthdays!
Here is a picture of the birthday boy about to open his presents!

We are excited about my family coming down for Christmas! Only 2 more weeks of school for Jeremy. He has his Christmas concert coming up so that will be fun. I am taking off the last week of December. That will be a MUCH needed break!