OCTOBAH/Hill Wedding

Other than the fact that my allergies have been like the plague this year, I am loving this season. There is something about having to bring a jacket to school (even if I just wear it in the morning before the sun comes up) that has me all frisky about Fall.

We started off October with my cousins wedding.

It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. My cousin Gregory and Jamie were both radiating with happiness.  We haven't had a family wedding since my cousin PP in 2013 so we all had a blast celebrating and dancing together. My cousin Nikki taught me how to properly photo bomb

There is so much funny in this photo! Look at pp on the left dancing by herself BAHAHA

Congrats Jamie and Gregory Hill!!! We love you both so much. Thank you for sharing your special day with us!!

So far October has been good to us. We have a trip to Austin for Bryce's 5th birthday planned and a trip to Houston to visit our friend Sarah who is in grad school. Looking forward to breaking out my boots soon!!

Farewell Summer!

I want to start off this post by saying how grateful I am that I get to have a summer vacation. It is not the reason why I chose a teaching career, but boy is it a perk! I love that I have time to regroup, recharge my emotional battery and spend time with family and friends.

Holland and I had an interesting summer. We did very little traveling and large amounts of family visited us this year which was nice but next year I think we need to travel to get some good ju ju going.  Although they were minor things that happened like getting in a car accident, going on a river of death trip, Bleu stepping on a nail and spending hundred of dollars on vet bills, Holland hitting a buzzard and creating more road kill for his friends. I mean it all could have been much worse right? As I am typing this I am already laughing at all the crazy that happened. Even though it felt like a tiny dark cloud was following us we still has a busy summer filled with memories.

          SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS! 
                             Summer 2013
                     *In no particular order*
1. My cousin and her husband visiting from Chicago. 

2. Watching my mom destroy her birthday Piñata. 

3. Movies on Sunday with my mom and Dad. 

4. Going to the Watering  Hole in Austin.

5. Getting to see my dad wear his favorite 4th of July t shirt. 

6. Visiting my college roommate/friend Deanne and her family. 

7. Making new recipes. 
8.Not setting an alarm for two months :)
9. Riding a Camel 

10. Feeding a Giraffe

11. Shellac Nail Polish

12. The Lake House and spending time with my sister 

13. Amy and Elise's Wedding

14. Reading books for school and for pleasure!
15. Natural Bridge WildLife Safari with Hollands mom. We also saw twin baby giraffes!

16. Spending time with Hannah and Bleu

17. Surprising Allison during her visit in Richmond!

18. Watching the entire show called Scandal. I AM HOOKED!

19. Hollands first beer release with Ranger Creek

20. Hollands family visiting!

21. Spending quality time with my momma and setting up my new classroom!
*blog to come with pictures of that!

I hope that all of you had a fabulous summer. There are few jobs that allow people to really re-charge and I feel refreshed and ready for a new year. I am starting my THIRD year of teaching in THIRD grade! 

Family Is Where The Heart Is

I cannot believe it is JULY! I am starting to get a little itch to start looking at school things. I have been on Teachers Pay Teachers and becoming a hoarder on my Pinterest board for 3rd grade. I am excited to start thinking about planning for starting another school year but I am also having so much fun having plans for outside and no plans at all on some days.

This first week of July did not disappoint at all. Holland and I both had family come into town. The Lawrence clan came in and spent a week in town. Holland and I spent a few evenings visiting with them in New Braunfels and we had a big swimming and fish fry bash.  I am happy to report that I can name EVERY person and how they are related to the the family. I could probably draw a family tree that is 95 percent correct :). Hollands dad comes from a large family and their children span about 25 years apart. Holland is one of the youngest cousins and most of his cousins have children so we had plenty of people to catch up with. We saw some of the family when we were in the North East area for Christmas but it was definitely not a long enough visit. This mini reunion the family came from Massachusetts, Conneticut, and North Carolina.

Waiting for the fireworks!

Gonyea Family. 

Aunt Sharon, Uncle Carl and Gribbles Neighbor DiJan. 

Ashley and Mr.Whit

Kevin and Allison Bailey

Uncle Mike and Ashley

Bryce, Ellie, Raya and Jana. 

Whittenberg family,  Aunt Diane, Cousin Beth, Aunt Janet, Whitney and cousin Jen. 

Two out of three of the Whitneys!

Bleu spending quality time with his uncle. 

So from all those pictures I still didn't get everyone that was there! I love how big Hollands family is and I cannot wait to see them again! We are thinking that a possible Cape trip in September might be the next mini reunion.

The next batch of family visit was from my cousin and her husband, Billy who now LIVE in Chicago. I emphasize the "lives" because she does not consider herself FROM Chicago. She still tells people she is from Texas ;). We did some fun activities like going to the shooting range(EEK) and painting with a twist.

PP, Tio Greg and Billy

It looks like I was crying.... I was on the inside! AHH 

On my moms birthday, we drove to our favorite place! The lake house is our safe haven.  I was telling PP that when she first moved away it was strange to be at the lake without her.  We spent every weekend there in the summer during college days and I cried on my first ride on the jet ski without her.  We agreed that the distance has definitely made our hearts grow fonder and as long as we have an estimated plan on the next time we are going to see each other it makes all the difference.

This is my favorite time of day on the lake. Around 6 p.m. Everyone is either eating dinner or taking a break from the water and it is so peaceful. The light hits perfectly on the other side of the cove. 

 PP and I  came to the conclusion that we are far too old for wake boarding anymore. We each did three rounds and although we got up we were beat up. How did we used to wakeboard all day? We went for a Kayak ride and exercised our arms and we exercised our legs going up and down the stairs throughout our stay.  

My sisters friends, Bibby and Kristi brought a piñata that we named Manclovio for my moms birthday.  We all thought we were going to get a few whacks at Manclovio but my mom took him out in three hits. All that was left was his head but we all got to enjoy the treats inside. 

My mom had her very own special fire work turned into a fire show on her birthday. That has to be a completely separate post because it CRAZY! Momma, I hope you had an awesome birthday and lake celebration. I love that place. It holds a special place in my heart. 

Liberty and Equality for All!!

I woke up this morning and  I am still so happy/proud/ecstatic for all the positive energy I felt from yesterdays Supreme Court Rulings. I could not stop reading all the updates on my Facebook newsfeed of all my friends celebrating.  I know the change is going to keep on coming and I just hope it doesn't slow down after this huge success.

I am sure that most of you reading this blog know my passion of being an Ally for the GLBT community. It all started when I was in 5th grade and my sister told me she was different, she was gay. I remember crying all the way to my tumbling practice in the car. It was something I always thought but to have her validate it made it real.  She was shopping in the boys section for shorts and I remember feeling frustrated because she was a girl! Like me! Why weren't we shopping in the same section? Through the years it was a kind of a hushed conversation because my family did not know how others would or wouldn't accept my sister.  I am proud to say that not one of my friends every loved Vanessa any different. I became prouder than proud of who she was and how she carried herself.  Although I was emotional and possibly even sad when she told me she was gay  I am happy to say that her coming out has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in my life.  I will never be able to express how happy I am that she is my sister and YES she is in fact Gay.  I don't even want to think of what may have become of me if she wasn't. I would hope I would still be on this side the right side of history but honestly there is no telling.

 

While at A&M I was involved in an organization called Aggie Allies.  It started with a training that made you a safe haven for GLBT Aggies. Your name was put on an email server so anyone if they needed to could get in contact with you. I was involved with this for two years and then in my first semester of Graduate School, I met Lowell Kane in one of my classes.  Lowell is just the most AMAZING person ever.  He founded the GLBT Resource Center at Texas A&M and has recently moved to Purdue University and he started another Resource Center. He works tirelessly and with his whole heart to help anyone and everyone.  He asked if I would be interested in a Graduate Assistantship with the center for the following year and I happily agreed! My last year in grad school was fabulous and it was because I met so many passionate human beings and was involved with so many projects.  I was so sad to leave but I left with that fire still in me.  I will be forever grateful to Lowell and all that he has taught me.

 I remember when he first hired me he told me it might be a good idea to watch some of the documentary dvd's we had at the center. As the year went on and I learned more and more I accompanied Lowell to A&M classrooms to present facts and also issues that the GLBT community faces.  I remember being SO nervous talking and he told me " Amanda, you're going to be a teacher. You can do this and talk in front of people". I still do. Some friends still ask me questions and I get so excited to answer them the best that I can.  I got a text from a friend a few weeks ago that asked what the entire GBT acronym stood for.  In case you are interested it it GLBTQQIAP. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and Pansexual. :) One of my favorite things we did was the Guess Who's Gay Panel. There would be 6-8 people on the panel and there was a mixture of identities. The group could ask anyone or the whole group a question like " What is your favorite movie? How many pairs of shoes do you own? What were you for Halloween? Any question other than are you gay, straight or bisexual? We would leave the room after 10-15 minutes of questioning and the audience would vote and give reasons why they voted the way they did. In all the times I did this probably 10-12 times I was only voted straight once.  It is a way to show you cannot judge a book by its cover.

My time at The Resource Center was golden.

Also, if you have never heard of the NOH8 Campaign check them out! NOH8 Campaign
The founders Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley started the campaign in reponse to Prop 8 which is now gone!! WHOO. I was lucky to get to help out two times with the campaign. Once when they came to College Station and once in Austin.

Volunteers in College Station: October 2010

Volunteers in Austin: May 2011

There is still so much more to fight for but we do need to celebrate the victories from yesterday. Here are some pictures that touch my heart.  Love all of you, thanks for reading! Love is Love.

Our friends that are family. Elise and Amy Briones. Married in Austin on June 8, 2013.  It was the most beautiful ceremony I have ever witnessed.  Amy said in her vows "Growing up, I never fit in. I never had the homecoming or the prom. Today it's my turn.  Its our happy ending".  There was not a dry eye in that audience! 

Fellow Aggie, David Elizondo. David now works for the Human Rights Campaign in D.C. I love to see all the amazing pictures he gets in the press! Keep up the great work, David!

San Francisco City Hall

Karla and Haley recently moved to California. They were out celebrating last night!

US Airforce over California...... 
Just amazing that the united states government would prepare for a historic day and tell their pilots, tomorrow we will load your planes with color smoke and form a rainbow in the sky showing support to lgbt community. Taken from Lowell Kane fb page. 

Hands Across Aggieland march in my last weeks at A&M.