Nick and Rachel

take that hackers!

// June 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // The Grays

my husband is a genius! and a hero! he saved the blog. whew!

blog baby blog

// June 8th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Nick, The Grays

so you may have noticed that nick doesn’t do a lot of blogging here on our site. (and really who am i to talk? i’m terrible at keeping up. but at least i write every so often.) he hasn’t written since last year.

he may not blog here, but blogging is his second job. when big news hits, he spends some quality time like this:

nick created {htcsource.com} 3 years ago and it’s really starting to take off. he writes all about htc phones, operating systems and applications. for awhile he was writing for three other cell phone blogs and getting paid as long as he averaged 6 per week. sadly, that company was new and didn’t realize how long it takes a blog to get going and gain readers. just this month those jobs ended, but he’s picked up with another android blog where he writes less and makes about the same amount.

not only does he get paid to write and generate revenue from ads on his site, he gets to travel as well! this year he’s taken quite a few trips in order to get the inside scoop on phones and network: he was in vegas for CES (consumer electronics show) in january where he got to see WAY more than phones. a launch event in new york for sprint. and most recently google invited him to their big technology event and gave him a free phone!

speaking of free phones, nick has those quite often now. companies ship him phones to play with for two weeks. he then writes a nice long review of them and ships them back. last week he had five phones in his possession!

i love the extra money blogging brings in to our home, but more importantly i love that nick gets to do something he loves. he’s always been a technology geek and this is the perfect outlet for him. he gets to incorporate his web and graphic design into the job as well which is something he’s always enjoyed.

what’s a little strange to me is how he’s developed these online friendships with other cell phone bloggers. they have a weekly podcast to talk phone technology and chat during the week on google chat.  they even had meet ups at some of their events. meeting face to face for the first time after already forming friendships. funny how our world lets us meet that way today.

and what do i get out of all this? over the years i’ve learned more about phones than i could ever imagine. i’m now the go-to gal for cell phone advice in the office. nick has helped me become quite savvy when it comes to phones (and computers).

celebrating 5 years

// June 6th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // The Grays

let’s pretend i wrote this last weekend. when it was actually our anniversary…

five years ago i married the man of my dreams. five years. the first little milestone. ok, maybe the second. year one is the first i suppose.

five years ago…

i was tan!  look at that picture. wow. my years of tanning beds are long gone. i should really see a dermatologist.

i had only left the country once before. nick took me to italy when we were engaged. now my travels include barbados, argentina, france, switzerland…

i was still a student who swore she’d never be one of “those people” who worked at north central right after graduation. God has a sense of humor. and i love my job!

the prices of homes were still incredibly high and we couldn’t predict the drop. we were celebrating our first anniversary as homeowners. now we’re here for the long haul.

we thought we’d just now be trying to have children. i never expected to get baby fever so soon. so glad we didn’t wait!

the plan was to take a 5 year cruise to celebrate. i couldn’t bring myself to leave mariah for that long considering i’d never even left her overnight.

instead we did dinner downtown and stayed in the W hotel. it was a wonderful night. just us. thinking back on the last few years and dreaming about what the next 5 might bring.

one year invites

// March 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // Mariah, Motherhood, The Grays

can you believe it? mariah turns one in twelve days!  it’s flown by. i miss those itty bitty newborn days, but i love seeing her little personality, hearing her sweet voice, and getting slobbery kisses.

these are the invites i made for her party in two weeks. i found cheap notecards at target on clearance and added the paper to the front. the nice cursive is nick’s.  mine’s still stuck in fifth grade – the last time i used it. i hand wrote the information on the inside which took quite some time, but it adds a more personal touch i suppose.

i’m going to attempt making tissue paper poms to hang from the ceiling and bake up something yummy. hope those both turn out ok.

back breaking

// February 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // The Grays

well p90x has taken quite the toll on nick. thanks to the yoga we did on thursday, he’s out of commission. seriously. he woke up the morning after we did only 30 minutes of the 1.5 hours we were supposed to do.

while he’s been in pain every time he moves positions and i really do feel bad for him, there’s a little part of me that get’s excited because it means i win at yoga. but that little part is quickly shut down when i have to do the rest of p90x alone. and then it’s silenced again when i am the only one who can chase mariah around, pick her up, put her to bed…..all nick can do is sit still and hold her or lay on the floor and play with her.

yesterday, he did our taxes (for WAY too long) while standing at the fireplace. he needed to keep ice on his back per the chiropractor’s recommendation, so he got creative:

a baggie of ice attached with one of the p90x bands!  it worked i guess.

today it’s heat on the back and he seems to be doing better.  a trip to the chiropractor will need to happen again since he can’t straighten his back. i hope he gets better soon so i’m not doing all the work around here.