Hello all you dear Arkansas Women Bloggers readers!
I’m Amy Gramlich – your Mrs. September.
Those are words I never thought I would speak! I’ve never had my own month before. If months weren’t so replaceable, one could really get a big head from such a title.
I suppose I’m to the part where I tell you all about Mrs. September.
I grew up in El Dorado, Arkansas, the home of the great Spudnut and Chick-A-Dilly Chicken. (Seriously, if you are ever in El Do and don’t give each of those places a try, I might cry for you.) The product of a south Arkansas man and a Panamanian woman, I grew up speaking a blend of redneck English and heavily accented Spanish. My parents’ diverse cultural backgrounds were evident on the dinner table each night, too. On a Wednesday night, it would be turnip greens, hot water cornbread, and fried ham. On Thursday, it might be arroz con pollo with a side of hojaldras and some sweet maduros. Whatever the night and whatever the flavor, my mom’s insistence that I help out daily in the kitchen led to my love of cooking today.
In college at Southern Arkansas University, I graduated with degrees in journalism and psychology. I worked as a newspaper reporter for about 1 ½ years before deciding to transition into teaching. I have my teaching certification in English, Spanish, English as a Second Language, Journalism, World Cultures, and several other history areas. Several years ago, I received my Master’s of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. For nearly the last 15 years, I have worked as a Spanish teacher for 8th-grade. For about ten of those years, I also served as my school’s ESL teacher.
But once a writer, always a writer, huh? Even after I had switched to teaching, I continued to take on freelance writing assignments such as writing for my college sorority’s national magazine and for a local university’s monthly newsletter. I also started a little blog in 2008 as a creative outlet. I spent all of about 5 minutes deciding on a name. Blessed with the gift of gab my whole life, it seemed The Gifted Gabber was fitting. If I had it to do all over again, I might have actually chosen a name that actually represents my niche. But, hey, in 2008, I didn’t know there was any sort of method to the madness behind blogging.
In fact, after only occasionally updating my blog for about 5 years and treating it more like a personal journal, I decided to revive the gab in 2013. At this point, I had been married to my amazing husband, Jason, for nearly three years, and we had welcomed our first daughter, Harper, at the end of 2012.
Inspired by so many mommy, food, and fashion blogs I found through Pinterest, I realized I wasn’t utilizing my blog as I could. In August of 2013, I stumbled across a group of women in an organization called The Arkansas Women Bloggers. Huh? Bloggers had support groups? Who knew?! And not only that, ARWB was actually scheduled to host a state conference that very weekend in my own town. What luck!
How fortunate I was to learn from these women who were much wiser and more experienced than me when it came to professional blogging. Who would have thought I would be in my second contract year as an ambassador for McDonald’s? And how wild to think that I would go on to be chosen as an ARWB Blogger of the Month!
My blog – though once focused on balancing life as a Spanish teacher and a mom – is now mostly centered on mommy-and-me everything.
In 2014, we welcomed our second daughter, Norah, into our already hectic lives. And I am totally smitten with being a girl mom. Whether it’s mommy-and-me cooking, mommy-and-me style, family travel, party planning, or decorating my home around children, I enjoy gabbing about all of it. And so maybe The Gifted Gabber is a fitting name after all.
Well, there’s my introduction in my typical gabby fashion – more than you may have wanted to know! Thanks for sticking along for the read!
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