Surprise...Happy Mother's Day!

For the past month, David's been scheming with his dad and planning a surprise trip to San Antonio for Mother's Day. So last Friday, we headed southbound on I-35. We stayed in Austin for the night so that we could get to San Antonio first thing Saturday morning. We had such a good time in Austin!! We stayed with David's best friend, Clayton, and went out to dinner and drinks with some good friends! I love visiting Austin...such good food and such great friends!

We got up super early on Saturday and headed down to San Antonio. We knew that David's mom wouldn't be home, since she had alter guild. We showered and dressed, ran some errands, and then sat at the house waiting for his mom to get home. We figured she'd realize what was going on before she even saw us, since we parked David's truck in the driveway. We assumed that would give it away...

When David's mom finally got home, she walked into the house with her groceries as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Then we heard her say, "Whose car is in our driveway, Bob??" David and I looked at each other like, uh..really?? Then she came out of the kitchen and saw us sitting on the couch and put two and two together!! My goodness. She's never going to live that down. She didn't even recognize our truck!!! 

We had such a nice visit. Saturday afternoon, we went down to Pearl Brewery and visited the farmer's market and had lunch on a patio. Then we walked down to where the city was working to extend the Riverwalk. It was so pretty!! If you're ever in San Antonio, I highly recommend visiting this place!

Yes, my eyes are closed in this picture. It was bright!! And this was the only picture we took that day! ha! Saturday night, we went to dinner at Paesano's on the Riverwalk. I LOVE that restaurant. It's so good!!! 

Sunday morning, we all went to church and it was so good to see Chuck again! Chuck was David's minister growing up and he's the one who married us a couple years ago. For mother's day brunch, we enjoyed the buffet at the "old folk's home" (as David's mom calls it).  David's parents moved into a retirement community a couple of years ago and they're loving it! 

My eyes may be closed in this picture too. What can I say, not a good picture weekend for me! But even though our visit was short and we spent a lot of time in the car, we had such a great time!!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

At the end of last summer, David and his dad built me a raised herb garden.  We were finally able to plant a few herbs and vegetables earlier this year. So how's the growing going??

This is how the garden looked when we planted everything at the end of March.

And this is how it looks now!

We have a sufficient amount of parsley apparently, but most importantly...we have these little guys!

Tomatoes are coming!!! Our tomato plant is growing so well. We went and got a tomato cage last weekend to make sure everything stays up and off the ground! We also had to get some organic pesticide to get rid of a few critters. Can't wait until these babies are ready to eat and we I can make some caprese salad!!

April Showers Bring May Flowers...?

Apparently April showers also bring colder temperatures. Yesterday's high was only 54 degrees! David actually had to turn the heater back on. When I got home from work, it was 50 degrees outside, so I decided that was cold enough to use the fireplace again!

There's nothing better than a warm fire, glass of red wine, and a super comfy couch when it's cold and rainy outside! But not to worry, it'll be back in the 90's by next week. Crazy Texas weather!!

Wind: 1, Montgomerys: 0

Last Sunday, a huge storm blew through the metroplex. There were reports of tons of rain, hail, and even tornadoes! Thankfully, all we got was tons of rain and TONS of wind. Really strong wind, apparently. I don't know how I went all week without noticing, but when David came back in town on Thursday, he noticed that our backyard fence was leaning a bit. Okay, maybe more than a bit. Maybe it was probably about to fall over. And I didn't notice. It's even the part of the fence right by my herb garden, which I've been watering religiously. I guess I was paying more attention to my almost-blooming tomato plant. Anyway, the fence was about to fall over, so he went over to talk to the neighbor about it and even talked to a friend of his who could fix it. Well, before any of this fence-fixing could take place, the winds decided to pick up and on Friday, the winds were blowing at a reported 45 mph with gusts up to 59 mph!! When I got home from happy hour around 6:30, I went to the backyard and found this:

And I thought to myself, well crap. So this morning, David tackled the fence with the hopes of repairing it without having to pay someone $100 to do it for us. After working for two hours and digging about 20 inches into the ground where the post is, he threw in the towel. I'm not exactly sure how far down that post and the cement goes, but David said it wasn't even moving. Not even a little bit. So for now, until we can get someone to come and fix our fence, our backyard looks like this:

Needless to say, Casey is on supervised outside visits only. We aren't letting her explore the neighbors yard. And it's killing her!

5th Annual DVCBQ

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated our birthdays with the 5th Annual DVCBQ! It's hard to believe that this was our fifth birthday barbecue. Where does the time go??

This year, we smoked a huge brisket (approximately 17 pounds)...

Of course, we played washers in the backyard...

Our neighbor, Steven, took these action shots. Can you see the washer mid-air? That's talent, I tell ya!

This year, we had a few special guests. Casey had a couple new friends over, Boone and Veronica.

They chased each other around all afternoon and then destroyed some toys inside later in the evening.

We also had our newest little neighbor over, Vaughn!! Isn't she beautiful?!? She looks just like her mommy.

And as you know, the DVCBQ wouldn't be the DVCBQ without some shots! Not to worry, little Vaughn was back at home by this time. It just wouldn't be right to let her witness these shenanigans at such a young age!

That same night was the night of the "SuperMoon". The moon was supposedly at its largest and brightest...although you wouldn't be able to tell from this picture.

I'm actually just assuming that's why Steven took this picture. I could be wrong. 

It was yet another successful DVCBQ! We ate, we drank, we watched grown men punch each other (aka UFC 128).  What more could you want??

And a special thanks to Steve for being the official DVCBQ photographer!

Herb Garden: Part 2

Today is the 5th Annual DVCBQ! It's hard to believe that we've been doing this for five years now! It's even harder to believe that this also means that David and I have been together for FIVE YEARS! Which also means that I've been working at the Department of Banking for five years. Which also means that I graduated college five years ago. And that means I graduated high school TEN years ago. Oh, lordy...I'm getting old!

Anyway, back to the subject of this post: my herb garden! Remember this post? When the flower bed was built, it was too late in the summer to plant anything, so I had to wait seven long months! But today was the day! We did a ton of planting this morning. Firs things first, the herb garden. Here she is!

Isn't she beautiful? I planted rosemary, thyme, sweet basil, boxwood basil, parsley, green bell peppers, red chili peppers, and cherry tomatoes. 

We also picked up some geraniums at Costco again this year. They always do so well in the flower beds in the front of the house, and they are so pretty!

We also planted some marigolds in the other flower bed in the front of the house. See that green bush with the little white flowers? That's one of the azaleas we planted last year! They only bloom once a year, but they're so pretty when they do.

And last, but not least, we bought a purple petunia for the table in the back yard. This one was for Casey. When we got her at the animal shelter, her name was Petunia.  Petunia. What a terrible name. Poor thing.

For some reason, potted flowers don't do very well in our backyard, but at least it looks good for now!

As for the rest of the day, the brisket has been smoking since about 8:30 this morning, so hopefully it's done by 6. David just went to pick up the keg. Clayton managed to get on the road from Austin by11 this morning (shocking, I know).  And we're expecting about 20-25 people this afternoon! I'm ready to get this party started!!

Yarn Wreath

I follow quite a few craft blogs and always think to myself, "I can do that!". But then, I don't. Steamy Kitchen, a food blog, posted this the other day, and I thought they were so cute! And it looked super easy to make! So yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought all my supplies. This was my inspiration wreath. It's for sale on Etsy for $30 plus $8 for shipping, and I didn't want to pay almost $40 for something I was sure I could make myself.

I've been wanting to find a spring wreath for our door, and this one was perfect!

So last night, while we watched the most pointless, meaningless, and biggest waste of time movie The American with George Clooney, I made my wreath! I finished it before the movie even ended!

What do you think??? I couldn't find the zig-zaggy felt ribbon, so I just went without it. And my colors turned out to be a lot brighter than the other one, but I love it! It's so bright and cheery and springy! Plus, I made it myself! Cost breakdown?

• Straw Wreath - $3.99
• Yarn - $2.88 per bundle (I bought 4 colors)
• Beads for the center of the flowers - $1.99
• Felt - $0.25 each (I bought 4)

Total Cost: $18.50 plus tax

Sure beats $38!! And it was so easy to make and I had so much fun doing it!