Texas Travels: White Oak, Texas

Yes, another Texas Travels blog post! I haven't had a stay-out in quite some time. Well, that's actually a lie now that I'm looking at my work schedule. I was out of town in May in a tiny town called Cooper, staying in another tiny town called Paris (as in Paris, Texas...don't be ridiculous. The State of Texas is going through a budget crisis, we can't afford to be gallivanting through France). Anyhow, this week I'm working in White Oak, Texas. Where is White Oak, you ask? I couldn't really even begin to tell you. I didn't drive out here. All I know is that I'm about 15 minutes away from Longview. I couldn't even tell you if I'm north, east, south, or west of Longview. But after doing a quick Google Maps search, it turns out White Oak is west of Longview. 

So what is White Oak known for? From the looks of it, nothing. I kid, I kid. But in all seriousness, I don't think White Oak is known for anything. Their official website tells me that the town is located 125 miles east of Dallas, has a population of approximately 5,600 people, and hosts something called the White Oak Roughneck Day Festival (I don't think I want to know what that is). Pretty much all I know about White Oak is that there is a state bank out here with THE biggest flagpole I have ever seen in my life. 

Truth be told, I didn't mind coming out to the middle of nowhere. Want to know why? It may sound ridiculous, but I was a little bit giddy knowing that I was scheduled to come out to the East Texas area...because of the food. Yes, the food. You see, on this job, we go to these small towns that we normally would probably never have gone to. And we get to sample the local cuisine. Now, White Oak doesn't have much to offer as far as local cuisine, but Longview...there's plenty in Longview. Such as...

Jucy's Hamburgers

Amazingly delicious hamburgers with patties bigger than the buns. The burger patties are so "jucy" that they literally fall apart and practically melt in your mouth. Avoid this place if you're on a diet. Everything in moderation, people.

Dudley's Cajun Cafe

Pretty decent Cajun seafood. I had the fried catfish, which came with more fries than I knew what to do with. If you go to Dudley's, you need to accept their offer for complimentary coleslaw before your meal. So good.

Random Sidenote: I took this picture at Dudley's - a basket FULL of saltine crackers. It reminded me of some of my coworker friends. While we were in Cooper, a few of us attempted the "eat 5 saltines in a minute" challenge. Have you ever tried it? Don't. Shelby opted for the 2-crackers-at-a-time technique. She realized her mistake after the first bite. Patrick also tried this technique and he ended up spitting cracker all over his sleeve. I was laughing too hard at the both of them to even finish one cracker. Epic fail.

Pizza King

Delicious, delicious pizza. Oh, so tasty.

Now these aren't the fanciest of dining establishments, by any stretch of the imagination. But they do serve some of the best food around. And, of course, no trip to East Texas is complete without a stop at the Country Tavern in Kilgore for some of the best ribs around!

Lastly, I just had to share this picture. This was my favorite part of the bank. And yes, I took my phone to the bathroom - that's what I call dedication to blogging.

Another One Bites the Dust

We don't have a whole lot of employee turnover here at the DOB. In the five years I've been here, only two people have actually quit (well technically three, but he was politely asked to resign).  Just recently, we had one examiner resign to go work for the Fed. Now, we have another leaving to work for a bank in Austin. We are all so sad to see him go - especially me, since for the last 4 1/2 months, or the last 7 bank examinations, we've worked side-by-side. I'm not going to lie, it's going to be a little strange not working with Brandon anymore. And as much as I roll my eyes and send disapproving looks his way for some of his red zone comments, I'm going to miss him!! So, while we savor our last moments with him at his last bank as a bank examiner this week, I thought it would only be fitting to bake some cupcakes! I found the recipe on my new time-suck Pinterest.  Sidenote: have you discovered the awesomeness that is Pinterest?? If not, browse the sight...I'd be surprised if you weren't hooked after 5 minutes. And if you'd like, I can send you an invite.  Anyway, back to the cupcakes: OREO CUPCAKES. 

That's right Oreo cupcakes. Oreos in the cupcakes and Oreos in the frosting. Can you dig it?  (Also fitting, as it was pointed out to me this morning by our  resident smart ass examiner - OREO in banking terms stands for Other Real Estate Owned...get it?). Anyway, here is the original recipe. I was feeling lazy running short on time, so I cheated and used a box white cake mix and just added Oreos to the batter.  And I didn't cut up whole Oreos like the recipe recommends, I just used the other half of the Oreo not used for the bottom of each cupcake. Also, for the frosting, I used a different recipe:

• 1 stick regular, salted butter, softened
• 1-8oz block of regular cream cheese, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups (almost 1 pound) of powdered sugar

Then I just added some Oreo cookie crumbs to the frosting. I attempted to be fancy and pipe the frosting, but failed miserably (again), so I ended up just glopping it on each cupcake and spreading it around. It was 10:30 pm and I was in no mood to figure out piping. Maybe next time... Anyway, just FYI I used almost an entire package of Oreos for this. I think there might be like 3 cookies left in the package. Enjoy! And of course, we wish Brandon the best of luck in his future endeavors. Vaya con Dios, bro. Heh heh.

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!