Schilitterbahn

As if Saturday wasn't enough fun, Steven, Bryan & I also went to Schilitterbahn on Sunday! I LOVE Schillitterbahn! It's probably one of my absolutely favorite places, especially in summer. I mentioned to the boys how bummed I was that my family stopped coming for our yearly trips like we used to before we moved to Aberdeen. Maybe next summer I can convince them to go with us again :)

We rode the rides, had a margarita, and watched people fall of their tubes. What's not to like about sun, water, tubes & friends? I feel like that may be our theme for the weekend .... :)

I didn't have a water camera, so I can only leave you with this:



BUT know that I would gladly go back if anyone else wants to make a weekend get-a-way!! :)

Also: on the ride back to Houston that evening, I got a call from a school to set up an interview with me for this morning! I'm about to head out. Please feel free to say a prayer for me. I know God has a plan for me for next year, I'm just not sure yet what it is. Maybe I'll be finding out soon!

GuadaWhoop!

This past weekend was (as always) busy. Bryan and I left Maverick with Mom & Dad on Friday (thank you both for keeping him for us!) and drove to San Antonio with our friend Steven for a weekend of fun :)

We arrived at Steven's cousin's house just in time for dinner. We are so appreciative of John (his cousin) and Amanda (his wife) letting us stay the weekend, plus they were really great people to be around. They recommended we try this place called Mi Casa Tamale which was yummy!!! The only drawback was that it was an outside venue, and my allergies/sinuses have been working in extreme overdrive since we got within an hour and a half of the greater San Antonio area :( After dinner Bryan & Steven went to the River Walk to check out the night life scene, and I stayed at the house with Amanda to watch a movie.

Saturday morning we all got up, got our swim suits on, put on lots of sunscreen and headed out to the Guadalupe River. We met up with the 45 or so other Former A&M Students that were going to float with us. The three of us only knew 1 person going in, but came out with a bunch of new friends. It was great! And really the river wasn't too low. Of the entire float time, we only hit a low area in the last 1/3 or so of the trip, and I only had to get out of my tube once to get un-stuck. I did think it was hilarious and fitting and that this part came AFTER most people had been doing a lot of drinking in the sun, and were standing up for the first time in a while ... :) I was glad I hadn't had much to drink other than water & gatorade. After we were done floating, some Aggies set up the grill & got to cooking burgers and hot dogs. We stayed for dinner and good conversation before finally heading back to San Antonio.



It was a great Saturday. I think we may need to start joining the San Antonio A&M Club for this yearly tradition every year!

Because he's adorable

There's really no point to this post, except I feel like I should share some of the adorable happening around here :)









Hope these make you smile :)

We're off to do some river floating and Schlitterbaun-ing this weekend, so I'll get back with you about how it goes!

The camera loves him :)

After a pretty rough night in the Evans' household, when my alarm went off this morning, I wasn't really sure I wanted to face the day. Yet, even so, I got up and followed our usual morning routine, which includes, at around 8'o'clock, taking Maverick to the Bark Park.

I got there as usual, and boy was I surprised to see 5 or so other dogs I'd never seen before getting ready to go in! I was thrilled! Sometimes in the morning there aren't a whole lot of people who take their dogs, but I think it's the only time of day I can really handle standing in the heat and watching puppies wrestle and chase each other :) Otherwise it's just way too hot.

When I greeted them and asked if they were new to the area, they said no, that they were only there for a little while because they wanted to do a photo shoot for the magazine Woman'sDay. Initially disappointed that we weren't going to have more regulars (doh!), I perked up immediately when they asked if they could use "my adorable puppy" (their words, not mine) in the photo shoot. How could I refuse? :) I was thinking ... how fun + major bragging rights, haha.



So sure enough, Maverick did (mostly) what they asked him too, and he ran around and looked adorable and "grinned" at the camera. They thought he was awesome. There were several other dogs that they had brought with them, so Maverick was on Cloud 9 with so many puppies to play with and people loving on him :)

After a quick cursory glance through the shots, they said Maverick was in most of the really good ones, so that there was a very good chance he would be in the photo picked for the article they were doing. The article was featuring a woman that was being recognized for being a female entrepreneur and a community helper because she founded a company that promotes pets' health and played a role in getting dog parks started in various communities - one of them being, obviously, the Glennloch Bark Park that I take my puppy too.







I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures with my phone. Whoever decided it would be a good idea to put cameras on phones was really thinking!

Anyway, I'll definitely be keeping a look out for the October Issue of Woman'sDay!!! Hopefully he'll be in the photo they pick!! How fun is this?? :)

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day. We decided Bryan counts because he's Maverick's "Dad" :)

My parents are headed to Florida, so I visited with Dad on the phone for a little while. Love him so much!!

Bryan & I went to MeMaw & Paw's house for a Father's Day lunch. We provided the queso & coca-cola cupcakes (yumm!) that we baked this morning. I think this will be a recipe-repeater. Pretty unique and cool concept.



There was lots to eat, and good conversation. We sure do love all these Fathers (and future father)!!!



Of course, even after the food, much visiting was to be done:





I have truly been blessed with a wonderful in-law family.

Happy Father's Day, all you Dad's out there!!

Let there be VEGGIES!

Because Bryan and I can't leave well enough alone, we decided to get going on yet another project!! I know, I know ... it's gotta end somewhere, right? :)

I've been doing some research, and decided that what we needed was our very own vegetable patch in our backyard. Our soil realllly stinks, and about 2 inches down in turns into clay, so I figured we'd need to do a raised bed garden. It's a pretty simple concept - you dig up the area you need (for us it was 8 feet by 4 feet) - which involves digging up grass/roots/soil/clay, building a wooden fixture, filling the area up with quality soil, planting, installing a weed-preventive barrier, and then topping it all off with mulch.

It sounds simple. It is simple. But it's a TON of work!!! Wowzers.

First we had to build a raised bed. Many thanks to Paw, my carpenter of choice! :) He went with me to Home Depot to purchase the materials and then put it together for us. Thank you!



Second we took a trip to Lowes to purchase soil, weed-preventative barrier, plants and mulch. My car was groaning :)



Third, we needed to excavate the ground where the garden was going to be. This is what was so exhausted. Our grass had taken very well, so it was difficult removing the grass, soil & clay. We were very thankful when this step was completed.





Fourth, we put the wood frame back together, and started filling it up with soil. Those bags are heavy!






Fifth, we laid out our plants in rows, and prepared to plant. We dug up small holes and filled them in with the veggie plants. We have: cucumber, mint, thyme, rosemary, lots of orange, yellow, green & red bell peppers, squash, jalapenos, and tomatoes. Yummmm.





Sixth, we unrolled the weed preventative barrier and cut holes so the plants could fit through.



Finally, we laid down mulch to keep the barrier from coming up.

A little water, and voila! Our garden!!!



Ah, yes, and of course Maverick was in on the action too :) He mostly snoozed in the shade, haha. It was about a 6 hour project and it was pretty hot, so I don't blame him at all! We were exhausted!

One more!

Ever since Bryan & I brought our sweet puppy home, we've had so many people ask us, "are you going to get another one?" We kind of wondered why so many people asked us this exact same question, but after hearing their reasons for asking, as well as going through our own experiences with a family dog, it is now quite clear why 2 can be better than 1.

We have friends that brought home 2 puppies and they felt very overwhelmed. We thought the reason they were in over their head at first was because they had double the trouble. After getting a puppy ourselves, though, we now know that EVERYONE is overwhelmed those first couple of weeks, regardless of quantity. The puppy is in shock, he can't sleep all night, he's scared and then on top of that WE were nervous we would do something wrong, sad that the puppy wasn't happy, and exhausted because of the very long nights of crying and howling. The difference between their situation and our situation became pretty clear later though - those dogs were so much happier, even when their humans were gone, because they had each other - they had a partner to eat with, sleep with, play with, get into trouble with all the time.

Research claims that dogs that have a buddy to live with tend to be healthier, live longer, and be happier. They are also (usually) easier to socialize and train - when one learns it, it helps the other figure it out.

We've had Maverick 3 days shy of 3 months as of today. He's an incredible dog -funny, happy, friendly, inquisitive, easy to train, and just a joy to play with. He is now fully housebroken (knock on wood?), he sleeps great in his crate, he's getting basic obedience commands down, and still learning fast. This is really going to come in handy when ... in August ... we're bringing home another puppy! :) Maverick will be a HUGE help in helping the new youngster adjust, and figure out how things work in our Evans' household.

If you've ever been around Maverick when there are other dogs around, you'll have a great idea of how happy and fun this will be for him. I'm sincerely hoping our future puppy will be just as friendly as Maverick is. We are going through the same breeder - Safari Doodles - so we feel very good about our chances of getting a great dog again. The litter we've chosen has the same dad as Maverick did (Scrappy, a miniature poodle), but will have a different mom. Maverick's mom was a golden retriever, but this puppy's mom will actually be a labradoodle (meaning part labrador and part poodle). The cross between a labradoodle & a poodle means the puppy will be completely non-shedding (yay!).

We did not specify the sex, because we really don't care. What we DO care about is having a great temperament (like Mav-boy) and a non-shedding coat. We'll find out mid-August if it's a boy or a girl that comes home with us when we go pick one out. We are, however, about 99% positive their name will be Goose regardless of sex :)

This is what a puppy from one of their previous litters looked like, just to give you an idea:



Cute :)

Some of you may approve of this move, and some of you may not. That's totally okay. However, for those of you who are now going to caution us against this, it's too late, so please don't try to rain on our parade :) We are very excited.

I have absolutely loved being a "momma" to Maverick, and am very much looking forward to being a "momma" to this new little pup. It's great practice for when I'm a Momma for real!!

We'll keep y'all posted, and let you know when they're born, and post pictures.
Get excited :)

Pre-Father's Day

My Dad will be out of town on Father's Day so yesterday Bryan & I got together with my parents & Grady for a little Pre-Father's Day fun. We had dinner together at their lake house and then played in the pool/hot-tub all evening. It was so much fun, and we thank y'all for always including us!!





Also, Maverick finally got the courage to swim off of the sun shelf to chase balls, frisbees, etc. By the end I think he was just looking for a reason to swim :) He was a very tired and very happy puppy when we were through!



Happy Early Father's Day, Dad!! :)

Block Party Madness

I know I've mentioned several times before that we really couldn't have asked for a better street, and it's still so true. Almost every Friday night we get together, lots of random days throughout the week we get together, and then this past Saturday we threw a legit block party! Lots of food, games, drinks, water, kids & dogs. Too much fun!

The pre-party get together:



Then the fun commences!! Sorry for the pathetic, and blurry pictures. My phone was struggling that day, and I didn't want to bring out my awesome new camera because there was water flying everywhere:







The street went in together and bought a very large water slide - which both kids AND adults can use! Not to mention over-eager puppies :) I think there is a very real possibility this will be repeated MANY times over the summer!

All told, we had about 8 dogs, 9 kids, and a whole bunch of adults enjoying a Saturday afternoon/evening together. Not too bad, eh?

Apple, Yum!

I've been on a domestic kick recently, and I haven't heard any complaints from Bryan :)
After the success of the blueberry pie, I decided to give apple pie a try. Yummy!!



They definitely didn't look as pretty, but they were tasty. Especially when nice and hot!

Blueberry, Yum!

On Wednesday my friend Stephanie and her two "pseudo sons" (she's dating a guy with a 10yr old & 8yr old) went blueberry picking and then came over to our house to bake a pie! Not only was it delicious (yes, I CAN bake!!) but it looked so stinking pretty too :)



The only problem I ran into was that I don't own a pie dish. Oops. Thank you Kara for lending me yours! (Have I mentioned we have awesome neighbors?)

If you have a favorite type of pie, I'd love to try to make it!!
(And, Papaw, I even made the crust :)

After the pie was done, Stephanie, the 2 boys, Bryan & I and our friend Kirsten enjoyed some yummy pasta, wine (milk for the boys) and PIE!

Perfect Wednesday!