Week Re-Wind and COMPOST!

Wheeeew. This past week was a crazy whirlwind. It was Fiesta week in San Antonio and Holland and I went to Niosa with my family on Tuesday night. We had a field trip with the Kinders on Wednesday to the Magik Theatre to see the Velveteen Rabbit.  My throat was hurting but I thought it was just from the weather change, possibly yelling to friends at Niosa.... but it was worse.  I got strep for the first( and hopefully last) time ever.

I have never felt so sick in my life. Thank GOD my mom was here to take me to the doctor and get my meds and calm Holland down because he looked like he had seen a ghost when I was just laying on the bed not talking with a 102 fever. I feel SO much better.  Thankfully we had Friday off for Fiesta so I only had to call in to work for one day.

So after 2 full days of recuperating, we got back out to celebrate Fiesta some more. We went to the King William Fair which is held in a downtown historic part of town. It is AWESOME. Holland and I kept talking about all the houses we wanted to buy in that neighborhood. They are just SO cool. The fair had a lot of the same food as NIOSA, but they also had some art vendors as well. There were TONS of dogs around because they had a puppy parade in the morning.

Sunday was dedicated to friends and our garden.









 Today I forced Holland to do his project.... a compost pile. Now I have only told a few the story of the first compost pile because it is slightly embarrassing and very gross.  So..... the first compost pile was an old recycling bin that we put a bunch of our food into... it eventually just turned COMPELTELY TURNED into a bin of..... maggots. I was so afraid that Bleu was going to eat some of it and come and puke up worms in the house so when Holland was gone one weekend I paid someone to take it away... FAR AWAY.

Once we started our Spring/Summer Garden Holland brought the idea up and I told him it was a lllllll his project.  I told him I would help dedicate things to put in the compost, but he needed to build it, and take care of it and not let it turn into a pile of maggots. ( I know the maggots are "good" for the compost  but seriously.... the last one there wasn't even any dirt left.... just WORMS ALLL WORMS EWW.

Holland building our compost area. He even put a wire fence in the front so Bleu cannot eat anything from it! YAY :)

 Baby Bleu after being brushed, just relaxing. Hannah just being cute.

 Our pretty backyard! Our Neighbors behind us recently built their own privacy fence so we have a fully fenced in yard now!

 Holland sent me some flowers to work last week and they were still doing okay but half of them started to die. Wanted to dry them out and save them because they were so gorgeous.

 I have tried a new way of labeling our garden out. RIVER ROCK! My mom has a bunch of these leftover from my cousins wedding centerpieces and I just used a paint marker to mark the veggies. Cheap and easy.

Here are a few other photos from the weekend! On the bottom left corner you can see the finished product on the compost pile! Summer is almost here! Every weekend it feels more and more like it.
Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Texas Winter Garden

Lately, we have been enjoying our garden and all the awesome things it has been producing for us this winter.  My favorite thing so far is definitely the broccoli. They are HUGE.  We planted six of them in October and now, there months later we are looking up delicious recipes to make. 

The garden right after planting into October. 

Our garden in January! I am very sad our basil is done :(

Swiss chard and cabbage. 

I just love the bright red color. So pretty! Makes me not want to eat it!


Our first bouquet of broccoli we steamed and ate with stuffed sweet potatoes that Holland made.  We have given half of the broccoli away to friends and our favorite neighbor because there was just so much!

We planted romaine and spinach and the spinach never came up but the romaine is beautiful!

Late October romaine-started from seeds. 

January romaine!

Holland is really good at whipping up a fantastic meal when I feel like we have nothing and need to go to the grocery store. He made an avocado, tomato and cucumber salad mix that we wrapped up in our romaine.  Very delicious and fresh!

I just recently had to start buying basil since ours died over the two weeks of cold winter weather we had.  We knew it was coming, but I miss it so much! I hadn't bought basil in over a year! I am ready to start our spring/summer garden. We plan on putting a new basil plant, cucumbers and some summer squash.

Weekend Rewinds

Fall is here and thankfully, weekends have been going by slower than usual. They are still over within a blink of an eye. However, lately I have felt so relaxed and refreshed and ready to conquer the next week. I have appreciated the fall-ish weather for Texas. I will take the 85 degree temperature and attempt to throw on a scarf and boots! I am so ready for San Antonio to hit those really chilly nights.  

Some Highlights from our Fall weekends. 

1) Finally purchasing pumpkins! We got our pumpkins last weekend before Halloween.  I am OBSESSED with Fairytale Pumpkins and I loved the baby white ones I found.  We did not carve any pumpkins. I have found that just leaving them as is makes them last SOOOO much longer. 

Hannah and Bleu with our Pumpkins on the porch.

2) BAKING! I have been baking so much lately and I love it. It distresses me, even though I make a total mess in the kitchen. I love the smell of a house when you walk in and something has been baking. Last weekend I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and this weekend I made Hollands grandmas recipe for Banana Bread. YUM.

3) Coffee with mom. Last Friday I had coffee and a lemon bar with my mom at our favorite stops, Local Coffee and Bird Bakery.  It had been one of "those" days and it was so nice to just sit and vent for bit, eat a lemon bar and move on.  My mom got both of us coffee mugs with a "B" on it. She told me it can stand for Bruns but it also can stand for Beautiful. I love her, she always knows the right things to say. 

4) Gardening: Holland and I officially started our Fall Garden a few weekends ago.  We have our herbs in the garden still but we planted Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, cabbage and mixed greens.  Everything is growing very nicely. It is nice to have new plants in the beds to tend to.

So, you see that space in the front of the bed that looks empty? That is where we planted our romaine seeds that look like this now.

5) Last but not least- getting woken up on sleep in days by these two adorable faces.

This is my side of the bed and as you can see it is VERY narrow. It is hilarious to watch Bleu turn around.  They both know their momma wakes up way before their dad does! 

SNUGGLY TIME! 

When I die, I want to come back as one of my dogs :)

Two weeks until Thanksgiving Break! Whoop!

First Times and EpiPens.

                  WE HAVE BEEN BUSY!
Here are some things that happened for the first time. 

We picked our first vegetable from our garden. What a good looking' cucumber! We have many more on the way and Holland will be making some pickles soon!

My first bird rescue!   I rescued a bird after being attacked by a cat at my moms house. I brought it back to my place and I believe he got himself back together after the shock of being attacked and flew away. 

Our friend Dan tried Blue Bell Ice Cream for the first time! He is from Massachusetts and had never even heard of the creamy comfort that comes from Brenham, Texas! Boy was he missing out ;) He tried my favorite flavor: Southern Blackberry Cobbler. If you have not tried it, I recommend not buying a gallon of it because you may just eat it all. 

Holland got his first EpiPen.  He got stung by a bee in his arm right after Christmas and it was swollen for about a week. I am talking SWOLLLLENN. His arm was huge, hot, red and itchy itchy itchy. We tried benadryl, all kinds of ointments and NOTHING helped. Since he works at a brewery there is always sugary liquids around him and therefore bees like to hang out there too. I have been trying to get him to go to the doctor since Christmas because everyone kept saying that the next sting would be much worse. Well my friends, after 5 months he finally went and they prescribed him some EpiPens.  He is now safe for the next 18 months which makes my heart more at ease.  

I went and got his prescription yesterday and it came with two pens and also a practice one. The practice one does not have a needle so that you can practice jamming it in your outer thigh without the actual medicine going into your body.  

Holland went camping this weekend and I unfortunately could not go because of a pesky pinched nerve in my back. I was trained this year on how to use an EpiPen because we had students with severe allergies. Therefore, I was the expert, right? So, to prepare him for what could happen( getting stung by bee in neck and being unable to breathe and dying, getting stung by bee), I used the practice pen and showed him the steps and then the final step came and I JAMMED IT IN HIS LEG! Then he said "There is a needle in there". My eyes went HUGE and I said "WHAT?!" There is not supposed to be one and "Oh my God, Holland I am so sorry!" "Does it hurt?" Hol:"Yes it hurts you just stabbed me with a needle!"

 He then said it would only be fair for me to let him stab me with it and I begged and told him that the practice one looked just like the one we used at school and there was no needle so you can do what it says......... PRACTICE! Then he laughed and said there was not a needle. 

He really just loves messing with me...... I am really glad I did not stab Holland with a needle. 

I also have come to the conclusion that I am the most gullible person in the world.....

What Has Been Happening?

So I have been on blogger before, However I never kept up with it but I am going to REALLY try this time. Background for those who do not know yet. Holland and I (Amanda) are High school sweethearts livin the dream of being what every child cannot wait to be....ADULTS. AHHH!

 I like to think that there are more exciting things going on in our lives since we no longer have to study for exams, read textbooks and write papers. Instead we are in the real world and applying everything we have learned in college! WHOOP! There are definitely times where Holland and I look at each other and reminisce of our beloved Aggieland but we are truly enjoying our lives in San Antonio with family and friends and of course each other!

I am wrapping up my first year of teaching and Holland is approaching his first year with Ranger Creek Brewery and Distillery. Although a large amount of energy goes into our careers, we still make time to do fun stuff in between.

Our latest project has been starting a garden!
I did not take pictures of when Holland first build the beds and I REALLY regret it. But here are some beginning pictures after we got most of our plants set up.

We got started late so we bought most of them from plants but we started some from seeds and those are going CRAZY!We had to put in lattice for the cucumbers and cantaloupe to grow on and it is taking off!

about 3 days after we put in lattice          ................................................two weeks later!

Hopefully the heat of the summer will not kill everything that has been trying its best to survive. I am hoping these peppers will ripen up soon so we can cook something awesome with them. 

I am so fascinated how the cantaloupes grasp on to the twine and hang on. I have taken about 20 pictures of just vines and rope :).