Heart surgery

So, last week Andy's mom went into the hospital for chest pains while she was exercising. Over the next couple of days of her being in the hospital and having lots of testing done, the doctors found that she had some major blockages and needed a quadruple bypass. Scary stuff.
Praise God everything went well with the surgery and we drove up Friday to spend some time with her. Andy's sister Kari had been there all week with Annette and just went home today. We are so thankful that she was able to be there that long and take such good care of things.

Hanging out in the hospital...

Can you tell we were all a bit tired?

Thank you for the prayers and text this weekend. Annette is one tough lady and I'm sure that will show with her recovery from this!

Bachelorette Extravaganza

As mentioned a couple weeks ago my best friend Sara is getting married on May 1st, this weekend we headed up to OKC for a very short trip. I thought I was going to have to make the long boring drive by myself, but Andy was able to come since we didn't leave till Saturday and we stopped in Mansfield so he could buy a transmission off craigslist (what I will do to not have to drive 6 hrs by myself!).
We had a blast at Michael Murphy's Deuling Piano Bar. I was super excited that bricktown (downtown OKC) finally got a piano bar because they are just so stinkin fun. How do you not love sitting around with friends and strangers who inevitably become your friends because you both realized that you know the mysterious 3rd verse of "Friends in Low Places" or belt out "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the top of your lungs? Seriously, just so stinkin fun.
Anyways, here are a few of the pictures:

The McBride to be and I!

This cowboys loved him some Sara!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!

My little bro-bro is turning 23 today! This is just mind blowing to me. The earliest memory I have of my life is getting the phone call from my dad telling me that I had a little brother. I wasn't too happy. I had clearly requested a sister, or a puppy, either would of been great. A brother? Even at nearly 4 years old I knew he would change my life.

There's no way around this statement. I completely tortured Brian growing up. He wore more dresses than my Barbie dolls did. When my mom told me not to pick him up when he was a baby, I obeyed, I rolled him down the hall instead. When we played hide and seek I locked him in an ice chest, but not to worry I left the water spigot open for him to breath- for some reason though I still got in trouble for that one ;) He put up with so much from me.

Somehow this patient, sweet hearted boy grew up and is now turning 23. Mind blowing. I am so proud of him. Hands down my brother is the coolest, smartest, funniest person I know. Whatever he choose to do with his life he can and I look forward to seeing where his adventurous spirit and great attitude on life leads him. I love you so much Brian- happy happy birthday to you!

Not so great outdoors.....

I gave up. That's the only way to excuse/explain/justify my scary back yard. I know nothing about grass, I'm too cheap to water it consistently, and because it's so ugly I don't spend much time out there so I pretend the 3 foot weeds don't exist....
Proof:

This dandelion was quite impressive, part of me almost wanted to keep it just to see how big would get...


I really want to take advantage of our deck this summer and be able to invite people in the back yard without it having to be dark outside so they won't judge....
We had beautiful weather this weekend and I was getting over a nasty cold/whatever is going around this week so we laid low this weekend and worked on the yard a little. Andy mowed and edged (and of course worked on his car a lot) and got potted a few things

A few of the potted plants...

Tomatoes (I know they don't quite need the support thingy, but I put it up so it would know I have high expectations for it)....

Strawberries (hopefully one day)!

After months of pestering I finally got Andy to build me my compost bin! I love it and am so happy when I get to take my some kitchen scraps out there and feel and green and know that I am making "back gold" (haha mom, that's for you)


And yes, if I'm being realistic most of these suckers will last about 3 weeks before I kill them off, but let a girl dream...in my gardening fantasy I have cute garden clogs with pink shovel that I tote out every Saturday morning to care for my beautiful thriving plants that make the neighbors jealous. Oh and while I'm dreaming I also have a huge vegetable garden in which I have a plethora of big juicy heirloom tomatoes that I have to give away because I have so many. Sigh. Back to my 3 foot weed reality....

Okies comes down for GIRLS WEEKEND!

So on May 1st one of my besty best friends- Sara-is getting married! Yea! She is having 2 bachelorette parties and the first one was down here in Austin this weekend. I had not meet some of Sara's work friends so I wasn't really sure what the weekend would be like. They were so super awesome and I'm sad it took us this long to finally meet up! We had tons of fun despite nothing working out as we planned- it was cold, raining, windy, just icky weather, we have no heater right now so the house was pretty cold . Then Sara and Chandi got really sick! We had all sorts of fun stuff planned to do, but plan B of pulling the bed in the living room and having a weekend long slumber party was pretty awesome.

So Friday night we went to Chuy's!



Then Saturday we went to IKEA and Round Rock outlets for a bit then Sara started getting a fever and so we headed straight home.
Poor little sickly Sara and Chandi


So we layed around and watched movies and ate lots of food.


Saturday night we just went and ate at Cheddar's since it was close and the girls still weren't feeling well.



Know Sara and Lisa for 12+ years!!! Craziness.


Can you tell they are sisters?

Then Saturday night we were feeling a little more feisty and so we danced! Stacey and Rene taught me the electric slide and then we attempt to learn the Thriller dance.

Lisa and I free styling. And by free styling I mean being spazzy and weird of course.


So the weekend didn't go as planned, but sometimes those are the best times. I am heading up to OKC in 2 weeks for her other bachlorette par-tay and cannot wait! Sara and Lisa have been my friends forever, but now I've got 3 more beautiful friends and look forward to hanging out with them again in just 2 weeks!

Kite Festival!

So this Sunday we headed downtown to Zilker park for the Kite Festival with the Fullers! After a very long search for a parking space (the combination of the kite festival and SXSW resulted in little parking) we finally made it!


Rachel and I very happy before our 1.5 hour quest for a parking space...


Paul was such a trooper, we had to walk quite a bit and poor Paul was on crutches!



Perfect day!





I just love Austin, the more I go to cool events like this and get to walk around Zilker and eat at fun restaurants on Barton Springs, the more in love with it I fall. So blessed that I get to live in such a fun city!

Threlkelds come to Austin!

So Mom and Dad came down to visit Thursday and Friday, then left Saturday morning for their must deserved vacation through Mississippi. We had a lot of fun (as always)! I love when they come to visit!
We were bust little bee's on Friday, first we went to visit the Capitol since they had never been.

Then went to South Congress and went to some very Austin-y shops (read: eclectic and weird) and ate at one of my favorite places- Home Slice Pizza!



Then we went to the nursery and they helped me figure out what I needed. My mom is an awesome gardener so I was so happy to have her input.
(my dad loves the candid shots...)

We came home with all my plant goodies and we dug up all the weeds (this was no small feat!), planted my new flowers, and mulched the bed!
Before:

Seriously- best parents ever...


AFTERS!



We planted begonias, cast iron plants, mexican heather, and something else I don't remember the name of! I am so lucky to have such wonderful parents who drive 8 hours out of their way on vacation to help me out like that! THANK YOU! Love you guys so much!