The Hutchins/Cash/Worley-Dean Thanksgiving Holiday

Family traditions. Everyone has them. But the Thanksgiving tradition that my family has is one that is pretty unique. We always thought it was kinda lame growing up, but I guess when you think about it, it's pretty neat.

This year was Dan and I's year to spend Thanksgiving with his family.....but I guess you could say I am the one that skipped out. My brother, who lives in San Diego and comes home maybe twice a year, and his girlfriend were coming to spend Thanksgiving with OUR family....in FULTON! So Dan and I spent the holiday weekend with our respective families, 5 hours away from each other in opposite ends of the state. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking about my family's Thanksgiving 2011.

Mom loves her some Christmas decorations! And each year it's fun to see what new things she has out or how everything is arranged. This year she had everything out before Thanksgiving, a first for her! It sure made it feel more like the holidays. And the fireplace always makes it feel more cozy, especially on the mornings where we just sat around talking and telling stories!

As long as us "younger ones" have been alive, our family has spent Thanksgiving Day at an old school house in Water Valley, Ky. Water Valley is a small, small town about 5 miles from Fulton. This school has been around since the 40's and our extended family has been coming here once a year on Thanksgiving for 50 years. In fact, this year was the 50th year! My grandma Cash, my mother's mother, and her brothers and sisters and their families have been coming here every year for 50 years! We usually have about 120 people!

The front of the school house. It is now a community center that people can rent out for special occassions, such as annual Thanksgiving get-togethers!

There are sitll pictures on the wall of all the different 8th grade classes that graduated from this school!

Since this year was the 50th year, we had t-shirts made and had a group picture!  My grandmother's maiden name was Hutchins, so our t-shirts say "Hutchins: a link to our past and a bridge to our future."

Do you really want to be at the end of THAT food line??

Micah, myself, and Mallory before eating lunch.

Our cousin Brad's daughter, Ava. I just had to include this pic!

Two of my uncles, Barry and Waymon. These are two of Dan's faves in my family. :-)

You know it's "big time" when the local news station comes to cover your family's Thanksgiving dinner! WPSD Local 6 came to interview the remaining 3 siblings of my Grandma Cash. There were originally 9 of them!

Thanksgiving night we did what all other families do: watch football. Because Allison went to the "real UT" as she calls it (University of Texas), we watched the Texas/Texas Tech game. She had to represent her Longhorns!

Friday night we got together at my uncle Mike's shop and ate chili, roasted marshmallows, played cornhole, and watched football. Lauren likes her mallows extra crispy!

I pride myself on being able to make the perfect S'more.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have from Saturday when we all watched the UK/UT game together. This is a very calm picture of Morgan and Duke, but you better believe that it was an exciting afternoon in our house. Becuase Fulton is right on the Kentucky/Tennessee border, about half of our extended family members are UK fans and the other half are UT fans. It was fun being able to be UK fans for once!



Saturday night some of the "cousins" went out to eat in Union City, Tn. Below is the conversation that happened before this picture was taken:

Morgan: Micah, take a picture of me, Maegan and Mallory.

Micah: Don't you want me to be in the picture too?

Morgan: No.

Haha. Morgan keeps us laughing all the time.

But somehow Micah found her way in the picture! Think we love scarves??

And Matthew and Allison had to join the group! Wow, time goes by fast. Morgan is 16 and not the "little one" anymore!

It was a great holiday weekend with family!

Mission Pumpkin Continued

I did not quit my mission: pumpkin....although it may seem that way due to my lack of posting! This post is several weeks behind schedule, seeing as how this pumpkin selection was eaten on November 12!!!! But teaching and graduate school and holiday festivities just don't seem to allow much time for blogging. However, that is being remedied as we speak! I have several posts planned and, with Christmas break just around the corner, time to spare!

On Saturday Nov. 12, my sister Mallory came for a visit and arrived just around lunch time. As much as we love our Panera's and McAlisters' and similar restaurants, there is a local lunch place that is special to us and we hadn't been to since June 12, 2009. My and Dan's families and my bridesmaids had lunch at the Butterfly Garden Cafe the day before our wedding and it was the perfect, soup-and-sandwichy, girly place for a bridesmaids brunch. Mal hadn't been there since that day, although I like to revisit regularly, so I suggested that we eat lunch there.

They always have a great selection of sandwiches, soups, and salads and a great seasonal menu that changes often. Their servings are quite plentiful, so the question always comes at the end of the meal: Do we want dessert?? Do we think we could manage more food?? But the answer to that question when you are at the Butterfly Garden is always YES! Bring on the dessert! Their desserts are wonderful, especially their gooey cakes.

Mal got the Butterscotch Gooey Cake and I got the Pumpkin Crunch. The gooey cake was easily one of the richest things you would ever put into your stomach and the crunch was warm, the perfect seasonal mixture of pumpkin and a crunchy topping.



Mal is trying to decide what to get! There are too many choices!




My Pumpkin Crunch in the front and the Butterscotch Gooey Cake in the back. Yum!



Why I Love FRIDAYS

There is something about a Friday morning. Knowing the weekend is just around the corner, that another long week at school (or work, for you) is behind you, sleeping in the next day, and you get a few days to (try) not think about your job. Here are just a few reasons why I love Fridays!

1. Knowing that the next time I lay down in bed I won't have to worry about getting up at 6:00!
2. Wearing jeans, a hoodie, and tennis shoes to school! At my school, if you donate $10 to Relay For Life, you are allowed to wear jeans on Fridays and I love it!
3. Getting my traditional Friday morning coffee. It is not rare for me to wake up before my alarm thinking about what selection I'll get at either McDonald's, Starbucks, Sunergos, or Heine Brothers. On this particular Friday I got a peppermint mocha (only $1) from McDonald's. I am a sucker for holiday flavors!
4. Friday night is sometimes the laziest night in the Tepe household. Although there does come an occassional Friday night where I get a boost of energy and work til Midnight, typically I walk into our apartment on a Friday afternoon, change clothes, sit down on the couch and don't get back up!
5. One less day until Summer Vacation!

Mission Pumpkin: Pumpkin Spice Latte

My "mission: pumpkin" has been slow going, but still going nonetheless. A couple of weeks ago I made my first loaf of chocolate chip pumpkin bread. It was wonderful. I like to use a combination of pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and all spice for a perfect spicy combination to go along with the pumpkin. The recipe I use is found on a post from this time last year.

This past weekend Dan and I were in NKY for the Kohrs wedding, a culminating event to a very long but eventful and exciting fall wedding season. It was a perfect fall weekend with warm temps during the day and cool temps at night. Saturday morning while Dan and his buddies prepared for the wedding (apparently playing video games is a necessity), a couple of the wives and I went shopping! We were meeting at Casey's house that morning and I couldn't drive by the Starbucks in Fort Thomas without stopping for coffee.

I've tried the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks before....a few years ago....and remember being quite unimpressed. I thought to myself, "People go crazy over these things, what's the big deal?" But on this particular day I thought I would give it another try. Afterall, it had been several years and my palatte for coffee and different flavors has changed quite a bit. I gave my order to the barista and patiently waited while my spicy expresso drink was being made just for me. I perked up when I heard "tall pumpkin spice latte for Maegan." I thanked the barista and walked back to the car and sat down inside before taking the first sip. I anticipated a not-so-pumpkiny-too-spicy kind of flavor. But to my surprise....it was really good! A great combination of pumpkin flavor and spice; and the steamed whole milk helped out too!

And now I think I've become one of "those" people. The kind that freak out and post all over Facebook on the day that comes every Fall, the day when Starbucks starts making annual their pumpkin spice lattes. Well....maybe not that extreme, but I can now call myself a fan of the pumpkin spice latte. I look forward to trying similar drinks at local coffee shops in Louisville, as well as continuing my search for pumpkiny goodness!

Mission: Pumpkin

I love the fall. The cool nights. Sweaters and boots. Wearing a hoodie to school on Friday with my jeans! But most of all, I love the many recipes and foods that contain fall's signature ingredient: pumpkin! I am making it my mission to become a pumpkin connnoisseur, to get personal with all things pumpkin in the next couple of months. It's only a matter of time before I bake my first batch of chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

Here are the first couple of items to cross off of my pumpkin bucket list this year!

Pumpkin Item #1: Graeter's Pumpkin Ice Cream

I got this wonderful waffle cone filled with pumpkiny goodness while I was with my good friend Shelley at the St. James Art Fair a couple of weeks ago. It's a huge art fair that happens right in our backyard...literally. Our neighborhood of Old Louisville basically shuts down for the weekend, so I got home on Friday from school and never left. Graeters was just one of tons of food vendors lining the streets. Once I saw that they were selling the pumpkin ice cream, I knew I had to partake.

Pumpkin Item #2: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancake from Alfalfa (Lexington, Ky)

I went to Alfalfa with sister Mallory while Dan and I were in Lexington last weekend for a wedding. There were many items on the menu that sounded wonderful, including the apple cinnamon pancake that Mal ended up getting, but once I spotted the chocolate chip pancakes on the menu my my was made up. We split a farmer's market quiche and each got a pancake of our choice. Many of you are probably thinking "pumpkin pancake....eww." But the pumpkin taste was just subtle enough to give the pancake an extra something special, not overpowering at all. And the chocolate chips added the right amount of sweetness.


Stay tuned for more pumpkiny treats!

Fin Land

Dan's family has serious connections with Mr. Margaritaville himself, Jimmy Buffett. Each year Buffett comes to Cincy for an outdoor concert, and this year we were fortunate enough to get tickets! Not only did we get tickets for great seats, but we got stickers that got us into the elite Pre-Show before the concert. Parrot-heads were out in full force...and were quite entertaining I might add! Thanks JL for a great night!



Look at all those parrot-heads!

 


Here's Dan standing by the pre-show tent. Almost time to start the show!

 


All the people that had to sit behind us. We were on the 10th row.

 


Dan and his sister, Sarah. We missed you Jess!

 


Brother-Sister love. Yup.

 


Dan, Sarah, Ryan and I.

 


Jimmy himself! See how close we were!

 


Get those fins ready!!

 


Everyone had their fins up!

 


 


The only group picture I have. Dan's aunts, Amy and Beth, Dan's uncle Bob, Ryan, and Sarah. (There's that psycho dancing lady on the end!)

 


This pic is courtesy of Sarah and the only shot of just us. Thanks JL(Dan's uncle) and Buffett for a great night!

 

First Day of School

Well the "first day" is finally over!! We saw about 500 middle school students enter the building this morning, and a few hours later we watched them all walk out. Our 6th graders looked scared to death when they came in. We could barely get them to say "here" while doing attendance. But by the end of the day they had gotten acquainted with the hallways, classrooms, new teachers, and new classmates and were more relaxed. (Yes, I've already had one girl cry on me because someone said something "mean" to her. It should be a fun year!)

"Are you Mrs. Teepee??" I heard this more times than I can count on one hand, but it's always a fun way to break the ice. The new group of kids at our school seem to be a great bunch. I am excited about teaching four sections of 6th grade Math and two sections of 6th grade Pre-Algebra this year. We have a number of very bright students and I look foward to challenging them throughout the year. I know that hanging out with 150 12-year olds isn't everyone's idea of a dream job, but I love it and how exciting it is!

My school in Bullitt County, Ky is in a very rural setting and many of our kids come from diverse homes. It is a wonder that they can overcome some of these challenges each day, walk into school, and still have a smile on their faces. We are taking measures to raise our expectations and they are exceeding them!

Is it bad I am already counting down days to Christmas break? Haha. With KTIP AND classes AND new math standards AND a new teaching assignment AND new school related responsibilities, it will be a difficult year. But I will try to keep my attitude positive and my time well-managed.

Here's to a great second year!

Farm Fresh Dinner

I know that these days it is very cool to have your own garden. Even in big cities like Louisville there are tons of people that grown their own produce. Dan and I have not arrived at that level I guess. I tried to start small last year and grew my own basil....and eventually killed my own basil. Hopefully in the future we can take after Dan's parents and have a good sized garden. But before that we have to have land. And before that we have to buy a house. Hmmm. So until that day, fresh food markets and farmer's markets will have to suffice.

Early this summer Dan and I were walking a walk around Old Louisville when we discovered that a fresh food market had opened up just a block from our apartment. We stopped in, met the owner, and surveyed what he had to offer. I was very excited that The Root Cellar had opened and had a very large variety of Kentucky Proud fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat products.

Last week I made a visit and picked up some items so we could have a Root Cellar meal. Everything we ate came from the market and made a very tasty meal! I look foward to visiting the Root Cellar year round and experimenting with the seasonal foods it has to offer!



carmen red pepper, squash, and cucumber




Sweet corn on the cob



Ground bison for bison burgers





A stove full of fresh eats




Our market fresh meal of bison burgers, sauteed peppers and squash, sweet corn on the cob, and cantaloupe (for me). As Rachel Ray would say, "Yum-O!"



Brother-Sister Weekend

This weekend while Dan was California dreamin, Mallory, Micah, and Morgan came to Louisville for a visit. We had been planning this weekend all summer and it finally arrived! We had made plans to go to Holiday World and do anything else that sounded fun. Although the forecast was calling for a scorcher of a weekend, we weren't intimidated and didn't let the heat keep us from having good times for a few days.

They all arrived Thursday night from the respective ends of the state. After getting food and a quick trip to Target, we hung out at our apartment and rested from the long days we all had from either shopping, driving or working.

Our plan was to leave Louisville at 9:30 am Friday for Holiday World, and we surprisingly got "up and at em" pretty easily. Morgan was the only one of us that had been to Holiday World before, and we were all excited to get to Santa Clause, IN and get inside the park.

We thought that going on a Friday might make for smaller crowds and shorter lines, but the park was crowded! The heat index wasn't keeping anyone away! (Can you believe we saw people in jeans??? long sleeves??? sweat pants of all things???) We rode a couple of rides in the amusement park before heading to Splashin Safari water park, which is where we spent the majority of our day. We never got extremely overheated; I guess the water slides and shaded staircases were enough to keep us oblivious of the temperature. Each water slide was really fun and we all had a blast.



Gotta get a photo with Santa!





Morg is enjoying some ice cream before we left the park.



We got back into Louisville around 8:00 and ordered pizza from The Sicilian and picked it up on our way back to my apartment. We were all exhausted and enjoyed relaxing for the rest of the evening.

Saturday morning we had waffles and bacon for breakfast, after sleeping in of course! We didn't have much of an agenda for the day except to go to the Bats game at 6:00 pm. Again, we were aware of the forecast, but were determined to have a good time anway. After a short trip to the mall we arrived at Louisville Slugger Field around 5:30. I'm sure we each secretly thought "Oh my gosh, am I really about to sit out in this heat....on purpose?"

We bought our tickets when we got to the stadium, and bought the best remaining seats that just happened to be right in the sun. We made our way to our section and settled into the hot seats.



View from our section





Gotta get some Cracker Jacks!





I know this picture is dark, but I had to capture the best part of the day: the sun going down!



Althought the Bats lost and it was miserably hot, I think we all ended up having a good time. After the game we drove just across the river to Rocky's, an Italian restaurant with a great view of the Louisville skyline. When the hostess asked if we would like to sit inside or on the patio, we all said "inside please!" We needed some air conditioning! Dinner was great: Morgan got a serious Caesar salad fix, Micah enjoyed pasta, which she loves, and Mal and I got our sweet tooth satisfied with a quick trip to The Widow's Walk Creamery, a walk-up ice cream parlor in Indiana with an incredible view of Louisville.

We slept in again and soon the out-of-towners were on their way home. It was a really fun weekend that was the last big summer event for those of us starting back to school soon. Morgan and Micah kept us entertained, Mal kept us organized and clean, and I kept us fed. It was a good brother-sister weekend.

Random Quote from Morgan:

"Getting your driver's license is a lot like shaving. It's really fun at first but gets old after like three months."