Fun-filled Weekend

Well it's been yet another fun-filled, exciting weekend in the Tepe household. We had another wedding to attend and Mal came to visit from Lex. Oh, and did I mention we had to take our car to the shop yet again?

Friday morning we took the Mazda to a repair shop to get checked out. Dan hit a large bump in the road on Thursday and it began making a terrible noise. We think it was a problem that was initially caused when the car was hit back in January during a snowy period. Turns out we need rear brakes replaced and a new exhaust = $$$. But thank goodness we had the trusty Celica, and Mal, to get us around in the meantime.

So I dropped Dan off at work and began preparing for our special guest. I picked up the apartment and made some cookies. Have you ever tried crinkle cookies? They ended up tasting really good but they are a PAIN to make! Hands down the messiest baking endeavor I've attempted.

Just into the oven.

I used the recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, except substituted cocoa powder for the melted bar chocolate. Turned out very well.

Again, very tasty cookies but very messy process. Do you have any tips to make it better?

Since Mal wasn't coming until Saturday afternoon, Friday night Dan and I just took it easy. Saturday morning I got up for a qick run, or what I thought would be a quick run. Unbeknownst to me, the first Saturday in August in Old Louisville (our neighborhood) is neighborhood yard sale day. I felt like every 5 seconds I was stopping to check out a piece of furniture or antique set of dishes. And it was such a pleasant morning for walking the sidewalks, so needless to say, I didn't do much running.

Just a few hours later, and after a major cleaning spree, Mal arrived and she and I headed out to get lunch. We ended up going to Whole Foods, which is really a grocery store but you can get prepared food there as well. We perused the aisles for a little bit, just admiring the fresh food items and experiencing the "organic-ness" of it all. We finally settled on our lunch selections: sushi for Mal, salad for me, and fruit to share. We also both got organic teas; I think we agreed that while it was much healthier, it was not near as tasty as Karen's.

After lunch we made quick mall run, then headed back to the apt so Dan and I could get ready for the wedding. One of the girls in my discipleship group through UofL was getting married! This was my 6th wedding this summer, and one that I was "dragging" Dan to also.

Yes, that is Dan wearing a pink tie!

Myself, Abbi, Alisha, Angela, and Tiffany. All of these girls are in my d-group. Don't you love the teal necklaces and pink chucks?

Dan and I left the wedding early (sort of...Dan would disagree) because we left Mal at the apt to just hang out while we were gone. Soon after we returned we got busy on a new adventure: dyeing Mal's hair. Now I am no expert in this area because I've never had color of any kind put into my hair. I guess this is why Micah had her doubts of my abilities to do a sufficient job. However, I was confident. I had colored my cousin Lauren's hair once and my mom's too (wait...I mean...um....not my mom's...). So Mal mixed the color and we got to work.

Right before this I said, "Dan, can you come take a picture of us?" Mal added, "For the blog!" We had to capture this moment of course! And by the way, Mal is sitting on the green milk can that sat in Grandma Cash's house by the phone.

Unfortunately we didn't take an "after" picture, but her hair did turn out well if I do say so myself. We spent the rest of the evening just watching TV and of course Mal and I both ended up falling asleep on the couch.

This morning Mal and I went to eat breakfast at Toast on Market downtown. It's a quaint little restaurant with really good food, especially breakfast food. This must be true; why else would we wait over an hour for a table? The hour went by quickly with coffee and conversation. I had raspberry lemonade, bacon, and a lemon souffle pancake (sooo good). Mal had fruit, a scrambled egg, and a blueberry-pecan pancake.

After breakfast (or was it lunch? We left at 1:00.) we shopped for a little bit at a few of our favorite spots: Marshall's, Dick's Sporting Goods, and TJ Maxx. And no afternoon of shopping and driving around town would be complete without a snack, a snack of the frozen kind. Graeter's never disappoints.

Mal went back to Lex later this afternoon, and Dan and I are presently enjoying a very delicious and healthy dinner of pepperoni pizza. It was a really fun weekend and now we get to enjoy a quiet night at home. Although this is no ordinary Sunday night. Why do you ask? Two words: WHO DEY. The Bengals are on TV and Dan is very excited about watching them. I am excited as well; football season is my favorite and knowing that it starts soon is making me very happy. But one of my faves comes on tonight too, HGTV Design Star.

Having two TVs is nice sometimes. :-)

The Country Life

Yesterday afternoon Dan and I drove to Fort Thomas Williamstown, Ky to stay a night with his parents, Marc and Sharon. They moved from Fort Thomas a few months ago and I still am not in the habit of saying Williamstown. It will come soon I'm sure.

We drove partly on the interstate, partly on the country roads of central Kentucky. Now, I am no stranger to the country roads because I've driven them my whole life. (And yes, I still manage to get a headache a.k.a. car sick when I am riding in the car on hilly, winding roads, a trait I am praying my children don't inherit.) But Dan however still gets excited about driving on the curvy highways lined with country houses and corn fields. He learned that you have to stay on your toes...you never know when you'll drive upon a truck or tractor going 15 mph.

We arrived in the afternoon and spent the next little while visiting and looking around the property. Marc and Sharon live in a cute white house settled on hilly acreage. We saw the recent updates on the house, toured the huge work shed in the back, and walked through Sharon's incredible garden. Name it...she's growing it! She even was so generous as to send us home with fresh blackberries and raspberries...yum! We also spent some time sitting on the back porch just relaxing. Dan was enamored with watching the birds through the binoculars.

Sarah and Jess came out to visit as well. We spent time visiting, ate a great dinner, played cornhole (which Dan and I dominated), had brownies and ice cream for dessert, and played the Wii. It was a hot day, but cooled off and turned out to be a very pleasant summer evening. We finished off the night with a movie and popcorn!

This morning we got up and ate breakfast at ...Cracker Barrel!!! Always a good choice in my book. The french toast never disappoints! Ha ha! After that Dan and I were back on the "open road" heading back to Louisville. We had a great time visiting family and look foward to returning to the thriving metropolis of Williamstown soon!

We are spending the evening relaxing...I think we're still full from our CB breakfast!

I have an interview at a school tomorrow for a middle school math position....yikes! Excited and nervous! Trying to prepare tonight. Dan is giving me some pointers. Will update soon on the results.

Gulf Shores Days 4 and 5

Saturday in Gulf Shores was another great day! We had full sun all day long so spent most of the day at the beach. The traffic at the condo really picked up because of the holiday weekend. The red, white, and blue were in full force. And Mom even conducted an impromptu trivia game on the beach on the history of America...imagine that! We stayed on the beach until late in the afternoon.

That night the Bell family went out for dinner and the Worley-Dean family ordered carry-out from a restaurant nearby. We ate our dinner on our balcony while listening to a man sing by the pool, with the smells of Fourth of July all around us...lots of people grilling! We all wanted to make sure we were down at the beach in time for the fireworks. They were shot off about two condos down from us, so we had a great view! It was great sitting on the beach in our beach chairs and watching them light up everything around us. After the fireworks show some of us went to get ice cream at Bruster's in Gulf Shores...you have to get ice cream at the beach, right?

Morgan and Micah on the beach before the fireworks show.

Sunday was, of course, the Fourth of July! It was our last official day of the trip so we wanted to take advantage of it. Like every other day, we spent the majority of the day on the beach. Unfortunately the "double red flag" kept us out of the ocean, but we tried to make the most of it. It was another hot and sunny day...one that gave some of us too much sun! We stayed out on the beach until late afternoon, then went in to get ready for the night's fireworks show in Gulf Shores, just a few miles from our condo in Orange Beach. The show started at 9:00 and we watched from the back of Milton's Ranier, which we parked right on the side of the road. We had the perfect view! The show was right in front of us, full of red, white and blue!

After the show we headed into Gulf Shores to eat at The Hangout, a big restaurant with a huge outdoor patio...definitely a family place. Thank goodness we got there when we did; as we were walking in it starting pouring down rain! Imagine that, rain again on the trip? It was definitely a theme of the week. We ate, bought some souvenirs, and headed back to the condo to start the worst part of the trip: packing to go home.

Micah, Morgan and I watching the fireworks show. Like our red, white and blue?

We packed up all of our things that night, so we could leave soon after we woke up Monday morning. Our family had to go back through Nashville, so I could get my car and drive back to Louisville. The Bell family went back through Mississippi and West Tennessee. Our goal was to leave at 7:00 am. If you know our family at all, you know that we set goals, but rarely attain them. Ha ha! We ended up waking up at 7:15, so we quickly got up and moving!

After a short detour (okay, okay we got lost, with no iPhone or GPS) we were on our way! We made two stops between Gulf Shores and Nashville. The first was to get gas and no one even got out of the car except me. The second stop was to eat breakfast/lunch at one of the best restaurants ever: Cracker Barrel. I don't think my mom could have let the vacation go by without at least one visit there. We made it to Nashville in good time, then parted ways from there. I rolled into Louisville and parked on 2nd St. right at 10:00 pm.

All in all the week was great! We got some sun, ate good food, watched Morgan "fight the waves," saw two fireworks shows, and had some good laughs during all of it. Rarely is there a dull moment when it comes to our family! But as Mom always says, "It's back to the real world now." So as I finish up this blog post, I am dreading looking foward to going to class in a couple of hours. And I can't tell you how much I'm looking foward to walking to campus on what is going to be the hottest day of the year. :-)

Gulf Shores Days 2 and 3

Well Thursday and Friday turned out to be much more eventful than Wednesday. Thursday was cloudy/rainy as well but we spent the day at the beach anyway. That night we went out to eat at a restaurant called Cobalt. The food was good and it had a great atmosphere. We began the dinner outside on the patio, but were fighting rain so had to move indoors to finish our meal. We all tried to leave room for dessert, of course. Everyone can ask Mom about the apple dessert she got. It was a deep fried apple pie dessert with ice cream...the best apple dessert she's ever had, she claims. It was very good, I can attest.

Mom, Micah, Morgan and I at dinner.

Friday was a much better day for the beach. We woke up to clear skies!! After we all slept in a little bit we headed down to the beach with supplies in hand: coolers, chairs, sunscreen, and the radio of course. Unfortunately because of the oil playing in the ocean is less than thrilling, so we filled the day with other activities: playing baseball, crab hunting, swimming at the pool, and laying under the umbrella when the sun was too intense. We came in from the beach late in the afternoon and spent the night at The Track, the arcade/go-kart/putt-putt golf place in Gulf Shores. It was Morgan's first time driving a go-kart so he was very excited. We all had fun racing each other around the track. We found that some of us are quite competitive...maybe too competitive (cough cough Micah). After go-karts we played putt putt golf. It was a quick game because right at hole 10, once again, the bottom fell out. Surprise surprise...rain got in the way of our plans. Our fun but rainy time at The Track was soon followed by the most interesting trip to McDonald's ever!

Two more days of fun left! The forecast looks good so far!

Morgan got sunburned on Wednesday, so he spent some time covered up and under the umbrella.

The oil, or "tar balls," that are on the beach. It does seem like each day that goes by, the worse the conditions get.

About to ride go-karts!

Micah and Katherine playing putt-putt.

This is how we all felt when our game was abruptly ended by the rain.

Gulf Shores Day 1: Rain

Mom, Morgan, and I arrived in Gulf Shores right around 2 am Wednesday morning. It was a long drive, but we managed to stay awake and entertain ourselves. The stop at Chick-Fil-A was also a plus!

We woke up Wednesday morning to a somewhat cloudy sky, but good beach weather nontheless. The "kids" (Katherine, Micah, Morgan and I) were preparing for the trip down to the ocean: putting on our bathing suits, lathering on the sunscreen, and filling the cooler with water and DC (diet coke). We got our beach chairs, walked out the door of the condo, and before we took 5 steps, the bottom fell out. (For those of you who have never heard the term "bottom fell out," it started to rain.) And never stopped....all...day...long. We were definitely bummed but tried to make the most of it. As mom said, "Would you rather be sitting on the beach watching it rain or sitting in Fulton watching it rain?"

Morgan eating and Micah laying on the couch. I guess no matter where you are, some things never change.

At around 3:00 or so we were all sitting on the balcony of the condo eating lunch and enjoying the rainy afternoon as much as possible. All of a sudden a huge swarm of seagulls began flying right up to the balcony. They just continued to fly back and forth in front of us. I don't know whose idea it was originally, probably my Mom's, but we started feeding the seagulls Wheat Thins. They would come right up to our balcony and eat them out of our hands. They would catch and eat them if we threw them into the air. It was pretty crazy.

Mom placed some Wheat Thins on the rail of the balcony. You can see one in this bird's mouth.

Around 4:30 we decided to go down to the beach even though it was still raining. I think Morgan was just too anxious and excited about getting in the water, especially because the last time he came to the beach was in 2002, when he was 7. He jumped right in! The waves were big and the water was rough and good for playing. Of course it's no surprise that Mom got out there and eventually Morg had to rescue her because she couldn't stay on her feet. (It's always the times you don't have a camera that you really need one. haha) After our trip to the ocean we made a short stop at the pool then went back upstairs to the condo.

Morg and I before going down to the beach.

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out in the condo. More rain is in the forecast, but hopefully it won't stay too long. We are looking foward to a good remainder of the trip. Morg said it best in his Facebook status update: "Feeding these seagulls and fighting these waves have been awesome. Can't wait for the fireworks and the amusement park."

Weekend in Fliptown

Dan and I spent this past weekend on the road. Our college friends Bo and Susan got married in Murray, KY so we decided to make a whole weekend trip out of it. It was a great weekend, never a dull moment as usual. We left Friday afternoon around 5:30. I think it was the hottest day in Louisville so far, around 92. We got on the road and immediately noticed the temperature gauge on the car hammering toward the H, so we turned off the AC and soon it stabilized. Needless to say, 3 1/2 hours driving straight into the sun with windows rolled down made for a very hot car ride.

We got to Fulton around 8:30 and ate dinner, outside on the patio of course. Mom and Milton made buchetta chicken, bread, pretzel salad, and strawberry cheesecake layered dessert. We spent the rest of the night just talking and playing with Milton's new toy: the iPad!

The next morning, after a short power outage, we had breakfast of blueberry waffles and sausage balls. We spent the afternoon sitting by the pool, spending time with the family, and watching Duke, our mini dachshund, swim around in the pool. Swimming is his favorite summer activity.

Dan and I left around 5:45 to head to Murray, just a short 35 miles from Fulton. I think the whole drive was spent talking about the acres of corn that were beginning to grow, tobacco, chicken barns, and other "country" things; I was educating Dan about country life I guess. When we got to Murray we drove around and took a little trip down Memory Lane. Campus looked different in some places, but it was the same old MSU. We both have so many fond memories of Murray, individually and as a couple; that is where we met after all!

Matt B's Pizza-one of Dan's faves in Murray. He and his friends were very frequent customers.

The Gate on campus.

Dan's house on Elm St. where he lived his senior year.

After driving around we went to the wedding and reception. Bo and Susan are college friends, but Susan and Dan actually grew up together in Fort Thomas, so we got to see lots of friends. We were able to visit with friends we haven't seen since leaving Murray, as well as spend a few minutes with our friend Mark Whitt, our campus minister who married us almost a year ago. It was a great time. After the reception we drove back to Fulton and hung out on the back patio while my mom, Micah, cousin Gina and aunt Cathy were enjoying their favorite summer past time, playing Phase 10.

The next morning mom made sausage breakfast casserole, blueberry muffins, and hasbrowns for breakfast and we ate, again, on the patio. Can you tell we like to spend time outside on the patio? We left Fulton around 1:30 and I was absolutely dreading another hot ride back to Louisville. However, the return wasn't bad at all. With the sun behind us and lower humidity it was actually a quite pleasant drive.

All in all it was a great weekend. We both came back very tired and spent the evening just relaxing and mentally preparing for the week ahead: work for Dan and grad school for me! Always good to be in Flip!

Dan and I in front of my parnets house before leaving for the wedding.