A Weekend With the Family-In-Law

It was a fun and relaxing weekend in Tennessee for the Mr. and I. We thoroughly enjoyed our time spent with M.'s family and wish that Monday (or well, Tuesday) didn't have to come so soon.

Our visit included many fun activities like visiting M.'s high school football coach (did I mention M. played football?), one of his favorites, enjoying a fast food lunch of burgers and fries at "Pal's" (a local eatery I have been dying to try out ever since my first visit to M.'s hometown -- it may have been the giant hot dog on the roof that reeled me in), learning how to change the brake pads on a car without having to spend $200 (yes, our car was ready for a new set -- a big 'thank you' to Mr. MBC for his expertise), and realizing that stuffing yourself silly with junk food all day long is bound to make you just a little bit sick.

I've learned my lesson from that last bit (maybe), but I must say, the dinner we enjoyed with M.'s family on Friday night was super fun. We visited a local restaurant with a name that would make a little girl giggle. The food was seriously delicious -- I'm pretty sure it took me 20 minutes to decide on what I was going to order. After enjoying a delicious sandwich and mowing down a half a plate of homemade chips and blue cheese dressing I actually decided it was a good idea to order dessert. The dessert I will say, was divine. Key Lime pie. Two different layers -- one tart and one sweet with a perfectly, perfect graham cracker crust all topped with a dollop of whipped cream -- simply said -- YUM. The rest of our table enjoyed desserts too -- a giant piece of turtle cake (a miraculous concoction of chocolate cake with caramel, walnuts, vanilla cream cheese frosting and coconut flakes) and an equally massive piece of classic chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. You all know that I love my food -- and I must say, I was impressed with this local joint. I may make M. take me back there on future visits...or maybe I'll just drag M.'s mom along with me so that we can indulge our sweet tooth (or should I say, teeth?!)!

Consequently, I ate too much and got a little bit sick, but alas, I bounce back quickly and was enjoying my time with M.'s family again in no time. That evening we just hung out and talked and reminisced about funny family stories. M.'s dad told a funny anecdote about a trip to Disney World. Those types of evenings are always my favorite -- good food, good conversation and good (in this case, great) people.

The next day we were up and ready to enjoy our Saturday. We decided to spend time shopping around at the stores we don't have in DC. First we stopped for a bite to eat where we enjoyed more family story telling (I've loved getting to know my family-in-law). After lunch we stopped by the infamous Sam's Club for over sized portions of our favorite things -- although I'm pretty sure we were visiting just so M. could check out the TV's. We made our way through the rows and rows of stuff ending up with a cart full of nothing at all. D. (M.'s younger brother) and I got a kick out of M.'s little joke of picking up boxes upon boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and I was fascinated with the GIANT jars of "cheese balls" (I've never had one and never plan on trying one). It's not like we've never visited one of those "bulk" stores before, but for some reason our experience this past weekend was extra entertaining.

After shopping all afternoon and picking up a few necessities we headed back home to relax. The weather wasn't any cooler in Tennessee so the humid, hot air made us all a little sleepy. M.'s mom made a delicious dinner of chicken and pork skewers (on the grill) with corn, mashed potatoes, and broccoli and after dinner we ate the "chocolate cobbler" that I prepared (remember it from this post?!).

That night we watched Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married" (appropriately, D. commented that TBS has quickly become the Tyler Perry network) which I actually really like. We also watched the video that I posted on my blog last week and the video I made for our rehearsal dinner (I'll be posting about the rehearsal dinner tomorrow!). I made a few copies for M.'s mom to send to his grandmother and some other family members. We stayed up late that night hanging out and enjoying the company.

Sunday morning we slept in, watched the Sunday morning news shows and then gathered our stuff for the car ride home. M.'s mom ordered pizza for the family for lunch and made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (my favorite!). We were definitely sad to leave, but at the same time excited to be back to our place in the city. The start to another work week certainly wasn't all that welcome, but it was time to get back into the swing of things.

I'm pretty excited that things are so slow in DC right now. Our office hours have officially been changed to 9 am - 3 pm through the rest of the month of August and the beginning of September until the Fall interns arrive. M. is deep in the job hunt and we're all confident that he'll find the perfect fit here very soon!

Enjoy your Tuesday!