Fall already?

I woke up today and it felt/looked like Fall! I love Fall and always look forward to it, but today it's been making me feel kind of sad/melancholy.  Maybe because the beginning of Fall means the ending of Summer. Or maybe that year in Cali has made me used to a pretty constant weather pattern. hehe.

Since it was such a beautiful morning, D and I decided to go for a bike ride.

The clouds today are ginormous! They're all fluffy like cotton balls and I feel like I could reach out and grab them! On our way back, we stopped by a garage sale and we saw this really cool piece that I fell in love with. It's an old window with some of the panes painted in different colors. I've seen these before, but I really liked this one. The colors were really vibrant and it was just really cute! I'm wondering how it would look @ TPW. Actually, the red would clash with our color scheme, but I talked to the girl who made it and she actually had some door frames that she could paint. So I emailed Joelle and we'll see if they could fit in to our plan.

After our bike ride, we decided to jump in the pool.  We're nearing the end of the season,so this weekend is probably our last chance to go swimming.  The water was FREEZING! I mean ICE cold! We swam some laps and then jumped out. hehe I think our plans for the rest of the evening are to go to Schmidty's for dinner and then up to Little Cousin Jasper.

I know I haven't been updating a lot the past couple weeks. I just haven't been in a writing mood.  Last week D and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary! We went down to Brown County and spent the night @ Abe Martin Lodge. Went horseback riding and hiking! Browsed around Nashville a bit. We had a fun time!

I'll try to update w/ some photos soon! Happy Saturday! :)

Bike Ride in the Countryside

Sitting here halfway watching "Extreme Couponing" ...I find the show so annoying sometimes because it seems that people buy ridiculous amount of food that they don't really need. Why not donate a lot of these things if they're pretty much free? Why must you have hundreds of boxes of Pepsi?  Just watched an episode where one couple got like a couple thousand dollars worth of groceries for $0 and then donated it all to the local food bank.  Now that's a good use of coupons. :)

We're up in Rensl for the weekend. It's been a busy and frustrating week.  We FINALLY got our demo permit approved, thank goodness! I think the contractor is going to start the demo work sometime this next week. It's been like pulling teeth to get sign bids, but I think we've finally narrowed down our options.  Looks like we may have to apply for a variance w/ the city in order to get more square footage for our exterior sign. So that sounds like a giant pain! Had a meeting w/ our designer on Tuesday and then communicated via email on Thursday. I'll be honest--I've been frustrated w/ how the design process has been going, but I won't get into all of that right now. We decided to go w/ Comcast for our phone so we're waiting to get our phone number.  Oh, and we ordered our drop in cold well for our toppings. Our blueprints are almost finished so the architect should hopefully be turning those in on Monday! :)

Oh, I was in my first bidding war on ebay. I saw found these really cool vintage pop bottle caps on Thursday with only like 3-4 hours left to bid. I bid on them at the last minute and in the last five minutes was bidding against some other person, but finally won! yay! I'm pretty excited about these bottle caps! We're going to use them as a part of the decor @ TPW. Haven't decided yet if they will be on the tables or the walls. We shall see! :)

D and I went for a bike ride yesterday and again today. Yesterday we rode out to St. Joe and today we rode around the countryside.  We saw a little baby deer over near Bunkum Road and got caught in the rain. It was a fun ride! :)

Well, that's all for now. Here are a few pictures from our trip to Indy a week or so ago. 

Wednesday 8/15: Checking out equipment/furniture in Indy.

Lots of freezers/fridges.

Trying out the booths @ TRS

I think this was our favorite restaurant supply place

Sitting in front of YoJoy waiting for Uncle Gary

Self-serve frozen yogurt place in Carmel

Cute!

Had a good visit w/ Uncle Gary

Cute logo!

Dinner @ Qdoba. Love their burritos!

Okay, well that's all for now. Happy Sunday! :)

Difficulty

I'm feeling pretty tired tonight.  Just sent in  like 10 quote request  to sign companies down in Indy.  We've been trying to get quotes from companies here in Lafayette, but have only received 1 out of 3.  Getting a little frustrated.  Went in and talked to another sign company here in Laffy this afternoon and emailed the info this evening. So  maybe we'll hear back from them soon. Who knows. I'm so frustrated w/ Lafayette. lol. Everything is so complicated here.

Getting frustrated w/ decor.  I won't even go into all of that right now.  Have a meeting w/ Joelle tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I'll try to keep you updated!

D and I had a  meeting w/ the architect this afternoon. Discussed a lot of details. Will hopefully have the blueprints ready to send in to the state by this Friday or next Monday.  We shall see.

Went to Chipotle for lunch today.  We're becoming regulars there.  They have some good employees.  Hope we can get some like them.

Stopped by Jennica's apartment and visited w/ her for awhile.  We actually stayed there for a few hours.  Talked about her first day of school/classes and our yogurt shop decor.  Ordered some Papa Johns.  A pizza for only $9.99. Can't beat that!

It was nice out this morning/afternoon, but has been raining this evening.

Have been working on decor research since we got home and then those sign bids and catching up on emails. I'm tired! I think I'm going to head to bed. Just felt like updating.

Sorry no pictures! Maybe next time! Goodnight!

Weekend in Rensl

We're in Rensl for the weekend.  Came up yesterday afternoon and will probably head back to laffy tomorrow sometime.  Jennica headed down there late tonight.  She has been up in Rensl all summer but starts back to school on Monday and wanted to get re-adjusted.

It's been a fairly busy week.  On Monday we spent the first night at our duplex. Went to Walmart as soon as we got in to town to buy a few things.  Our car was packed full already so we weren't able to buy everything that we needed. We didn't have room in the back so we had to stack all our groceries on my lap. haha. Kinda funny. We didn't even have clean sheets, so had to stay up late doing laundry before we could even go to sleep. 

On Tuesday we had a meeting w/ a sign guy to get a bid for exterior signage. Joelle came over Tuesday evening to work on decor.  We ordered pizza and had a working dinner. 

On Wednesday, we went to Indy to check out some restaurant supply stores.  Joelle met us @ the first place and we researched some booth seating.  Then D and I went on to a few other places.  We were over near Carmel, so met up with Uncle Gary for some yogurt. Afterwards, we went over to Fry's Electronics and then finally headed home.  I think we got home around 10:30 or 11ish.  

Thursday was rainy/stormy and not an overly pleasant day.  Spent time working on decor research and a bunch of footwork w/ the demolition permit. We had to get the owner's signature before turning it in, which was a pain. Ran the permit up to the city office. Chipotle has become our new favorite eating place, so that's where we ate dinner.  Then we checked out a couple different flooring places.  

Friday-- woke up w/ a bad headache, but it eventually went away, thank goodness! I've been needing a haircut for foreeeever ( it had been almost a year!) so tried out a new hair salon called Bliss.  I had a pretty positive experience.  I've driven by it so many times, but I didn't realize they did hair.  I thought it was mainly massages, body wraps. It was pretty small and cozy. Everyone was friendly.  Oh, and I had a coupon for $20 off since I was  first time customer. So my haircut only cost $12! :) I actually only got a trim. I'm trying to let my hair grow out so that I can donate to Locks of Love.  I think it's the longest that it's been in awhile.  I actually don't really like having my hair this long, it's kind of a pain sometimes since it's in between curly and straight. 

After my haircut, we headed up to Rensl. Cleaned the shop.  Went to dinner w/ the familia. Went over to Whistle Stop in Monon.  The last time I was there was when Chicho was here I think.  So that's been awhile! Went over to Grandma's house and then went to the store w/ mom. 

And that was my week. haha  Today was Riley's bday party over @ the Hannons. It was nice hanging out w/ everyone.  Hadn't seen everyone all together since Bryan and Kristina's wedding.  There was a lot of political discussion, which was interesting! Lots of good conversation and lots of entertainment w/ Carra's boys and also all the dogs! haha Christoph and Rena brought their Bobbi, Bryan and Kristina brought Henry, and then Carra and Doyle brought their two dogs-- Cobalt and Queenie. They actually just got Queenie this weekend. She's still a puppy and soooo cute.  Absolutely adorable! :)

Well, that's it for now. I'll leave you with a few pictures:

Wednesday 8/8: Aunt Key was in Laffy so we hung out for awhile. Showing her the yogurt shop location.

Posing w/ our banner

All the girls

Jennica was showing Aunt Key some Rensselaer newsletters. I forget what they are called..

Trying to figure out where to eat.  We ended up going to McCallisters

It was really storming on our way home.  There were a bunch of tornado warnings out.  The sun was poking out from behind the clouds when we came into town and we snapped a picture because it looked so pretty!

I love hanging laundry out on the line! <3 br="br">

Saturday 8/11:  We went to see a movie, "The Bourne Legacy" and then went to Schmidty's for dinner.

It's becoming our new Pizza Hut. haha

Sunday 8/12:  Happy 12th Birthday, Snickle! Mom made her pancakes for her bday breakfast.

I like Saturdays....

Good morning! What a lovely Saturday morning it is! It's been raining the past couple days, but this am it's bright and sunny.  It looks like a fall morning.  It was actually kind of chilly last night! Craziness! I don't want summer to be over yet. :(  

I woke up this morning with a sore shoulder/arm. I think I've been sleeping on my right side too much lately. Not that you're probably that interested, just thought I would share. hehe ;)

The little birds are gone--both sets!  They must have flown away sometime early this week.  I'm kind of disappointed because I wanted to see them take off and learn to fly.  Mom said that she usually gets to watch them leave, but this year she didn't. They were just gone. I don't know a whole lot about birds, but find them kind of interesting.  I wonder if the baby birds ever see their parents again.

D and I had to get up bright and early on Wednesday.  We headed up to Goshen to buy a 3 compartment sink that we had found on Craigslist.  It was about a 2.5 hour drive.  Stopped by a frozen yogurt shop while we were there. I had actually read about it online when I was researching shops a couple months ago! They're called Honey's Frozen Yogurt and they serve only Honey Hill frozen yogurt.  I found the flavors to be a little too rich for my liking, but I'm sure other people would like them.  (yes, my tastes have slightly changed since Cali :P ) I was disappointed that they didn't have tart. :(  We were there arond 11:30 or so and the place was pretty busy. Goshen is a fairly small town so I thought that was pretty great! 

This was my first time in Goshen-- as an adult anyway.  I think Mom and Dad took me over there when I was a baby.  It seemed like a cute little place! I wish that we would have had time to explore a bit.  But we had the sink in the back of our truck so didn't have much freedom to get out and look around.  We stopped by Hammond on our way back home to check out a freezer that we'd heard about on Craigslist.  Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be working. So that was a disappointment.  At least we found out BEFORE we bought it instead of afterwards! The guy claimed that an employee had left the door open overnight, but I'm not sure that I believed him. 

We had to get up early again on Thursday morning.  Met w/ the architect people at 9am.  They took a bunch of measurements @ the yogurt shop.  Ran some errands and then met w/ Joelle, our designer, at 11ish. Ran some more errands.  Aunt Key was in town so we met up with her! Jennica also came down to laffy and hung out with us.  We showed Aunt Key the yogurt shop.  Went to eat @ McCallister's and then showed her our new place.  Went to Walmart w/ Jennica and then headed to Rensl.  There was a tornado warning out and we saw some really low-hanging clouds near Remington/Rensl.  It looked really dark out and it started pouring when we got off the interstate.  I kept looking back in the mirrors, almost expecting to see a funnel cloud. It was kind of creepy! 

Friday-- spent the day working on yogurt shop stuff.  Contacted three different sign companies, trying to get quotes on exterior signage. Searched for a freezer. Think we may have a few options, but not exactly what I was wanting.  D and Dad have been working on the POS system.

I baked some oatmeal banana choc chip "muffins"-- I'll post the recipe and a picture later on. They were okay for a healthy snack, but didn't have the best flavor.  Went to dinner w/ mom, dad, aunt mary, and uncle chris.  Our waiter accidentally gave me the senior dinner-- I know I'm getting grey hair, but didn't think it was THAT noticeable :P I *did* get a "free" dessert though since i got the senior meal. haha ;) 

Here are some pictures from the past week:

Sunday 8/5:  D painting the garage floor.

I helped too, of course. hehe  I helped w/ the trim, getting the paint ready, and adding the paint chips.

It was a lot of work!

I think it turned out okay....

Monday 8/6:  Our banner arrived! We had ordered it online at a pretty decent price.  We were happy with the results! :)

8/6:  Wind turbines on our way back to Rensl.  We went down to laffy to work on some things, but headed back to rensl later that evening.

Pretty sunset

Tuesday 8/7:  We went to laffy to meet w/ one of the contractors. Afterwards we went to dinner and then came back to the shop to hang up the banners.

Hanging the banners was pretty exciting! It made everything seem more real!

We hung two banners--one on each side of the building.

Wednesday 8/8: Driving through downtown Goshen

I think this belonged to a Mexican restaurant near the frozen yogurt shop.

We decided to check out a frozen yogurt shop while we were there.

D posing w/ his Honey Hill cup

Their decor had no real rhyme or reason...seemed to be kind of a mish mesh.

topping bars

The three compartment sink from Goshen

8/8: It had been raining, but the sun was still out.  The rain drops were really big and it looked really cool.  I tried to capture the moment, but this picture definitely doesn't do it justice.  Plus, my camera lens was fogging up. :(

Foggy lens, you can still kind see how the sun made the rain look really cool!

Blending up a milkshake w/ our new mixer

Pb cup! yum!

Well, I need to go check my laundry. Happy Saturday! :)