Don't click on these next photos. You'll be sorry if you do because they come up large and will probably make you crave desert. Don't blame me if you lick your monitor. Chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick? mmmm.

I'd kill for some ice cream and one of those caramel things right now. Heck, and I'll take a tiramisu also please.... It's no calorie day.

I've been a bad blogger. We've been busy keeping busy.... company, getting prepared for school and before I knew it, a lot of time has gone by.

The other day we went to a place called Jungle Jim's in Ohio. It was featured on the Food Network and the Travel Channel. It is kitchy and a destination in itself. (The monorail outside hints to its amusement park type theme here.) It's like going to an amusement park for foodies. The place is enormous, like a mall. You are given a map when you walk in the doors. It has everything you can imagine. It has international foods from England, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Mexico...

and it is themed. It has funky displays like a huge singing Campbell's Soup can, a candy area where the candies are displayed in old bumper cars from Coney Island, a real fire truck, boats... everything. I can't even explain it all. It's like Disneyland.

Every section had it's own space. Like if you were looking for a bottle of wine, you'd go into the wine section aisle 2. Not to be mistaken with the soda section aisle 2, etc. This wasn't a place to pick up a few things for dinner, this was event type shopping!

We saw the biggest cheese, 811 pounds of it and about 2 stories high. Even seeing the huge wheels of cheese was pretty impressive. The bakery was to die for. The seafood area had a bunch of tanks full of live fish (they even have an indoor fish farm inside the store.) They also have cooking classes and sell gourmet cooking equipment.

Arizonans missing their hot sauce: There was plenty to choose from. That is probably 1/4 of the aisle, and it wrapped around the whole truck, so there were two sides of just hot sauce.

I loved this. Shum Daddy's BBQ from Kentucky - proud and loud! In the BBQ section of course! ;)

We had so much fun. There were SO many yummy things we could have come home with, and some not so yummy. Including in the meat section: pork brains and turtle meat. Trevor was not too happy about seeing the turtle meat. He's a turtle lover. - Oh, and chocolate covered insects. Eww.

I did come home with some local organic veggies and some Amish breads, along with some other things. We spent so many hours there I can't even remember what we ended up buying. We probably spent an hour alone in the candy section looking at candies from around the world and candy that I haven't seen since I was a kid.

**

Other than that, we have been busy getting school supplies from the teacher's lists, and doing all of the errands required to get the kids ready for school. There seems to be a lot of running around for registering kids from another state. Just a few more weeks until school starts here!

Random observations from today

I was just thinking today of a few things that I just love about Kentucky.

1. Southern hospitality. Even though Northern Kentucky seems to be considered more of Southern Ohio by some, the people here honestly seem so much friendlier. It feels so laid back.

2. People take their chili very seriously. There are 3 big chains here and people pledge allegiance to only one like they would a football team. You don't cheat and go to 'the other guy' when you find the one you like. (I don't like ANY of them...for the record. It isn't AZ chili with beans and spices I'm used to...for sure.) There is Skyline, Gold Star and Dixie.

3. The bag for Steak and Shake says 'takhomasak.' It just makes me laugh. It took me a few tries to figure out what in the world this meant. Now I feel like I'm in on the joke.

4. It's nothing out of the ordinary to see deer (alive or dead) on a freeway off ramp. They're just here doing their 'deery thing.' Coexisting with the human folk. Megan and I were waiting to turn off the freeway one time and there were two lost deer just grazing on the side of the road. I mean, this was an exit that would be compared to getting off of I-10 and Ray Road in Phoenix. Go figure. Did they drive there? In my little Talking Heads voice I sing, "How DID they get here?" We find them fascinating.

*ETA: I'm sure the deer aren't as fascinating to ADOT or whatever the highway dudes are called out here, or any kind of emergency response people since I know that hitting a deer with a car can cause a terrible accident, but I feel we're still tourists enough to stop and stare. I'm sure their cute factor goes way down when you have narrowly missed one with your car.

5. Along the same route, we have a constant game of 'punch roadkill' going in our family. Raccoons, beavers, frogs.....

6. The girl at Wendy's the other day who freaked out that our order came to $6.66 and said before I could even leave the speaker, "OH DEAR, I'm not going to charge you for the frosty because that number just is WRONG."

7. The fact that people buy fireworks and light them just for the fact that it is Friday. There is a show every weekend. It's cool.

8. Fireflies. Is there really anything cuter?

9. People's voracious appetite for sweet tea.

10. Mike's favorite. (tic. It really makes him crazy!) The word please. Please has two meanings here. One being the good manner please for when you are asking for something. The other is when somebody doesn't hear what you said, instead of saying, "Excuse me? or What?" people say, "Please?" I think it's cute.

Prepare for your day to be HIGHLIGHTED!

I say that because Lisa said that if I posted a picture of a card I made last night it would be the highlight of her day. Are you a little underwhelmed now?

How about this one. See how smart my lab is? She is reading that card. (Why does she always need to follow me around and be my helper?!?)



I don't think there is anything blogworthy today. I plan on staying home and cleaning my house. Woohoo! Maybe I'll post some inspiring close up photos of cleaning products later. You never know, because I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl today.

Oh, and before it gets lost in the comment section in my last post... for those of you wondering where my Halloween ticker is, here ya go:

Halloween - - coming soon.

Tech man is out of town tonight, and trust me after my last fiasco of messing around with my blog, I'm not going to attempt to add anything by myself. I can't be trusted.

Have a great Thursday!

You'll be glad to know that the weather here is less than stellar today. It's hot and muggy. Hey, the bright side is it is supposed to be cooler next week.

But somehow this weather got me to thinking about Halloween....

See, I have this weird way of wishing the summer months away caused by summertime cabin fever in Phoenix. You hope that June keeps you busy enough to not notice that it's hot. Then July...yeah, you try not to think about it some more.

Usually by mid July is when I can't stand ignoring it anymore, which probably coincides with the same time that my kids start to announce that they are bored to death of everything we've tried to do over the summer to keep them occupied.

August is long, and hot... but then I realize there is hope... because the next month is September. I realize that even September can be as hot as August, but there's something in me that refuses to believe it. September just SOUNDS cooler. September gives me hope. Hope that cooler days are on their way and the kids have started school and are usually still excited about it during the first month. Plus September is when the Halloween stuff starts to show itself at Target! (You know how forward I look to that!)

Then you know what comes after that... OCTOBER. Birthdays and Halloween. October is a good month. (hey girls! I have a LAWN here! Doesn't that figure? Haha!)

To throw in some confusion, when we first moved here I was out at the mall with Megan. We passed by a Hallmark store and I noticed a huge display up front that was black and orange! I started to get so excited! Do they really put Halloween stuff out this early here?!? That would have been nice until I got up closer and realized that black and orange is also the color of the Cincinnati Bengals. Oh man... and here I got all excited.

The countdown to fall has begun.

This was a layout I did really quick in between working on smaller albums. Wow, 12x12 looks really big when you've been working on smaller things! But you know I love those big old enlargements! I promise to post some pages out of the smaller albums soon.

The journaling block is straight, but it's bent in the photo since I just leaned this up against the couch. I have to say, this house has incredible light! I need to take advantage of that and get some shots indoors soon.

Not much going on here today. We went to the library and the kids all have a ton of books to keep them busy. Matthew also got a few Thomas DVDs. Apparently it has been awhile since he's watched Thomas religiously because it seemed strange to me to be hearing that clunky music that the show starts with. When I think of the years I have spent listening to and watching Thomas. Trevor won't admit it now, but he was just as fanatic as Matthew has been. That's a lot of years of the same stories! I have to remember that this won't last forever.

breathe out....

This is an oddly familiar sight. I haven't scrapped in MONTHS. Thanks to garage sale preparation, packing, moving, driving, moving in..... this was one of the last things I had time for. Let me tell you, when you think you are burnt out or have no mojo for your favorite hobby anymore I suggest a move. You'll get so tired of the moving that all you can think about is getting back to something you actually DO enjoy.

I finally decided to order some photos and spend some time doing something that is relaxing for me. The past two nights I have stayed up way too late (still 3:00 a.m. - not used to the time difference, or trying to get used to it yet.) My companions are CSI, Hell's Kitchen and Family Guy. Waving to my old scrapping buddies because I really miss you all on nights like this. I can't just call and say, "Hey, do you want to come over?" But you are in my thoughts.

I have filled the album that my friends gave me to do on the road, but I'm still finishing it up. I'm waiting for another photo order. I promise to post it when I'm done. I hand wrote my journaling and slipped it in the pockets along the road, while waiting for kids to fall asleep in hotel rooms. That makes completing it pretty easy! Thanks again you guys!!

I have been working on my blog album the past couple of nights, and a couple of layouts that I've started. All I can say is, remember to take care of yourself once in awhile and do something that you enjoy. It has helped immensely! Laundry can wait, especially in the middle of the night. I have had this on the back burner for far too long and I forgot how much fun it is. :)

So hopefully here is to getting back on track, stabilizing and getting back to a normal groove!

a celebrity sighting!!!

Who can resist stopping for a second when you come across a HERBIE at the Volkswagen dealer! Matthew wanted to pull over and see it so bad. I think he thinks this is THE Herbie, and was kind of sad that it was for sale. The look on his face looks like he is unsure about meeting a 'celebrity.'

Oh I want this car so bad. I could put my little froggies in an aquarium in the front seat (belted in for complete safety) and drive around in my Herbie and be totally happy with everything in the world. :) Maybe hit a drive through for a soda. Yeah.... complete and total happiness.

Oh and see the 'self portrait?' Ha, yep.... it should be mine. There is always Santa right? I've been a good girl this year.