you know you are in the south when...

.... when you find a bojangles... which is now one of my new favorite places to go for chicken, biscuits, spicy beans and dirty rice... yum!!!!

.... when you see mullet festival signs everywhere...

... when there is almost half an aisle dedicated to grits in so many flavors that you did not even know exsisted... bacon and cheddar... ham... and so many more...

.... when you laugh so hard because you are actually stopping at a piggly wiggly like you are in the movie win a date with tad hamilton...

i love the south!

maybe i will get to know it better... brent graduates the 6th of november from his mos schooling... then we will be moving somewhere in the united states... we still have no idea where that may be... but hope to find out in about 3 weeks...

i had such a great time visiting brent in north carolina!!!!

thanks to everyone who helped us out with jones... he had such a great time with everyone he stayed with!!!

happy conference viewing...

hope everyone enjoys conference... and have a great weekend...

my grandparents were in town... so to tia rosas we went... that is one of their loves... always good to see you guys!!! love you both!!!

our loves for love thursday... what a weekend we had...

ever since i can remember the mikesell family has been in love with balboa bars... if you have ever been to newport beach you know what i am talking about... every year without fail we would make our way from newport to just south of newport or balboa... it is always such a fun atmosphere... who can resist a fun ferris wheel and 2 for $10 sunglasses... cheesecake on a stick... funnel cakes... bumper cars... and of course the coveted balboa bar...

oh.... loves....

we also made our way to another love... the play ground on the beach... seriously that is the best of two worlds... the beach and then a play ground... where dare devil jones can climb the stairs... go down the slides and then learn how to climb the stairs and jump off them when the slides are just not enough thrill anymore...jones is just like his daddy... wants to try everything and thinks nothing can hold him back... i think i will have to hold my breath and try to stay calm many times in the future...

then... the beach... thanks to uncle brandon... jones had so much fun playing in the huge hole he dug for him... but no so much thanks to the waves that totally and completely washed away the hole before i could get a picture... at least we had fun!!! we love us some beach time!!!

gotta love homecoming... even when it isnt your own.... my cute cousin kendra and her date dillon...

her love is purple... isnt she so cute!!! her and dillon matched so perfectly... we had such a fun time visiting our many loves in cali including my aunt and uncle and their family! thanks so much!!!!

happy october... yeah i love october!!!!

sept 26th 2009

speaking of love... love thursday continued...

one of my very favorite things is rice crispy treats... i know... so simple right??!!?!... but i love them!!! this one was extra special... it was a candy corn rice crispy treat... so yummy... i think jones may have only gotten a couple bites... poor kid... i didnt share very much...

most everyone that knows me... and anyone that has seen or read this blog recently... knows that i love disneyland... well since it was my dads birthday... we thought we would steal him away from work and crazy life to go to the happiest place on earth... he deserved it and we had fun!!!

again... happy birthday dad... love you so much and hope you have another 51 years of the happiest moments...

and speaking of love... another one of the BIG reasons we went to disneyland... my cute brother alex and his girlfriend or should i say fiance shelley are going to make our family a little more crazy... we are soon going to have two shelly/shelley clarks...

he proposed... at disneyland... on the ferris wheel... if you want more details you will have to talk to him...

i am so excited for them! they are super cute together and we cant wait for them to be married... yeah!!! my little brother is getting to be all grown up...

congrats!!! love you both!!!

one last love... jones gave two thumbs up to ihop... after a long day at disneyland those pancakes and eggs are good!

oh... and i almost forgot... another reason we chose to enjoy disneyland these last few days... all the halloween decor and fun at disneyland... space mountain is now ghost galaxy... so much fun!!! scary ghosts out to get you the whole time... then of course the haunted mansion that is changed into the nightmare before christmas with jack skellington... so fun!!! then lastly... the awesome firework spooktacular show... it was amazing!!! i love fall and halloween time... there are so many fun things to do and the weather is so nice...

(click anywhere on this paragraph to read about the halloween fun that we love...)

sept 28th 2009

disneyland... love... two new adventures...

the goats... i didnt even know that disneyland had a petting zoo and coloring corner for the little kiddies... jones of course loved to see the animals... especially up so close... but he kept barking like a dog... so i am still laughing while trying to teach him that those were goats and not dogs... we had a lot of fun until i decided to leave because he was starting to pull the goats tails... you can see him eyeing the tail in the picture... crazy kid...

then there were candy corn grapes... candy corn pumpkins and candy corn corn fields... as you can tell jones was utterly confused and baffled by this... crazy disneyland and the things they come up with... amazing!!!

sept 29th 2009

yes... very unhealthy...

when i told brent what brandon, my younger brother, and i did for our saturday night date he said something like... healthy!!!...

...but at least we had fun... that was the whole point...

ingredients to having this fun include:

neapolitan ice cream = three scoops... chocolate... vanilla... & strawberry...

brownie bites

marshmallow cream

homemade cookie dough

candied almonds

homemade chocolate fudge sauce

caramel sauce drizzle

oreo cookie crumbles

rainbow sprinkles

chocolate sprinkles

and then of course to top it off...

maraschino cherries

... let just say... it was fun while it lasted...

but then we felt sick...

sept 19th 2009

i freaked out...

so... i hate bugs... like most girls... the word hate doesnt even describe the sick feeling i get when i see bugs, mostly i am talking about cockroaches, big spiders, centipedes... you get the idea...

well... i just told jones, lets see what we can find in the toy box... i was trying to finish my guru palace post... when next thing i know he has found something in the toy box and is coming to show me... at first i am so proud... oh, what did you find... i said, and then i freaked out!!! really not that big of a deal, a very small cricket... but he was holding a dead bug and coming straight for me... of course it made it worse that i was freaking out and he was now doing the same... i finally calmed down told him it is ok... nothing was wrong and we wrapped the dead bug in a tissue and threw it away...

... but then of course he was more curious... and being a boy just had to have another look at what i had just freaked out over... so we luckily he was laying there on top of all the garbage and we could get him back out to take a look... boys and bugs...???

sept 22nd 2009

the guru palace:indian cuisine...

i love to try new places... so when ashley said, "i know of this indian food restaurant we should try..." i was sure that we were going...

we finally went... the guru palace:cuisine of india on baseline and gilbert, a few doors down from trader joes... and although i didnt learn his name (man above in photo with us) he was very nice and welcomed us to his restaurant... i had briefly tried a few indian dishes... a few things from trader joes and one other time in flagstaff... but didnt know how authentic it was... so until this encounter... i did not consider myself having tried indian food... we loved it! jones even tried and liked it... azcentral gave wonderful reviews which i just found after having already tried some of the same dishes...

our favorites:

the naan flat bread, we ordered both original and garlic & herb

&

the very popular chicken tikka masala with rice

we tried a lot more but unfortunately i cannot remember the names...

lentils... eggplant... a sweet carrot and corn dish...

i did not dislike anything i tried...

it was all very good!

so fun to try new things!

great recommendation ashley!!!!

sept 15th 2009