Yum

Mmmm, spice cake mix + cream cheese frosting= great tasting cupcakes to put you in the mood for Halloween and fall!!

I Love This Bar

Friday night J and I met some of my work friends at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar & Grill. J and I attempted to eat here back when his family was visiting and there was an hour wait to eat at 8:30 that night (that was right after it opened). This time we arrived at 8 and got right in for a table of 6. J and I decided to share the BBQ pulled pork sandwich with fries. The rest of the gang were late, so we gave up our table after waiting for an hour and took seats up at the 85 foot guitar-shaped bar where we stayed the remainder of the night. A country band came on at 9:00 and the place started to get packed. They have a couple VIP rooms, a mechanical bull and a dance floor with stage. Most everyone was holding their 32 oz. mason jars of beer! The only thing I didn't like was mixed drinks were sold in plastic cups, I don't get why some bars do that. The music was good, the people were fun and we stayed until 1:00 a.m.! J and I want to go back just to eat sometime. They have a good menu with average prices. There were a lot of big parties and of course several birthdays happening, since they announce the birthdays Texas Roadhouse style (which annoys me). At 12:30ish a special guest arrived...John Michael Montgomery! That was pretty sweet!

Outside Projects

Instead of finding a ladder at a garage sale, J found a great deal on a 10 foot ladder at Ace Hardware. Less than $100 for it! Now he can hang Christmas lights with ease. Here's a picture of him trimming the Mesquite tree with it:

J also took down the basketball hoop. The previous owners bought a mobile hoop and sunk the base in the ground. The hard part was digging that out. The base was full of water. Here are some pictures of this job:

Choggs

Wednesday night we went to the Arizona State Fair. If you bring a bottle of water or a new pair of adult socks the admission is free (on Wednesday only). What a deal! We saw the Budweiser Clydesdale's and checked out the exhibits. Among all of the food vendors this is where J and I had our first chogg! A chogg is a cheesy corn dog and it's pretty tasty! J bought tickets to see Lady Antebellum which started at 7. The concert was great! Afterwards we shared a funnel cake and watched a hypnotist. The weather was perfect to spend the night outside!

Saturday's Garage Sale Finds

Buy toilet paper or go to garage sales? Garage sales it is! I managed to get J to go with me this Saturday morning. We are on the look out for tools such as an extension ladder, rake and I'm still on the look out for a couple side tables and as always, holiday decorations. If I had kids, today I would have made out like a bandit! Every sale we saw had tons of baby and kids items.

Here is what we picked up today:


Large pumpkin $2

Three strings of Christmas lights, $1 a piece (they work!) and a heavy duty staple gun, $3 to put up all of the Christmas lights!


This is what I picked up 3 weeks ago from another sale, total $4 for 2 ceramic pumpkins

Hong Kong Bistro

Last night we tried out a new restaurant. Every time we drive by this place J makes a comment on how much he wants to eat there. It's in Chandler off of Gilbert Road called Hong Kong Bistro and it was great! We had pot stickers for the first time as an appetizer, which were free with our coupon. They substituted the soup for crab puffs (crab ragoon) for me and egg roll for J. We've been to 4 Chinese places here and this is the first one that would substitute. I won't eat the soup or egg roll so I'd rather sub it for crab puffs, which no one ever allows, which I don't understand. We had great service and plan on going back soon! We got a lot of food for less than $10 a plate.

Does anyone watch that show Say Yes to the Dress on TLC? I'm addicted to it!

The Chicago Trip

Our Chicago trip went well. The bitter coldness, wind and constant dreary-cloud covering made it kind of depressing. When you're used to seeing nothing but blue sky's and sun or have the ability to walk outside without shoes, sweatshirts, coats and jeans, it makes you appreciate your home. I'm used to walking around in tanks, shorts and flip flops! We spent a lot of time with my sister's kids, ages 6, 2 1/2 and 8 weeks. We met J's friend on Sunday afternoon for lunch. We took the kids to the Halloween store where they had a blast! We ate out several times including Panera Bread! Twice! It tasted so good! I even took over the baby at night so my sister could get some rest. We had a good time with the kids and hope to see them in March for the nuptials.

I managed to snap a pretty picture of what fall looks like, something we won't really see much of here.

Today's Temperature: 98*

Goodbye, Farewell

Well I'm winding down to bedtime. I'm all packed for our trip to Chicago to see my sister and kids. Tory has been dropped off at Uncle B's and J is finishing packing. I can pack in about 20 minutes, J on the other hand, takes a while, a while like at least an hour. I find it hard to pack for cold weather since my wardrobe consists of tank tops, shorts and flip flops. My long sleeved clothes are old, faded and I haven't worn in a year. You know what they say, if you haven't worn it with in the year, get rid of it. I think I should do that :)

When I come back, I need to post some pictures that I've been promising.

Something I've been craving is Panera. There aren't any Panera's in Arizona and I miss their white chocolate mocha's and broccoli cheese soup! I'm hoping to find one in the area in Chicago. Oh, and of course I miss the cinnamon crunch bagels!

Good Grocery Store Finds

Albertsons had 1 lb. packs of strawberries for a $1, Swiss Miss hot chocolate for .88, Sara Lee bread for $1.37, Simply Orange $1.99!! I couldn't believe how good of a deal these were! I bought 3 packs of strawberries last Friday and made strawberry shortcake for the United Way trivia night at work. That was a hit! 2 loafs of bread, went straight into the freezer. Today I decided to go back for more strawberries and Simply Orange, but they were out of orange juice, so I opted for more bread and strawberries. The strawberries will be cut up and I'm going to make another strawberry pie and use them for smoothies. When you run across good deals like this, stock up!

I forgot to mention I had my very first dental appointment in Arizona last week. It was rather long at an hour and 45 minutes, but they did a very thorough job. Well, I had to go back today for a cavity fill. I didn't even know I had one, but it showed up on one of the 18 x-rays they took! Yep, 18 x-rays. I've never had so many pictures of my mouth before. They used the pen to take digital pictures too. I've already set my appointment for my 6 month checkup. I need to get back on the 6 month program.

This week is countdown to Chicago. We're leaving Saturday morning and won't return until Wednesday night.

Yesterday after work I stopped at Tropical Smoothie Cafe for their happy hour special. Buy one get one free. It's a really good deal to get a free smoothie from them. I opted for dessert this time in which I haven't had yet. I went with the peanut butter cup smoothie. Boy was it tasty! It tasted smooth like it was ice cream and chocolate, you wouldn't even know that it was ice. I'm normally a blimey limey person, but this one hit the spot. I recommend that when you're having a bad day, make it Tropical Smoothie Day! That's what I do :)


Today's temperature: 84*

October Already...?!!

Well another week and month down. I can't believe it's October already! My Halloween decorations are up and the house is freshly painted! The paint job looks great, I'll post before and after pictures later.

Tuesday night we tried out a new restaurant. We ate at Native New Yorker off of Gilbert road. This place just opened about a month ago and every time we drive by it's packed. Tuesday night is 40 cent wings. I only opted for 6 wings, 3 honey BBQ and 3 garlic parmesan and tried out their pepperoni pizza. The pizza was really thin and greasy, but it was OK. Their wings were crisp, crunchy and had a good amount of sauce. They were really tasty. Afterwards we checked out the new Shoe Carnival and JCPenny which is next to Native.

Friday was a big day because J reserved the chapel for the wedding. The date is now official! March 27 will come quick I'm sure :)





Today's temperature: 91*