Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Graeter's Ice Cream

So far, one of our greatest finds in Ohio is Graeter's Ice Cream. Our family eats a LOT of ice cream and we consider ourselves quite the ice cream connoisseurs. By unanimous decision we have declared Graeter's as the best ice cream we have ever had. This stuff is the perfect consistency... not too hard, not too soft. And their specialty is these chocolate chunks that they add to the ice cream that somehow do not get "break-your-teeth" hard when frozen. Their ice cream is so popular that they even sell coolers and dry ice for those traveling several hours for a taste of the sweet "Double Chocolate Chunk".

Oprah has included Graeter's Ice Cream as one of her "favorite things" and as you can see... Andy boy definitely agrees

Sunday, July 23, 2006

2006 Top Cities to Live

The secret is out about Columbus. This year in their annual list of best places to live, Money Magazine ranked Columbus as the #8 best place to live in the country. Columbus has clean air, good schools, and low crime rate. Throw in a thriving local economy and a good mix of cultural activities and it makes a great place to live and raise a family. Oh, and don't forget about Graeter's Ice Cream (I'll talk about that later). Columbus even beat out New York City which came in at #10.

By the way - Mom and Dad - Overland Park, Kansas came in at #6 on the list of small cities.

Columbus Dispatch: "Columbus among 'best places to live'"

Monday, July 10, 2006

Go Fly a Kite



The Turkeys took advantage of the nice weather over the long Independence Day weekend to fly their kite. Unfortunately Renee had a stomach virus which kept us around the house most of the weekend. Andy and Emma went to a birthday party of one of the neighborhood kids and had a blast playing in the bounce house that the family rented for the occasion. On Saturday evening our town had their big fireworks display along with musical entertainment, face painting, festival food, and the works. I took Emma to see the fireworks while the other kids went to bed. Emma kept telling me... "I'm not going to be scared of the fireworks", and sure enough she wasn't. She loved the show and especially enjoyed the big finale.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Boxes Boxes Everywhere


On moving in day, the 18 wheeler pulled up in front of our house at 8 AM. We were all excited with anticipation and soon our new house had boxes stacked at every turn. Unpacking has been an overwhelming task but we are finally starting to get somewhere. Who knew we had so much stuff! Of course, it's hard to get things unpacked when you have 3 Turkeys pulling things out as quickly as they are put away. They did however have fun playing with the empty boxes and rolling around in the mounds of packing paper... so did Mary.


Thursday, July 06, 2006

Goodbye Garden State

As we pulled off of Wellington Avenue for the last time we were filled with mixed emotions. The last few days in our house were so crazy with packers, movers, and loose ends that we hardly had time to think about what was going on. Once we got on the road we had about 550 miles to think about what we were leaving behind and what our new lives held for us.

We had a pretty nice drive over 2 days and the Turkeys held up great. We stopped every few hours for a bathroom break or food, but it was the portable in-car DVD player that really made the trip bearable.

Once in Columbus the big day of our closing finally arrived. With checks in hand we walked into the Title agency office and 30 minutes later (and about 30 signatures) we walked out with the keys. The kids were VERY excited to see their new house for the first time so we drove straight over to the house for the big introduction. As we unlocked the door for the first time, everyone barreled through the door and ran to explore the house. Renee loved the carpet of the great room, Emma enjoyed hiding in the closet of the playroom, and Andy found a special place under the kitchen desk. We all just ran around for an our exploring every nook and cranny of the new house.


Finally we decided to had back to the hotel for one more night before the moving truck arrived. We decided to top of this very special day with one more treat so we stopped for ice cream on the way back to the hotel. We were all exhausted from the past week but thrilled to finally be in Ohio with our new home.

Monday, July 03, 2006

My Kingdom for a Decent Slice!


All of our neighbors love Cici's pizza. Three of them recommend it highly. "It's all you can eat," they say. "It's the best," they promise. Having had more than our share of cheap pizza in college, Kevin and I just look at each other in bewilderment over these kinds of accolades. For those of you from Texas, it's the Pancho's of pizza. It's the Ramen noodles of pizza.

Then we started trying the different pizza joints around here. Suddenly we understand why our poor neighbors seemed to have no taste buds. It's all terrible. In much the same way the Olive Garden is an insult to Italian food, the pizza we found in Ohio is an insult to pizza. "How can you screw up pizza?" you might be thinking. Well, several ways. First, make it with provolone cheese and then cut a round thin crust pizza as if it is Chicago style deep dish, so that it's all rectangles except for 4 tiny little inedible triangles at the corners. Pity the fool who orders pepperoni. A normal pizza has maybe 10-15 . Try 100 on Ohio pizza (I'm not kidding!). It's obscene, and not in a good way.

My lucky friends in New York/New Jersey, count yourselves blessed. Do you deliver?