BUGZ Part 2

This post is a "Grandma Request". The rest of you may or may not be interested. Saturday afternoon Grandma joined me at the last home football game so she could see the band. The football game was really ugly; I think they lost 40 - 0, but of course the band was amazing. (Do you think I'm just a bit biased?) The field was very muddy so the band did not march; they needed to save their uniforms and ankles for the competition in Effingham that evening. I've got a little video of that performance.

The band loaded up four charter buses and left soon after halftime. Saturday evening they competed in a competition at Effingham High School. Joe & I loaded up our van with a few of our friends and followed the buses down I-70 east towards Effingham, IL. It was early Sunday morning when we returned home, but we were so excited we didn't care. The Belleville East Band was crowned Grand Champions of this contest. This next bit of video is from Saturday night in Effingham.

It's a little sad to think we only have one more competition left this season. This coming Saturday we will be competing at the Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Good Luck Belleville East!

~ Terri

It's a Long Way from Chicago.......

but Chicago style pizza is right down the street! Tuesday night we decided to try out a new place right down the street from us. Jonny's Pizza and Pasta recently opened in an old Cecil Whitaker's store. Terri, Kelsey, & Joe were all present and eating pizza. All three of us agreed that Jonny makes better pizza than Cecil.

We started off with their Italian salad. The salad was iceberg lettuce with pepperoni, ham, onions, cheese, olives, pepperoncini & tomato. It was pretty typical pizza place salad, pretty good, but not outstanding. I didn't really care for the Italian dressing, but I didn't hear any complaints from my table companions.

Then we moved on to pizza. We ordered a medium Chicago style pizza and we could not finish it. Joe & Terri really enjoyed the change of pace from regular pizza. Their pizza sauce was very good. I'd really like to go back and try some pasta; I imagine it would be pretty good too. Kelsey did not enjoy the Chicago style as much as St. Louis style. She prefers her toppings on top. In her defense, they are called "toppings". But, she didn't hate it either. So, all in all, it was a pretty good weeknight dinner.

We did take a peak at some of our fellow diners' thin crust pizzas and they looked pretty tasty too. I think we'll be back again and it will be hard to decide what to order. Jonny definitely makes better Chicago style pizza than the Cubs play Chicago style baseball.

~ Terri

BUGZ

Tonight the Belleville East band performed their 2009 show "BUGZ" at the second home football game. I was able to catch a little video of the second movement when the butterflies come out. Kelsey is playing the marimba and is second from the right in the front row. I'm one of the few band parents who always knows where my child is. Tomorrow afternoon they host their own competition at Belleville East where they will perform in exhibition. Then tomorrow night they will compete in their first competition of 2009 at O'Fallon, IL. Good Luck Lancer Band!!!

In case you're wondering Belleville East won the football game 28-26.

Please Don't Fire Us!

We know we've been neglectful of the blog and we're a long way from reaching our goal, but we have a long list of excuses. I'd say the dog ate my post, but I don't have a dog. Guess that excuse won't work. I won't bore you with reasons why our lives have been just too full to find time to visit a a new restaurant and write a blog about it. Actually, we did find time to visit a new place almost two weeks ago; I'm just now sitting down to blog about the experience. So, if you're keeping track, we are now up to FIVE new restaurants this summer. As you may recall, our goal was 11 new restaurant this summer. Obviously, we're going to have do some tweaking to our definition of "this summer". For the purposes of this blog, summer ends when we say it does, even if there's snow on the ground.

Our fifth new restuarant was the Acropolis in downtown Belleville. We visited there two weeks ago Friday night. Joe & Todd were our guests for this dinner. This is a restaurant that all of us had heard about and had been wanting to try for quite some time. Finally, on this Friday night we were able to get the whole family together for a Greek dinner.

The Acropolis is a small, Greek restaurant located about a block off the square in downtown Belleville. There is outside seating, but this evening we chose to eat indoors.

Joe's choice for dinner was Plaki which was baked cod on a bed of rice with vegetables. He thought it was pretty good.

Kelsey and Todd both opted for the gyro. Both of them thought it was just what they expected and they would order it again.

My dinner was basically a Greek grilled cheese sandwich with eggplant. I don't remember what they called it. It was very rich, and I was not able to finish it. All of us were served a salad with our meal. The salads were very good, and we enjoyed them quite a bit.

We enjoyed our visit to the Acropolis and will probably return in the future. We did learn one very important lesson: if you wait too long to blog about your experiences you forget too many details.

So, we apologize that we're not able to provide a full account of our visit to the Acropolis. We will try to learn from our mistakes and do better in the future. At least no one is giving us a grade on our blog.

If you're going back to school in the next week or so, we hope you have a good year at school. And don't follow our example - get your homework done on time!

~ Terri

Luke is a Lucky Man

And if you were at Boys Week at Camp Ne-O-Tez last week, you're giggling right now. It's hard to see in the picture, but the vanilla wafers in the pudding spell out "I "heart" Luke." This was only one of the many special memories we will take away from this week at camp.

Kelsey & I are back from a week working in the kitchen at Camp Ne-O-Tez. Today we want you to meet Luke & Monica. Luke was a Bible teacher and Monica was a cook last week. They are engaged to be married in October. We sat down with them Friday afternoon in the gazebo where they graciously agreed to talk to us about their first ever week at Camp Ne-O-Tez.

T&K: Had you heard of Camp Ne-O-Tez before? How?

M: Yes. My great-grandmother was Dorothy Spencer who used to cook at camp.

L: Yes. I heard about camp through Joe Taylor. He promoted the food.

T & K: What was your favorite meal?

L: Hot dogs with chili becauase it combines some of my favorite foods - hot dogs, chili, cheese and bread.

M: Grilled cheese sandwiches with chicken fries because cheese and chicken is the best combo.

T&K: Least favorite meal?

L: The bacon was too crispy. I prefer it chewy.

M: Hamburgers. I just want CHICKEN.

T&K: What was the hottest meal to cook? Personally, I felt the tator tots were hands down the hottest meal we cooked.

M: Mashed potatoes and chicken tenders.

T&K: What was your favorite dessert this week:

M: Chips Ahoy cookie dessert (Thanks to Sherri's friend Wendy for this awesome recipe. The boys loved it!)

L: Banana pudding

T&K: Did you feel you got enough butter in your diet this week? (You don't even want to know how many pounds of butter we went through this week.)

L&M: No, you can't ever get enough.

T&K: What was the funniest thing that happened this week?

L: Eating lunch with Dalton and Isaiah. They make me giggle.

M: The day every kid came through the line and said to me, "Luke is a lucky man."

T&K: If you could change one thing at camp, what would it be?

L: Bottled water in canteen.

M: More sugar in the kool-aid.

T&K: What was your favorite quote of the week?

L: MC saying, "You must have gotten drunk on coffee. You're crazy for getting married."

M: Aaron in the amphitheater asking if flash photography was allowed.

T&K: What was your favorite campfire song?

M: Beaver song

L: I've got confidence

T&K How about your least favorite campfire song?

M: Tarzan song. It's obnoxious and annoying.

L: The same.

T&K: Monica, how did you enjoy your trip to the Ne-O-Tez spa?

M: 5-star experenience. It surpasses the Four Seasons. It had a great massaging rock and cool, running water.

T&K: What was the best thing about camp?

L: Watching the kids do yuck games. And the scenery is awesome; there are so many different beautiful things in one area.

M: The scenery: Crystal Falls, the bluff, the cave. All are awesome.

T&K: What was the worst thing about camp?

M: bugs and insects

L: No PDA

T&K: Did you make new friends this week?

M: Yes, some of the new friends I made this week were Ellen, Sandy and Valerie.

L: Yes, I made friends with Ed, James, Dalton and Marcus.

We really enjoyed working with Luke and Monica this week and we're so happy they are as excited about Camp Ne-O-Tez as we are.

~ Terri & Kelsey

Tuesday Lunch at Camp Ne-O-Tez

Kelsey & I have just returned from Boys' week at Camp Ne-O-Tez where I was a cook and she was a dishwasher. Like always, the week included plenty of sweat, hard work, new friends, good food and lots of fun. Tuesday at lunch I had my camera handy and took some behind the scenes pictures of what goes on in the Ne-O-Tez kitchen.

Here's Director Joe "tasting the corn". I think he decided it was fit to eat.

Melissa makes amazing lemonade.

The diswashers get to enjoy a little down time before the campers start bringing them their dirty dishes . Our dishwashers were Melissa, Sydni, Kelsey & Laney. Beka is not pictured.

Hey, where are those campers anyway?

They are lining up outside. Before you can eat lunch you have to listen to the cabin inspection report.

Today, Cabin 2 was declared the winner and they get to eat first. Here they come!

Lunch today was chicken nuggets which are a camper favorite. The chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorites on the camp menu.

Even lizards get to enjoy a Ne-O-Tez lunch.

Jimmy knows how to clean his tray for the dishwashers.











We had a great week in the kitchen, but now we're looking forward to trying out some new restaurants. I think we deserve it.

~ Terri

Four Square

Mom and I were heading over to STL to take me to grandma's (who was then taking me to Sherri's to spend some time chillin' with the boys.) and we decided we needed some lunch and why not go somewhere new. So Grandma told us about the Soda Fountain Square, an old time diner type resturaunt. (Remember, it doesn't matter if guests have already been to the resturaunt).

So we had a good meal.

I had chocolate chip pancakes (breakfast anytime.) They were big and fluffy and downright delicious.

Grandma had a breakfast burrito which she said was also delicious. I had a bit, even I thought it was good (and I'm not a fan of eggs.).

Mom actually had lunch. She had baked potato soup and a salad. Both were quite good.

Okay. so the real reason we went to this particular resturaunt (besides the fact that it was in Lafayette Square) was because we heard they had a cupcake bar.

So we scoured the desert menu and mom got the artist cupcake. Meaning they gave her a cupcake, some icing and some sprinkles. She had more fun decorating it than anything, and the cupcake itself was also pretty good.

Grandma had a phosphate because none of us really knew what that was. She had strawberry, which I would recommend. They had some flavors like Chocolate and Vanilla but we think those would probably wouldn't be as good.

I had a Hot fudge brownie sundae. The brownine was really good and hot, and it was covered in ice cream hot fudge and whipped cream.

All in all, this resturaunt was definitely somewhere we would go again, and I think desert is a must here. They have a really cool bar area where they make the ice cream at that you can see from your seat.

After lunch we took a little stroll around Lafayette Square.

Then we took a little drive around the park before we headed back to Grandma's. This was a really fun lunch and we hope to go back again.

~ Kelsey

A Random Act of Eating

You've probably heard of random acts of kindness. Well, today I'm calling our lunch a "random act of eating". We had no idea what we were eating for lunch until we pulled into the parking lot.

Today Kelsey & I visited our family at McKnight on our way down to Camp Ne-o-tez. We were in a hurry to get down to the valley and as we left the church parking lot we discussed where to eat lunch. We decided we would drive down Manchester Rd toward 270 and stop at the first new resaturant we saw that looked quick and sounded interesting. We had not driven far when we saw Crazy Bowls & Wraps and made our lunch choice. Being from the IL side of the river this was a new eating experience for us. We had never heard of Crazy Bowls and didn't know what kind of food they served until we walked in the door.

Their motto is "fresh food fast" and I would say they lived up to it today. I chose the power bowl which according to the menu has everything my body needs. It had lettuce with brown rice, beans, chicken, cheese and a corn salsa. It was very tasty and very filling. Kelsey took a bite and her comment was, "If you like beans I guess it would be good". Well, I do like beans and I thought it was good. One thing that surprised me was that it was served hot. I guess since it had lettuce and a salsa I expected it to be cold, more like a salad, so my taste buds received a pleasant surprise when I took a bite into a nice hot power bowl.

Kelsey chose the caesar chicken wrap. She said the bread was really good. She said she would definitely come back and order it again. I took a bite and I agreed with her that it was a really tasty wrap.

Another thing we liked about Crazy Bowls is that they use real dishes. No fast food styrofoam or plastic wrap is used here. I felt like eating here was good for my body and the earth. Overall, we enjoyed our trip to Crazy Bowls & Wraps and made it down to camp in plenty of time.

A Great Vacation Book

As promised, Kelsey & I would like to tell you about the book we both read over our vacation. A little background first. The author of this book is Margaret Haddix. She is probably best known for her Shadow Children series. She is very popular with Middle Schoolers, but even some of us out of Middle School enjoy her books. Her books always have some sort of mystery involved. My (Terri) favorite of her books is "Running out of time" which is about a girl who thinks she lives in the 1800's, but actually lives in the 1990's in a tourist attraction. (The tourists can see her, but she can't see them.)

Last week we both read her newest book which is titled "Found" and begins a new series. It is an adoption story that involves the FBI, an airplane full of babies that appears out of nowhere, and a twist that I really didn't see coming. I really enjoyed this book and didn't want to put it down even though there was one plot hole that wasn't really explained to my satisfaction. This book kept me entertained one afternoon while I sat in the van during a rainstorm waiting for the boys to get done fishing. If you are a middle schooler, know a middle schooler or just like to read YA books, this is a book I would add to your summer reading list. I'll let Kelsey follow with her review of this book.

Okay. So Haddix has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time. side note here, the Shadow Children series is really great so I'd highly recommend them, but my favorite of her books is probably either Turnabout or Escape from Memory (but really I haven't read one of her books I didn't like). On a sidenote (since mom already pretty much explained Found and I agree it was pretty good) I also re-read one of my all time favorite books: Ordinary People. This is actually an adult book written about a 1970's family. It's a bit sad and depressing at parts but overall it's a really great book. It's about a boy named Conrad who tried to kill himself after his older brother's death in a boating accident (who is called both Buck and Jordan), and his struggle with trying to put his life back together after coming home from a hospital. And it is written in alternating chapters of his ponit of view and his father's who is incredibly worried about Conrad which is making his marriage suffer because his wife wants to pretend like they are just an "Ordinary Family." So if YA books aren't your thing, I'd recommend you go find a copy of Ordinary People by Judith Guest. Sidenote- the movie won some awards in 1980ish, but the book is infinitely better.

~Terri and Kelsey

Ice Cream for Lunch!!!

I know all of our readers (there are at least 3 of you out there) are anxiously awaiting the results from our next trip to a new restaurant, but it looks as though we are taking a break from that endeavor. Don't worry, we will be back on the job as soon as Kelsey finds some time to stay in town.

In the meantime, we will post from time to time whenever we feel we have something to say.

We just got back from a family vacation to Lake of the Ozarks so as a public service we will share with you our opinion of where to dine when at the Lake. Li'l Rizzo's is mine and Joe's long-time favorite place at the Lake. Those of you who know us well know that Joe & I have spent many vacations (both with and without our children) at the Lake. Li'l Rizzo's is the special place we always find time to visit. I thought we had first eaten there on our honeymoon, but when checking their history I found that they did not open until 1987 and we were married in 1985, so I guess that didn't happen. Anyway, I know that Joe & I ate many times at their location on Hwy. KK and it was "our place" at the Lake. That place is now closed, but there is a new one by the Outlet mall. It is much bigger and not as quaint, but the food is every bit as good. Their salad is AMAZING; well, really it's the dressing that's so good but who's going to argue with that? They have a wide selection of pizza and pasta and it's all good. This time around we only went once and we had a pizza and salad and it was great as always. If you have young children, their gummy bear pizza was popular with my kids when they were young and it's still on the menu. Oh, and one other thing - according to my son the art major - their Italian art on the walls and such is not quite authentic. That really bothered him, but it didn't stop me from enjoying my food.

Ok, so you are probably wondering what does that have to do with ice cream for lunch??? Well, one day that is exactly what we ate for lunch!!! We hopped on into town and ate some custard at a place called Andy's. We had never been there before (but we are not counting this towards our goal - see rule #3) and we were slightly disappointed. It was OK for lunch on a hot day, not bad, but definitely not Ted Drewe's quality. Oh well, ice cream for lunch can't be all bad, right?

Over vacation Kelsey and I both read the same book. Stay tuned to hear about the new book by one of our favorite authors. And yes, we will be going out to eat again.

~ Terri

Enemy Territory

Tonight Mom and I ventured into enemy territory, that's right, the mean streets of downtown O'Fallon, otherwise known as: O-Town. This evening we flew solo; with both boys down in Arkansas, we decided it was time we continue our mission and explored a new restaurant. Mom had seen a small restaurant that she always thought would be fun to go to, so we decided to check it out.




So. #2 is: Papa Vito's Pizza









An inside shot from where I was sitting. It was a pretty small restaurant with a small bar on the other side and some more seating outside. (A sign on the wall said max occupancy was 46)



















For all of you not so familiar with the area, Panthers = O-Town and Lancers = Belleville East (our school). We just found this amusing; this was on one of the walls. (The Panthers only wish they could beat us that bad!)








Okay. So let's get to the point shall we? I'm rambling, what can I say, high school English has taught me to over detail everything. Anyhow. We decided that if we ordered an appetizer and a pizza that qualifies as ordering different food (Hey, we made the rules so we can change 'em).








We started out with Papa Vito's Stuffed Cheese Bread. It was french bread with melted cheese, diced tomatoes, sausage, covered in Parmesan cheese, and accompanied by some really great marinara sauce. I have to say, these were some really great breadsticks, and mom agrees.
















We weren't incredibly hungry this evening, so we chose to order only a 9" pepperoni. This pizza reminded me of Imo's, but with less cheese. Mom said it was better, but I'm not so sure, but that's not the point here. This pizza was thin crust and crispy. Just how we like it.





So. our thoughts on Papa Vito's: Definitely good pizza, great appetizer, and a fun atmosphere. Looks like we had a good idea for #2, now we just have to hope #3 turns out as good; we've been lucky so far.


~Pictures and blog provided by Kelsey.

11 New Restaurants this Summer

Yes, it is a somewhat shallow goal, but that is the goal that Kelsey and I have set for ourselves this summer. It all started one day as Kelsey was driving us through Caseyville and I told her to turn right after the Happy Cow. Kelsey remarked as to how she knew right where that was, but had never eaten there. We decided then that it would be fun to try 11 new restaurants this summer. Why 11 you ask? Good question for which there is no good answer. We just thought it sounded like an interesting number.

Our rules for this quest:

1. Terri & Kelsey must both be present and neither can have eaten at the restaurant before. Guests are allowed (Yes, Joe is a guest).

2. We will not order the same thing. Joe can have whatever he wants.

3. Out of town restuarants don't count. Our goal is to try new places locally. And the MO side of the river is NOT out of town.

That's it! Sounds simple, doesn't it? We hope to keep a blog and let everyone know our review of the various restuarants we try.

So tonight we began our quest with the restaurant that started it all. Yes, tonight we ate dinner at the Happy Cow in Caseyville, IL. Joe joined us on our first excursion.

The Happy Cow is a small restaurant in Caseyville. I suppose it gets its name from the large collection of cows that were EVERYWHERE. It is a very down home kind of place with food that is fried and dripping with gravy and butter. YUM!

Kelsey ordered the Happy Cow burger with bacon and cheese and chose mashed potatoes as her side. This burger was huge - a whole 1/3 pound! She says it may be the best burger she's ever had (of course all she had to eat all day was a bowl of cereal so maybe she was just really hungry). It was covered with crispy strips of bacon and cheese, and was very juicy. The potatoes were awesome.

Joe ordered the meatloaf and gravy. He chose mashed potatoes and green beans as his sides. I tasted his green beans and they were very good. He says his meatloaf was really good.

I chose the chicken strips and my sides were potato wedges and corn. These were no fast food chicken strips! I was served two good-sized pieces of juicy chicken breast that had been deep fried. YUM! The potato wedges were really yummy too.

We really enjoyed our trip to the Happy Cow. And the best part was - the 3 of us ate for less than $25 including the tip. This place has very reasonable prices. We saw that they serve breakfast too, so we may be trying out breakfast one day. We would recommend the Happy Cow to anyone wanting a good old-fashioned meal.



~Terri (with a little help from Kelsey).