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