CuteKittyPunk

Even Stevens Sandwiches 471 St. George Blvd. St. George, Utah This is me, on my birthday eating a great sandwich 'tis the season of giving... I drove passed Even Stevens on St. George Blvd at lunch time, the parking lot was packed. I am so grateful that we live in a community where people love to eat & help each other. This is the sandwich shop with a mission. Eat to Give! For every sandwich you buy, they will donate one sandwich (a voucher of sorts) to one of the three shelters and food bank in St. George.  Is that awesome or what? I love it. Not only that, but I have been privileged to try one of their very tasty sandwiches. It was a Pot Roast Dip. It was actually turkey and it had this sweet pepper jelly on it. The bread was nice and toasty but not like a dry toast, it was definitely fried and it came with au jus and a pickle spear. It was delicious! I am eager to try out more of their selections. Really good food - with a cause! I love it. Love it. L

According to Hedgehog Electric , this is the must see list for Christmas lights in Southwestern Utah. See map here for route! Thanks to my sister for finding me these links! I drove by this house the other day but the lights were not on yet... crazy how into the Christmas lights this house has a lot going on... image found here: video There is one newer spot to browse Christmas lights and that is at the new Desert Garden up on Red Hills Parkway next to Pioneer Park aka Dixie Rock! Okay, that's about all I have to say about that. One more thing, The Christmas lights display at Town Square at Main and Tabernacle are awesome... much better than at the Temple. I was a little disappointed with how few lights they had up at the temple... but I guess the temple makes up for it by having a nativity presentation and all those cool things you can do inside the visitor center.... image found here . which brings up a childhood memory. When I was a kid, I lived on t

Zeppe's Ice 1812 W. Sunset Blvd #2 St. George, Utah 435-773-7140 www.zeppesice.com When I was a kid, my Mom used to have this laminated ice cream cone (flat paper) on the closet door in the kitchen. Each cone had our name on it. And every time we read a Friend  magazine article we would earn a paper laminated scoop of ice cream for our cone. And at the end of the month she would take us out for ice cream. But actually, we usually went for Frozen Yogurt which has always been the in-thing here in St. George as long as I can remember. The trendy hot spot back then was Dixie Frozen Yogurt. It was in the old shopping center on Bluff where K-mart is still located. It was always a welcome treat. I loved getting gummy bears on my frozen yogurt.  Now all the frozen yogurt places are self serve and you always spend too much money! Okay, there are several yummy frozen yogurt and ice cream places around here now, and I will review each of them another day, but today, I want to

Doctor's Volunteer Clinic 1036 E. Riverside Dr. St. George, Utah 435-656-0022 www.doctorsvolunteerclinic.org I feel like my life has been put on hold. I had a bout with eczema. It is truly one of the worst things to have to deal with especially when it's on the palms of your hands and on the fingers. I have had to rely on my husband to be my hands. Tie my shoes, help me with my bra, make lunches, etc. etc.  I guess I am lucky because I have never had any thing like this before. The worst skin problem I ever had before this was acne as a teenager. It was pretty extreme at times. I ended up going on Accutane to cure me of it... so grateful for those medical things. Well, after many google searches, I found that eczema is common in winter in dry climates. So, that is one of the down sides to living in dry climates in winter. I guess you can't have it all. :( Since relocating back to the U.S. - money is tight with us, we don't have any health insurance and do

Suzy's Closet Dress Rentals 692 N 150 W Hurricane, Utah 435-680-2858 By appointment only. Last week I had the opportunity to visit with Dena Humphries of Hurricane. She runs Suzy's Closet. It's a non profit Dress Rental in Hurricane. The goal of this non-profit is to provide modest affordable dresses for young women. But, anyone can "rent" a dress - you don't have to be young. Dena said she had someone going to a Marine ball in Southern California that was older that was borrowing a dress. The cost to rent dresses is $35 per dress. This covers the cost of dry cleaning therefore, Dena doesn't make anything extra, hence non-profit. Dena runs this business out of her house, namely out of her living and family rooms. Why doesn't she call it Dena's Closet? She said because she thought it didn't sound good. She chose the name Suzy because it was cute and similar to her middle name Sue. How did she get into the business or charity rat

Ooh La La Dress Rentals Brittney Callister 435-215-5229 St. George, Utah www.oohlaladressrentals.com www.facebook.com/OohLaLaDressRentals My sister gets to attend a black tie affair in Salt Lake City. Last year she also went to the Marine Ball, and rented a dress from Ooh La La Dress Rental, so she returned to the same place for something special. I feel lucky that she invited me to a dress shop of sorts to preview some formal attire.  I walked down the stairs into a basement, and was instantly wowed. I was like a little girl in a candy store... but like candy for women: dresses - pretty, sparkly gorgeous dresses. This particular showroom is owned by St. George mom Brittney Callister. She started the business because as she put it, my then 16 year old step daughter had not many choices for prom dresses. She searched around for a dress rental and there were none in St. George. Brittney had been looking for some kind of side business to run from home, and here presented itsel

First snow this Fall, Jarvis Peak west of St. George, about 10 miles. Nice photo eh?! Photo courtesy Mark Today it was cold outside, burrrr... very cold. We had planned on having a mommy meet up at Firehouse Park but it was much too cold for that. We went inside to the Story Time hour over at St. George Library. Every week the St. George Library has several offerings for Story Time participation. I have only ever attended the Wednesday Story Time with Mrs. Mann. It is held at 10:00, 11:00 and 2:00 for ages 3-5, but I am usually there with my 2 year old and there are a lot of little ones with older siblings as well. Mrs. Mann plays fun music, reads longer stories for those ready to listen, there is usually a theme craft or coloring sheet at the end. It's fun. Mrs. Mann is awesome. She has a special gift interacting with the youngsters. She's a pro! There is also a Monday Story Time with Grandpa Steve 10:00-11:00 for ages 12 and younger. Again, Wednesday Evening Stor

The City of St George is awesome when it comes to trails, parks, playgrounds and outdoor recreation. In fact, they just received an award for it, a gold medal  to be precise! This is one reason why St George is a great place to live and raise a family. I also like St George because it feels like a small town community even though the population is growing and Washington county is one of the fasting growing counties in the USA. It still has that small town feel to it. Maybe it's because there are several small communities in each little valley between the hills and mountains here. There are several places to take the little ones and little bit older ones to escape from the heat. But probably the best place is in downtown St George next to the Tabernacle. There are no playground toys, but they are not missed at this popular spot. This city block Town Square   is home to the famous Mormon Tabernacle, Children's Museum as well as the St George Library and the Splash Pad.

This is going to have to be an ongoing post... what I mean, is I might have to update it again next year. This is going to be a very big deal this year. My kids have never experienced real American Trick or Treating. I have talked about it, and they have seen it on tv shows over the years and they are very excited. As am I! This is why I wanted to pick a neighborhood that would be awesome for their first experience. Originally, I had planned to spend the weekend with my brother and his family in Spanish Fork, Utah. They live in a neighborhood with about a million kids so it was going to be perfect... but since the flu has affected everyone lately, and since my whole family was sick to death of road trips since we moved back here, we decided to stay in St. George. This posed a problem for me. I didn't know where the best street was. After a quick google search, I found nothing! No one has blogged about this, at least, not in the first three or four pages of a google search.

Awww, this time of year, I love all things cinnamon. For the last couple of years I would look foward to apple cinnamon vla (a type of dairy pudding desert that was sold in Holland).  I would serve it with chunks of ginger bread called ontbijtkoek aka breakfast cake, literally. Even though I grew up in the USA, it still seems somewhat foreign to me. After all, I was an expat in Holland for 10 plus years, and at one time I had every intention of staying there forever. But it was not to be. The excessive rains put a damper on those plans. Now, here we are in sunny St George, and it sometimes doesnt even feel like Fall. For the first two weeks of October we still had highs in the 90 degrees F. Its now beginning to be "cold" at least for a couple hours in the morning, and I saw tiny leaves on the front porch, so some plant out there is shedding for Fall. This is exciting, because with cooler weather we can enjoy the hikes much more, and I can enjoy some Fallish cinnamon d