Hungry?

Food shopping here is always interesting.

There are seasonal, ethnic foods that fill the shelves alongside the Wonder Bread and Cheese Whiz.

There are so many foods I have just never even heard of.

There are so many foods I will never try as well.

I'll stick to my Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

Matt told me today that Twinkies and Ding Dongs will be back soon, they sold the company.

My super healthy Raspberry Red Zingers had better come with them.

These are some of the items that we did not pick up today at the supermarket:

Butter beans, ackees, large green boiled peanuts in a can and callaloo.
I have no idea.

  Yum! Irish Moss peanut drink!!

 Care for a chocolate digestive?
Matt says it's just candy from Great Britain.

Better make sure you have the jumbo sized container of oxtail seasoning......

There is a giant assortment of various brands and flavors of plantain chips, as well as every flavor of Goya fruit soda/drink on the planet.

Pineapple is my favorite.
 I am just starting to develop a taste for guava, too. Okay- guava flavoring and guava filling, but I'm getting there.

These are wafer cookies from Europe, they also come in about a dozen different flavors. They don't stock them all in the same place though so you can find different kinds in the cookie aisle, near the checkout and in they make seasonal flavors, too.

Plum Butter.
Who knew?

PRUNE butter.
Who cared?

Note that plum butter and prune butter were in  different aisles. 

Prune butter is seasonal, I think it's for Seder.

We didn't buy any of it, but we did leave the store with these:

Matt had them at work recently and said they were wonderful.

Matt was correct.

They're  bite sized layered cakes with a layer of lemon, vanilla and almond cake. The filling between the layers is raspberry jam and they dip the whole thing in milk chocolate. 

The first bite will give you a cavity.

The 400th bite will give you diabetes. 

Totally worth it.

Just Keep Swimming

New City= New Blog

I'm not going to pretend it's much more interesting than that.

I am not making this blog private, but I would ask that it not be listed in other blog lists for now.

We need a break from some people who have issues with boundaries.

I've written a couple of shiny new 'first' posts and I get overwhelmed and give up.

I need to just start.

This place is very different.

I am struggling right now, but it's only been a week. I feel like I'm in a foreign country where I thought I spoke the language better than I actually do. I'm too scared to drive at this point.

 The grocery stores are packed with people who want to be right in front of you right now so they can stand there and do nothing.

They throw the garbage right out on the curb without giant matching trash cans the city makes you rent.

 Everyone is in a hurry and I swear to Bob I am not going to the local Walmart ever again. West Valley City has NOTHING on the people of Walmart in Union.

And then there are fireflies.

There are little Italian bakeries and pizza joints where they serve thin crust pizza you fold in half to eat and they stare at you like you're nuts when you take pictures of it.

There are trees that reach the sky and squirrels in the back yard.

There are new hardwood floors and a sofa we bought that fits perfectly in the new family room.

There are neighbors with names like Jacobv and Bronya who don't know the English words for things, so instead of saying "deer" they say "beer" and then they laugh because they know they have it wrong based on the look you just gave them.

It doesn't feel like home in any way right now.

I am remembering that Utah felt totally weird for a few months when I left Arizona. That's hard to believe and I hadn't thought about that in a long time, but I didn't feel like Utah was home for some time. That gives me hope, but sometimes, when the kids aren't in the room I do sit on that new sofa and cry a little bit.

This is really hard.

Before we left Utah, we talked about how we get to choose a new place to sit in our new ward, we don't have to be the Olsons who sit right in the middle of the third row.

When Matt brought that up a few days ago, asking where we think we will sit, my chest got tight and I couldn't think about it. Too many changes.

It will feel fine in time, I trust that, but right now I'm like this lost tourist walking around saying "Hablo Deseret?"

One step at a time, Self.

Just keep swimming and hit "publish..."