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Grocery shopping with Lyvia is always an adventure.

It all starts with the “Lyvia size” cart at Smiths. (Thank you for having these mini carts, Smiths.) She gets her little cart and I get a big cart and we go wheeling around the store together. In the produce section, Lyv usually wants everything to go in her cart. And wants to help count out apples and carrots to put in the bag. She also seems to remember what we purchase from week to week because sometimes she’ll remind me, “What about my bananas, Mom?” or “Do we need some ‘chokes?” (“chokes” are Lyv-speak for artichokes)

After wheeling around the store’s perimieter, we venture down a few of the aisles. This is where I start to lose my angel helper. About the cereal aisle, Lyv becomes tired of counting the veggies and pushing the cart. Now she is ready to run full speed down the aisles and help herself to six or eight boxes of oatmeal into her cart. Now I am trying to push her mini cart and my big cart. Oh yes, I’ve tried just emptying her stuff into my cart. This was followed by a temper tantrum, me leaving the store and our cart ditched in the meat section- still full of our un-purchased groceries. So now I have a plan. I bring treats. I go down those few aisles first. This has worked great!

Until Lyv discovered the age-old practice of product placement. After a particularly positive and helpful trip to the grocery store, I noticed a can in one of my bags. A can of something I have never ever purchased, let alone eaten in my life. A can of something so disgusting I could barely even believe that it was in my grocery bag.

Spaghetti-O’s.

Not just any Spaghetti-O’s but Disney Princess Spaghetti-O’s complete with pictures of Ariel, Cinderella and Belle in their ball gowns on the label. Tinkerbell with her trail of sparkles was blinging up the whole can. They were all smiling over their shoulders with perfectly coiffed hair. I turned to Lyv and said, “Did you put this in our cart?” “Yep. It’s princess food, Mom.”

Well, I really can’t blame the girl. There are sparkles on it, after all.

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Uh-Oh, Spaghetti-O

High winds here in the valley have kicked up a ton of dust and turned our air quality to crap. Imagine looking out of your window and seeing nothing but a thick fog. Now imagine walking out your front door to discover that the “fog” is actually hot air whirling around with dirt in it. Yum.

I was feeling crabby on the way to the grocery store today, so I made a mental list of all the things I didn’t like about Utah, dust storms included. Then I made a list of all the things I loved about Ohio. Of course, by the time I got to the store, I had started to remember all of the things I didn’t like about Ohio and how much better it was here in Utah. It went something like this:

UTAH vs OHIO

Weather – Utah has dust storms and inversion, but I’ll take those over the ice storms, pounding rain, and humid summers of Ohio. Plus, the snow here is just so fluffy and cheerful! It’s like we’re living on the set of a holiday movie.

Social life – If you want to go out to do something here in Utah, you’re going to have to drive for a while and you’ll probably be eating something. Ohio wins with lots of activities within walkable distance and a good atmosphere for going to bars without spending $90 in two hours. Plus, with Margi’s upcoming move to Cleveland, Kyle and I officially have more friends living in Ohio than in any other state in the country.

Community – It’s a little plastic around here, but Utah definitely wins with lots of family friendly events and people who really enjoy helping out their neighbors. Plus, the area where we used to live had really, really high statistics for occurrences of sexual assault, which sort of puts a damper on the community spirit.

Cuisine – It’s a draw between the two, although Utah has the upper hand on fresh food and good Mexican. However, I can’t forget the deep fried pickles and ridiculous stacked burgers of the midwest.

Traffic – I’d say it was a draw, but Kyle enjoys the traffic in Ohio more. He’d rather deal with crazy drivers doing 90MPH than the fact that everyone in Salt Lake City takes the same four roads to get to and from work.

Jobs – It’s a lot easier to find work in Utah, which means you’re more likely to get a job you’re happy with and stay there. Plus, tons of people are now on a 4-day work week here, so Utah wins twice.

Weekend trips – Ohio wins, even though Utah is just a little bit away from both Yellowstone National Park and Las Vegas. The problems aren’t the destination, they’re the drives. In Ohio when you drive somewhere for the weekend, you pass interesting things, little towns, and general stuff to look at. In Utah, when you drive somewhere for the weekend, you pass salt and dirt until you get there. There’s nothing else. Maybe cows. But mostly dirt.

Proximity to Disney parks (what? it’s important to us!) – It’s a tie. Disneyland is a day trip away, making it closer than Walt Disney World is to Ohio, but we like WDW more. No wins here.

Sigh. I don’t really mind Utah, when I don’t have to chew the air. I even felt a little disloyal by the time I got to the grocery store, so we’re having green Jello with dinner tonight, with oranges in it and everything. I just need to get a little bit of that beehive spirit back!

(Note: Ohio’s state symbol isn’t a beehive. Plus one to Ohio.)

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Utah vs. Ohio

I believe there are many important “firsts” in life.

I still [embarrassingly] remember my first kiss

I definitely remember the first time I saw Brad.

I remember the first moment[s] I found out I was pregnant

And the first moment of meeting my precious boys face to face

I remember the first moment I realized and knew that my religion was true.

And the first time I realized that I was doing exactly the right thing and exactly the right time.

But this week (and last week for that matter), I’ve been remembering the first time I tasted one of these:

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Firsts…