What I Like Doing When I Come Home To Arkansas

1. Eat! (especially Zazas, US Pizza, Stobys, Jason's Deli, Bossanova...)
2. Shop! (downtown Conway, Box Turtle, the beautiful JCrew and Anthropologie in West Little Rock, Wilkinsons, The Kitchen Store) Especially because my parents buy me things.
3. Get treats- Maggie's Cookies for German Chocolate Brownies and carrot cookies and my new favorite Arkansas Pineapple Whip and Stoby's for Strawberry Cake and Tropical Storms and a smoothie at Planet Smoothie
4. Visit the Rivermarket on Saturday mornings for the farmer's market and go play with the kids at the park and splash pad
5. Swimming at Wooly Hollow or the Buffalo River
6. Throwing a themed party for the cousins
7. Watch OnDemand movies at my parent's house. I feel like I'm at a hotel!
8. I do love most just being around my family. Even if we are just sitting around and not doing anything on this list.

What I'm Excited About Doing In Arkansas

1. Sleeping in

2. Cooking with my sisters

3. Going to watch Breaking Dawn with Jenny and Ryan

4. More Christmas shopping with my mom

5. Seeing Tracy- it feels like its been forever

6. My kids playing with their cousins

7. A Stoby's Tropical Storm

8. Going to visit the McEntires

9. Zazas Pizza...I think I'll have the Feta, Potato, and Rosemary

10. Shopping at Wilkinson's

More Things To Love About Arkansas

1. The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

2. People from there love it. Like crazy love it.

3. Arkansas by Damien Jurado

4. Fayetteville. What a great town! My friend Ginny posted some of her favorites here.

5. So many outdoor activities. My cousin who is very sportsy outdoorsy and has some strange college degree that is related lived in Colorado for a while and couldn't wait to move to Arkansas because of all the scenery and activities. He's not even from Arkansas.

6. The Buffalo River

7. The Clinton Library. So maybe it does look like a fancy double-wide, but I think that works! It means a lot to the city of Little Rock and is beautifully located on and over the Arkansas River.

8. The entire town of Eureka Springs. One of my favorite places.

9. I digress, but I love this.

What I Want To Do While I'm In Arkansas

1. Sleep in! I love staying with my parents.

2. Go to the Box Turtle

3. Eat at Stoby's, Oak Street Bistro, Bossanova, Jason's Deli, ZaZa's, and US Pizza

4. Shop at Wilkinson's, my favorite place to buy shoes

5. Go to the Farmer's Market and park at the River Market

6. Let my sisters cook me vegan feasts

7. Check out the new Boulevard Bakery

8. Spend quality time with my sisters and parents

9. Let W and R enjoy their cousins

10. Go through some of my old stuff

11. Work on my photo albums

12. Read my new Tina Fey book

Why I Love Hwy 65 Between Branson and Conway

1. Breathtaking scenic views
2. Windy, hilly roads that are so fun to drive
3. One stop shop for things like walnut bowls and black apples
4. Sonic drive-ins galore!
5. Memories at every turn: that's the gas station a bird pooped on my head, that's where Katy had to puke out the window, that's where I got a speeding ticket, that's the pay phone where I got dumped by my boyfriend-over the phone...
6. Memories of adventures: that's where we went canoeing, that's the turn off to where I used to go climbing, that's where our favorite swimmin' hole is, that's where my friend's cabin is...
7. Awesome church signs
8. The scan function on my radio only picks up the most awesome of country stations
9. Rocky cliffs cut out alongside the road is beautiful...especially when the water makes little waterfalls
10. Road kill is like a game of Wildlife Guess Who featuring deer, armadillo, possums, coons, dogs, cats, rabbits, squirrels, and coyotes
11. Fun antique stores to stop in at
12. Driving down it means I'm going home
13. Road side stands with items that are marvelous in their strangeness...like today, one featuring a lion blanket, dixie flags, camo coveralls all for sale
14. I like to make a game trying to pass people in the tiny stretches of 2 lane highway
15. When you get behind a big (slow up the hills) truck, it's like a mini little break
16. It reminds me of speeding back to kamp by 6:00 pm when I crammed a trip home during a Kanakuk 2-4

Things I Love About Arkansas

1. My family
2. Stobys
3. All these great flea markets and antique stores
4. Kroger
5. Sigh, the Razorbacks
6. This perfect weather
7. Maggie's cookies
8. The Heights and Hillcrest
9. Northwest Arkansas
10. Friendly strangers
11. Small town feel (even in the cities)
12. What I think is unmatched scenery
13. I love Little Rock
14. The Rivermarket and riverfront
15. A sense of statewide Arkansas pride
16. I think it's different than people who've never been here think
17. Good pizza places
18. Good smoothie places
19. Great Wal-Marts
20. How outdoorsy and outdoor sporty it is
21. I like the state flag

Top 10 New Foods At The Arkansas State Fair

(from Serious Eats, if you want to see slideshow photos. Or Little Rock through this weekend if you want to taste)

1. Chocolate Smoochies- battered and deep fried Hershey's Kisses, dusted with powdered sugar

2. Battered and Deep-Fried Hard-Boiled Egg

3. Bacon Bombs- deep-fried cream cheese and bacon served on a stick

4. Cabritas Wraps- goat meat and tomato chunks with barbecue sauce, served in a tortilla

5. Tater Dog- hot dog on a stick inserted into a spiral cut potato

6. Steak Hubcap Sandwich- one pound country-fried hamburger fried steak on a bun

7. Chocolate Cream Cheese Bites- deep-fried milk chocolate and cream cheese, dusted with powdered sugar

8. Beer Butt Chicken- whole chickens roasted over coals on a beer can. Served with the beer can.

9. Cheeseburger on a Stick- just like a corndog, but instead of a dog...hamburger and cheese

10. Giant Cream Puffs- pastries the size of a baby's head with Bavarian cream filling...you can get them chocolate covered (Aaron, that is right up your ally)

Weird Town Names in Arkansas

1. Hogeye
2. Ink
3. Greasy Corner
4. Wiener
5. Success
6. Pickles Gap
7. Smackover
8. Romance
9. Cotton plant
10. Toad Suck
11. Hardy
12. Gid
13. Marked Tree
14. Apt
15. Stamps
16. Lepanto
17. DeQueen
18. Bald Knob
19. Goobertown
20. Pea Ridge
21. Peterpebder
22. Possum Grape

Arkansan Fiascos (so far)

1. W dumped smoothie on my mom's new carpet
2. R pooped out of his diaper at the Box Turtle
3. I didn't pack clean pants to fix #2
4. W barfed on the table at Bossanova at dinner last night
5. I spent my entire month's fun budget on a necklace at Box Turtle
6. I have dropped two cans of food on my right foot so far this week
7. R pulled a plate of pizza off the counter and it shattered
8. R pulled a plate of spaghetti off the table and on to my lap

Highlights From A Weekend With The Family

1. W riding like a big girl all alone on the tractor rides
2. Mom realizing she was eating pork and deer sausage then getting sick
3. A trip to Maggies
4. Dad and me dominating Catch Phrase again
5. Jenny spitting her gum across the room upon hearing my gerbil statement
6. Delicious punch at the bridal shower
7. Meeting my cute new doggie nieces: Roni & Ghetti
8. My Dad singing "Viva la Vida"

Fun Stuff To Do At Toad Suck Daze In Conway

1. Watch the Stuck on a Truck competition

2. Catch a mediocre band perform (this year-Jars of Clay)

3. Race a toad

4. Eat some food on a stick--my favorite, Cheesecake on a Stick

5. Get a team together for the Toad Jam 3-on-3

6. Run in the Toad Suck 5K

7. Eat some more food on a stick