a Sunday story (2)

Almost 2 years ago, while some dear friends who live in Texas were visiting, we went to eat at Outback Steakhouse. As I was planning my meal, I happened to read the words We only serve Blue Bell ice cream because it's rich, creamy and made the old fashioned way. I re-read it and sure enough, Outback was claiming to serve Blue Bell!

Could it be?! I gasped and could barely stay seated as I had everyone flip to the dessert menu. About that time, our waiter walked up and I could not contain myself. "You really serve Blue Bell?" I spat out at him. It took a minute for what I had just insanely screeched as my drink order to register, but he answered, "Yes, have you had that stuff? It's good!"

Have I had it? I grew up on it. I have vivid memories of my Mom/Dad handing me some money and making me buy a half gallon or two when they were on limited special at Kroger's. I was certainly raised an ice cream snob, but, honestly, all you Texans out there, does it get any better?

Bryan knew early on in our relationship the way to my heart was through my stomach. In fact, he took me to the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, TX the day he proposed to me. The funny thing was that we ran into my grandparents in the lobby before our tour. They had been in Houston and decided to take a tour which happened to be the same one we took. On our way from College Station to Brenham we passed by the Antique Rose Emporium in Independence. Bryan slyly suggested we stop by there on the way back. Little did I know that he had made his poor sister set up their gazebo and wait with all the stuff-needed-to-propose-to-your-girlfriend until we got back. And, y'all know how the proposal turned out. He knew what he was doing...fill my belly with Blue Bell and then pop the question! What girl could resist?!

Fast forward 5 1/2 years and we made this ill-informed decision to move to Raleigh, North Carolina. Actually, it has been a wonderful decision (with a few exceptions, namely being so far from loved ones). But, I say "ill-informed" because we had no idea until we got here that you could not buy even a spoonful of Blue Bell ice cream at the grocery stores. So, we tried every other brand and every variation of those brands...all horrible! And, then we just decided to have an ice cream-free home. That is, until we made that wonderful discovery at Outback. Before we left that night, we had all the information on purchasing a 3-gallon tub of Homemade Vanilla...yummy. Thanks to Outback I am proudly raising my girls to be ice cream snobs as well!