Just so you know...

in case you don't know already:

Frozen chicken takes a long time to thaw.

Olive oil is not to be used for baking.

Season passes are required for a dog to enter the Ankeny Dog park. Just so he can run around and poop in the grass. Ya, you have to pay for that.

Texas and Iowa are far away from each other.

Wedding planning is confusing at times.

Colors are apparently a big deal to females.

No one in Iowa sells snow shovels beginning the last week of February.

33 degrees can feel good.

Rising gas prices affect the price of almost everything.

Dieting is hard.

When you buy cake mix, make sure you by some icing too.

When you bake a cake, make sure you have a pan to bake it in.

The Swiffer Sweeper sucks, use a broom instead.

When you use the oven, make sure you have potholders.

If you buy a birthday card, be sure to remember to give it to the recipient.

If going out to check the mail, make sure you are not wearing black sweat pants covered in yellow lab dog hair, because it might be when all of your new neighbors decide to come outside for the first time since you moved to the neighborhood and greet you.

When boiling a whole chicken, make sure you have a pot big enough to hold the whole chicken...or you could be there mopping up salmonella filled water off the stove for a while.

Always buy a whole pint of heavy cream. No matter what.

The air in Iowa is drier than the air in Texas and if your nose dries out, prepare for a month of nostril pain.

Be sure to call the waste company in your local town upon moving to a new house. Sometimes they may not automatically provide a trash bin for you and you could end up with two weeks worth of trash bags in your garage until you call them.

If there are only two of you, learn to cook smaller serving sizes. You don't have to act like you're feeding a herd every time you hit up the stove.

Because, sometimes you may not know.

But now you know :)

- Shirley