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Mango Salsa...is YUM-O!!

 

After I had my first baby I had the baby blues....very badly I may add, but that is not the reason for my post today.  To help with the isolation that I was feeling I joined the MOMS Club in my local area...it was the best thing I could of done for myself as a new Mother.  We bonded over pushing our babies on the swings at the park or at play dates at each of the other mothers' homes.  Another thing that came to fruition while I was in the MOMS Club was the MOMS Club Cookbook.  I have gotten the best recipes from that CookBook and one of the best things about it is that usually at these play dates in their home or at the park, we got to taste test all the great recipes that were in the book.  One recipe I can clearly remember trying at a picnic in the park..I can even remember which park I tasted it at for the first time and who made it.  Lisa was an excellent cook and this is her yummy Mango Salsa recipe.....it's Yum-o!!

 

````````````````````````````Mango Salsa`````````````````````````````

1 red onion

1 cup of finely chopped Mango

1/4 cup chopped Cilantro

1/4 Habanero Chile (add more if you dare)

1/4 cup of Orange Juice

1 lime, juiced

1/2 tsp. salt

Slice the red onion and place slices in small bowl of cold water for 10 minutes {soaking the onions makes it milder}.  Then dry onions thoroughly. Chop onion finely and place in bowl.  Add the mango, cilantro, chile, juices and salt.  Mix well.  Season to taste and add additional chile if desired.  Let the flavors come together for about 30 minutes. 

This tastes great with chips or on grilled Chicken or Fish...a great recipe to add to the summer menu...try it you'll like...Ole!

.........Soccer

  

....the season is upon us once more...

I always ask myself...how is it that I have NO LIFE!!  It's all about the children, isn't it?  I used to Scrapbook   on Saturdays...sometimes with the SCRAPANOS ....now it's either the Softball Field, the Soccer Field or the Dance Floor......

the season is finally over...

My eldest daughter...{the athlete} has finally finished with her All Star Softball Games....they made it all the way to the State Championships in Lancaster,CA {yes where it is incredibly HOT}   There were 167 teams from all over the state that came to compete......

 

We played early on Friday morning...

 

the players exchanged gifts after the first game...we gave them good bags in our colors they gave us sweet candy leis...

 

after two games that day they have a parade where they introduce ALL 167 teams...you can dress up.  Some came looking like they where out of a Dr. Seuss book with hair piled up on top straight up in the air  {wish I took a picture} or dressed up for Mardi Gra with purple and green beads and masks or with inter-tubes around their waists and a mask and snorkel.  We did not know they did this so our costumes were put together very last minute.  I had a bunch of Hawaiian Themed items leftover from the 5th Grade Picnic, another Mom said she had this Ribbon Lei Idea..so we went with it. 

 

Here is the team all ready to walk in the parade....

  

They each got these adorable cows with a hanky around ti's neck...

 

 

after the parade the girls got to trade pins with the other cities.  Our league didn't have pins to trade which was a shame, they loved this part of the parade.  If you didn't have pins you could of traded Candy, bead necklaces or glow sticks.  But I was such a dufus I forgot to give the girls there glow sticks I got at Target to pass out.  I was busying driving around looking for a Party City to buy Coconut Bras for the coaches to wear and when I got back I could not find a place to park so I forgot.   So the coaches got to wear the skirts only with no coconut bra, I think they were bummed {NOT!}...

 

Madison had one more at bat...

One more..laying down the bunt...

 

One more pep talk from the coach....

 

one more attempt at stealing second base....

 

One more end of the game smile......

 

Glad it is over......now on to................................................

better day

 

I did a post yesterday but somehow it got lost in cyber space.   Typepad is giving me fits...when I have a ton of photos on my post or if I click "save" the curser starts blinking and I have to close down the post but usually the auto save saves it.   I tried to get the post back this morning with no luck.   So let's say i'm off to  a more relaxing environment today.....the beach. No computers, no facebook...............unplugged, at least for a few hours..

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.....

Remember this door?

 

Well it has a new wreath on it...let me refresh your memory....

 

this was my friends door all decorated for fall...well now it is sporting a new summer wreath.....Not only is it sporting a new wreath but my friend just redid her kitchen and it is gorgeous...I mean drop dead gorgeous...{reason for the title}......would you like to take a peek inside..thought you would...first we start off down from the driveway into the walkway...her house is a cape cod with two dormers but you can't see them because the tree is in the way of this shot..I'll have to do another post on the outside.

Coming down the walkway to the front door you look to the left at a tranquil waterfall.

 

When you are sitting here you get to look out at the waterfall....

 

    {sorry about the glare off the windows and tables}  click to enlarge photos

 

this is the built -in Island with Carrera Marble tops you can see where it is in relation to the breakfast nook.  It's made out of a exquisite mahogany wood,  as is the built in refrigerator.

 

the kitchen is done in two-tone, I love the contrast of the dark floors with the island and frig and the cream colored cabinets....across from the frig is the Viking Stove...

 

Nice and handy is the pot spigot to fill up big pots for boiling lobster...ha!  Yes..I'm in dreamland, that I am...  Also another thing handy in this kitchen is the butcher block built-in next to the stove.  In the photo above you can also see the mesh cabinet fronts that her beautiful china peeks out from.   A better view of the mesh doors are of the pantry seen below..

 

Sitting right across from the pantry is this little seating area to watch "The Game" on the big screen TV..

 

You can see in the top corner the breakfast nook.  Before we step into the dining room I want to show you the glass cabinets that flank the other side of the frig.  Can you see the gilded gold glasses inside? What..you say you would like a glass of wine?  Yep...they have a wine frig to the left of this cabinet.  Let me go find the wine opener.

 

 

which glass would you like...Ok  Now lets go check out the bar if you don't want wine I'm sure I could find some spirits for you..

 

Now before we leave the kitchen I have to show you my favorite part of this redo..

This house is a three story and the kitchen is on the second story so you feel like you are in a tree-house. 

 

The view above the sink....

 

now....for my favorite part..the apron front sink....I'm so in love with it..I want to kiss and hug it...I really, really do...

Love the white subway tile and the bridge faucet, here is a closer peek of the sink...

it's a double and it is very deep...again they used Carrera Marble on the counters..

 

Now moving toward the left we go into the dining room...

 

you can see beyond the stunning dining room table in that rich dark wood surrounded with leather chairs done in up with upholstery tacks.  But let's take a closer look at that sparkly chandelier, shall we?

 

Right next to the dining room table to warm you up on chilly night is this baby..

 

{sorry so blurry}   isn't this venetian glass mirrow exquistite? 

Next to the fireplace there is bank of shelves...

 

 

the pretty sea fans and white coral look pretty against the blue backdrop on the shelves.  The paint in the dining room is by Dunn Edwards but I'll have to check on and see what color it is.  

we enjoyed our third of July celebration

Yep..you read the title right....every year our neighboring city does a celebration on the THIRD of July....this year was the biggest and crowdiest {Is that a word?}in all the years we have been going since our eldest was about a year old.   This year they had a ton of food vendors and even one place sold deep fried oreos....but we did not get any maybe next year...as tradition we always go here first....

 

to see the Colonel....we always bring a bucket of the Colonel Sanders Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy..

 

Then we head down to the City's' Regional Park, where we eat our Picnic Dinner and head over ot the craft booths.  The girls decided on supporting the High School Soccer team which had face painting...it was the most popular booth by far..you could get your face painted with a Patriotic Flower or a red, white and blue bedazzled design that ran about $1-$3 bucks and you were all decorated in Patriotic style....

 

 

 

One of the more interesting sights was this young girl who had to be about 9 riding this very tall unicycle...

 

now I didn't get a picture of her going up  and down the hills...wish I would of.  Later on she had a smaller unicycle and she was able to go up and down and ride it all by herself.  Dad was riding the one in the picture above and brother had his own too ..it was like the Circus family on Unicycles.  I was wondering where Mom was?   My Dad one time brought home a unicycle for us kids when we were little.  It was really, really hard to ride, we never did master it but it was fun trying.  

 

Wouldn't this be fun to ride in a parade....

 

I think this Patriotic Dude shoud be the driver....don't ya think?

 

We had Firecrackers...the cold and yummy kind and the beautiful to look at kind..

 

 

Hope your    THIRD or FOURTH  of JULY was spectacular......

Porch 4th Decorations...

As I stroll around town taking my children to their sporting/dancing/drama events I sometimes take the long route....this leads to questions like, "Mom, why is it taking so long to get there?"..or "How come your slowing down and you have your camera out?"...I want to say, just sit down and shut UP!   But I say..."oh I decided to go this way today instead for a change of scenery..it's the scenic route, don't you like it?"  which leads to the "uh..no!"   Oh well one of these days they'll remember the times I taught them about all the great architecture of Southern California...yes..I know they will...

Here is one cute house I spotted all dressed up for the upcoming Fourth of July Celebrations..

 

Let's be nosy neighbors and take a closer look....

 

You know I have a soft spot for cute porches and Craftsman Bungalows...I wish I was lucky enough to live in one and I think the owners of them are very lucky...but here is what I have done to my porch/garden to gussied it up in 4th of July fashion..

 

I bring out my blue ticking pillow with the red buttons I made..yep I made it myself.  I take out my flag pillow with Uncle Sam who is now freshly shaven..(lost his beard) and put that out on my country bench.

 

Every year at this time the real estate agents put in small American flags on the sidewalk with their calling cards and so I have slowly collected them and reuse them in my planters to decorate.  Do they do that in your neck of the woods?

 

Here I begged offered to take this piece of picket fence of my neighbor's hands for her and I reused it here as a backdrop for part of my garden.  I added these cute red and blue buckets I got from JoAnn's or Michael's a few years ago.  I added one of my favorite trailing plant to them Calibrachoa which comes in such a variety of colors...I have them in white and red as seen above as well as yellow and lavender.  Remember this guy...

 

such a soft shade of purple...he was nice and healthy but he was too pretty......the aphids got him....I got some ladybugs to cure him and they ate them all.  I don't know if you know about aphids but they leave their white shredded skin on the plant so he needs a good washing, I hear a mild soapy water does the trick....any other advice from you plant people out there ..suggestions welcome.   Anyways...back to to the reason for my post...they come in all colors as you can see I love how they drape but they do need lots of water!!  

 

Now...we move to the left of my front garden where the wrought iron crib bed is and we have a dated, very countryish sign that I hung up....I have had this sign for so long but even though it's so "out of style" I still like it.....and the sentiment still rings true...so what does your porch or garden or yard look like this time of the year I would love to visit it so please leave a comment.....hope you enjoyed this patriotic tour.