It's EXCITING !!!!!!

Good Afternoon my friends: Something exciting is happening today in Blogland!!! Do you know?? Well-----wait for it----- Are you READY for it? Really?? OK here is is~~~~~~!!!!!!!! ****THIS IS MY 200th POST!!!!!!!!!!!********* I say "what better way to celebrate" than with a recipe.

Remember this???

This is called Vegetable Salsa and

you will want to take this to every

event that calls for food to be

shared.

Mr Ken asked for this recipe from

a friend's friend at the 4th of July

party and we recieved it yesterday.

**********************************

VEGETABLE SALSA

*********************

2 15 oz cans of petite diced

tomatoes, drained well,

reserve liquid

1 medium green pepper

1 clove garlic

1/2 c red onion

5 green onions

1/2 cup cilantro

1 can shoe-peg white corn

(not sure whether to drain

or not--I probably would)

1 can black beans--drained

1 can black-eyed peas--

drained

3/4 c Zesty Italian dressing

****************************

Finely chop all vegetables.

Combine all ingredients,

adding enough reserved

liquid from tomatoes to

desired consistency. Serve

with tortilla chips.

Enjoy!!!!!

****************************

~~~Now if you are like me,

you don't follow a recipe

always to the T. You change

it around.

This would be a perfect

recipe to serve the veggies

chopped BIG, throw in

some different veggies,

different beans, yellow corn.

You get the idea. Enjoy!!!

******************************

In other news---FRIDAY

will be another BIG day

for me here is Blogland!!!!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Roll'n, Roll'n, Roll'n

I found some really nifty ideas

in a couple of magazines that I

THOUGHT I would share with

you.

************************************

~~~~Save the hotel "freebie"

shower caps. Use them to

cover shoes before packing.

Now your shoes won't get

anything dirty. If you don't

use them for this--save them

to cover shoes at another time.

************************************

~~~~A marrriage rule to NEVER

break. "Steal time." For a kiss,

a whisper, a date, time together

on the couch etc.

************************************

~~~~Crafty ideas::

**Change a flat front frame

from BORING to bold with

"Grasscloth wallpaper."

Measure frame and photo

opening. glue paper on,

let dry and your good to go.

Trim any excess.

**Find inexpensive glass or

acrylic coasters and cover the

bottom with pictures you have

found or print out your own

photos--cut to fit the bottom of

each coaster and glue on with

clear drying glue stick.

Kids pics, pets, gardens,

vacations etc. would work.

These would be great for as a

little gift too.

************************************

**It will be "Back to School"

time way too soon but help

is on it's way for those of you

in:

Mississippi --7/30-31

Alabama --8/6-8

Connecticut --8/15-21

DoC --8/7-15

Iowa --8/6-7

Louisiana --8/6-7

The states below --8/6-8

Missouri

New Mexico

North Carolina

Oklahoma

South Carolina

Tennessee

Virginia

Texas --8/20-22

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Source--Good Housekeeping

July 2010

*************************************

Fun activities to do with the kids

this summer:

Play Water Limbo--

Each player goes under the nozzle

stream. Last dry player WINS

Blow Bubbles--

My suggestion--try Scented Bubbles

you can find them at the Dollar Tree.

Put on a Play--

Create costumes, develope a story

and the play can begin. Get fancy

and "sell tickets." Maybe some

popcorn???

Paint Outdoors--

On an old sheet hjug on a clothes

line or hang butcher paper on a

fence for the kids to paint on.

************************************

Five foods that fight inflammation:

see pg. 86

++Tart Cherries

++Onions

++Cabbage

++Artichokes

++Pistachios

*************************************

Recipe for Fruit Dip

Serves 12 approx.

Makes: 23 Tbsp.

Serving size 2 Tbsp

1 point for those on Weight

Watchers

1 8oz bar Weight Watchers

Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

Spread (room temp)

1/4 C Marshmallow fluff

3 T Sugar Free seedless

raspberry preserves

Combine all ingredients.

Blend thoroughly. Serve

with fresh fruit.

**********************************

For fun party ideas see pgs. 61-66

Source Women's Day

July 2010

*************************************

I'll be back over the weekend---we

have out of town company coming

over. We haven't seen this family

for a couple of years, due to them

moving with the military. It will be

a BLAST!!!!!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Holiday Weekend Wrap Up

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! We were quite the social butterflies! Saturday--Lenexa 4th Parade:

We had a great time at the parade,

too much fun. It's the small town

feeling in a moderate size city.

*****************************************

Later in the day we went to some friends

house for the evening fun!

Our friends live in Basehor, KS and this

is what they get to look at daily! Rough

huh???? It is beautiful and all the houses

were dressed for the holiday.

It's getting close to THAT time! FIRE-

WORKS! Ken has his place picked out

and is ready for the action! The more

noise THE better. Their neighborhood

association sets up the fireworks

display on the dock. Plus everyone

else shoots off their own personal

fireworks.

As we all know fireworks are illusive

things to get the perfect picture of--

I got one that I was happy with. :)

They were all beautiful and the

finale of course was SUPER!

*****************************************

Sunday took us to Nancy's cottage.

Some of you know her from Acorn

Cottage (see my sidebar).

We have been friends for several

years after her husband and Ken

reconnected at a High School

reunion!

As you can see from the picture

below, we had a feast! Burgers,

brats, potato salad, chips,

AND apple crumble pie with

homemade vanilla ice cream!!!

It was all DELISH!!!! See those cupcakes

:0 :0 good golly they were yummy too.

The boys thought they needed a power

nap soooooooooooo the girls decided

to play Scrabble. Nancy won both of

the games. I think she pulled out

better letters than I was able to !!!!

It was fun though and there was NO

competition at all between us. :)

We were unable to see fireworks on

the 4th due to a storm that came

through about the time to leave.

Oh well.....

******************************************

Monday evening one of our good friends

came to dinner.

Here is an up close and personal pic

of one of the place settings.

Red place mats, white plates, everyday

silverware AND yes paper napkins.

I love, love, love holiday napkins, they

are soooo much fun and I don't have the

patience to wash linen napkins.

My wonderful husband gave me these

beautiful roses and the flag. He wanted

to "Thank" me for all that I have done

for him since he has been on the mend.

Such a sweetie! Captain Bear is keeping

an eye on them.

For a starter I served a corn salsa that

we got from a new friend with chips.

The chips are new to us to they are :

Calavo-Sea Salt Tortilla Chips.

The chips are very light and the sea

salt gives them a great taste.

Our dinner theme was "Summer Salad

Supper." Above is a Garden Salad with

traditional ingredients. Below is a new

recipe to us. Oriental Chicken Slaw. I

also served crusty bread. Our friend,

Sonja brought a Broccoli Salad.

Everything is ready.

Dinner is served. Help yourself!!!!

It all was yummy good. For

dessert (no pic--forgot) I served

Fresh Fruit Salad with Vanilla

Wafers.

After dinner we hung out and

chatted for the rest of the evening.

Sonja is a great friend and we love

it when she can come for dinner.

***************************************

We had a great weekend, spending

time with friends we see often and

those we don't see as often as we'd

like. As I have said before--Friends

are some of the best people in the

world beside our famlies.

**************************************

****Ken is getting better each day!!!

****Our Great Niece arrived on

July 2, 2010 at 9 pm. She weighed

7 lbs 8 oz. and we don't know

how long she is yet. They sent a

picture to Ken's phone and she is a

Cutie!

****Tuesday Trivia will be back

next week.

~Keep on Dreaming~

We Are Waiting......

Exciting News:

Our niece is going to be a

Mommy soon!

Last update was that she is

at a 3 after having her

water was broke at

10:45 this morning.

So we wait.

Ken was talking to her

on the phone and the Dr.

came in so maybe they

are going to get things

rolling and Miss Emily

Michelle will be here

soon! Ken and I are very

excited to be Great

Uncle and Aunt!!!!!

YEA!!!!!!!!

~Keep on Dreaming~