Homemade Mango Salsa

Here’s the recipe that I often whip up for quick get togethers!

1 firm mango cubed
2 small avocados cubed
1 lime (sqeeze over salsa)
1/2 red onion chopped
1/2 pint pre-made pico de gallo from deli section
1 cup freshly cubed pinapple
1/4 cup fresh chopped Cilantro

mix all ingredients together, serve with either Celery to dip, or Tortilla chips.

try it, come back and let me know how it is

Here we go… it has been as much as 13 years since I had seem some of these folks.  And what a hoot it was. We met new cousins, our kids all walked away with new friends/family, and everyone was ready to plan next year… so it was definately a success, and next year the group will be bigger as we did have quite a few last minute no shows (illnesses mostly).  Until next year… savor in the pictures

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Late in posting this (as it was last weekend) but I didnt have access to the pictures till this morning
here are a few memories of our weekend
we really had a good time, and the kids are at the right age, where Museums are actually interesting to them (love that)!
The King Tut museum was the best, as Max knows he is going to study that this year in school, so he feel ahead of the game

take a look, enjoy with us

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This spring I was visiting some friends in Capitola for a Spa Weekend, ah… it was great!
One of the days we walked down to the beach past a few antique stores.
Went in and saw a great little item hanging on the wall
I was definitely intrigued and played around with it a little, and figured it out…
here’s what it looked like:

A beautiful decoration to our backyard

Now, one might ask… why did you buy that? Well it is not because everything in the store was 1/2 off (therefore it was $17) but it was that i had figured out the coolest use for it… then it was… EUREKA for me
here’s a photo of it in use:

I feel very good about the great deal and the uniqueness of this addition to our backyard!

I am an avid reader of a blog by the name of Design Sponge, she’s great with twitter and great with photos… yesterday she had a very unusual, but seemingly simple recipe posted by Melina Hammer, and i just had to share. Follow Design Sponge

Haloumi, Melon, and Avocado salad with lime-mint dressing

As most of you know I was called to Jury duty in June. I went in of course thinking I would be excused that day, then the selection process went into the second day, but even then i thought they either wouldnt get to me, or i would be excused. There was a pool of 350 potential jurors, what were the chances I would be selected as one of the 12? After-all we are talking about a Child Molestation case, and being a mother of 2 young children, I am obviously going to have a biased opinion… right?
Not according to the 2 attorneys nor the judge, they thought my work experience and the fact that I was a mother would help me make a fair and impartial judgement, and they sat me in the box! Yikes… I was up in this box with 1 other women 10 men and 4 alternates (all of which were men I might add). Tues and Wed. till noon, was jury selection, but by 1pm on Thursday, they had opening statements and 3 witnesses, so at that point I must say, I was quite impressed by the efficiency in which they were moving through this.
The court system only holds long jury trials on Tues/Wed and Thurs of each week, so after our “first” day of trial, we were set for a 4 day break. But, that wasnt all… we had to break for actually 11 days, as the judge was taking the following week off for a training class. Odd I thought for us to come back expecting to have remembered all that was said, and these were not unsubstancial witnesses. But we all did it, I guess with a trial like this, its hard to forget all the details.
We reconvened that following Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, and lucky for me my parents were there to help out, giving my kids the attention they needed throughout, yes, i could have taken them to daycare, long 7am to 5:30pm days, but i think emotionally i probably wouldnt have been there for them, as i was mentally exhausted each and every day. So thanks Mom and Dad for helping out and being there!
The last week we heard final witnesses, closing arguments and then on thursday at about 2pm we were given the trial to deliberate. There was no possible way we were going to come to a conclusion that quickly, so we scheduled ourselves back tuesday (yesterday) at 8:30am. By 2pm, we had made our decision. It was unanimous on all counts. Guilty. The sentencing is not scheduled till august 28th.
Hard to believe I went through all that, hard to understand why someone could do something so awful to family members, and good to know that our justice system works, and happy to be a part of it, in a small way.
Unfortunately hard to get this off my mind, i witnessed sad, scary, emotional and disgusting testimony, i heard words I’d never heard before, I learned about medical terms like suggestibility and confabulation, not to mention legal terms like preponderance of evidence.
Yes i know we made the right decision, was it easy, no. But the justice system works, and we all have our civic obligation to do this, I just got stuck with a sad, sick case.

Mady had her Dance Recital this weekend, it was a long day, but it was a good one.
Mady took TapII this year and enjoyed it thoroughly and practiced constantly on the kitchen floor, she knew her routine inside and out… backwards and forward… with and without music.. until it came to dress rehearsal, when she got up on the stage with her 7 other dance partners and drew a blank, she was a bit lost. And needless to say, after that was over she was extremely anxious about getting in front of 350 people and messing up.
But Mady, mess up, nah, she got out there, and remember every single thing about the routine and nailed it, I dont think Ive ever seen it done that well. We were ALL PROUD! good job Mady!
here are a few pictures of both the practice as well as the performance!
enjoy!

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Did you know they actually called Yosemite, YO-semite back early 20th century, at the museum we saw newspaper articles written just that way, it was cool.
This was one of our best trips there, we rode the bus only one time (to the riding stables) the rest of the time, we only used our bikes, or walked… it was so great!
It wasnt crowded, the weather was between 70-75 each day, and it did cloud up a lot, but we never had a down pour of rain except for one evening while just finishing up our smores… which just forced us to bed early… not so bad.
Never really remember being in Yosemite with this weather, and I’d have to say.. it was preferable.

Take a look at our pictures, there are a few pictures at the end where we stopped at Mark Twain’s writing cabin in Tuttletown (on our way home). Max has done a lot with Mark Twain in 4th and 5th grades so this was a good… topping off.

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Sure, one might say… oh its only 5th grade, but as you’ve read in many of my previous posts, this wasn’t an ordinary year… Max struggled day in and day out, week after week, with no break, he learned more this year then he probably will learn in his 3 years at middle school. He has projects he’ll keep for life, as he is more proud of them than you know. He started in his first trimester on the A/B honor roll, and we were so proud of him! He then struggled through the 2nd trimester wondering if he would stay on the honor roll, and he did, very happily.
The third trimester, was by far the hardest, and Max, of course chose this trimester to strive for Principal’s honor roll… did he get it?… of course he did… When Max sets his mind to something… he can always do it!
We were very proud of him yesterday, he really deserved to make the honor roll, and he feels now… and only now… he is ready for 6th grade at Marina!
Check out his pictures for the day!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Sure has been a while since Ive posted to the blog. Guess Ive been quite busy. the end of the school year, always keeps me busy, especially as it is usually coupled with a super busy time at work.

I had a few great events pass by, we had some good times.. Mady had Pioneer Day at school, Max is approaching 5th grade graduation, and in doing so, still working so hard to make the honor roll, he should find out today or tomorrow if he did. Yearbooks are in (I create them for the school) so of course that is keeping me busy, gotta find time to get to the school and label and distribute them.

Had a super terrific Memorial Day weekend, relaxing, productive, and great bonding with the family. We’ve all been quite sick with a horendous bug, coughing, sneezing congestion… yuk… glad to be getting over it though.

we are heading to our home away from home on Sunday… thats right Yosemite is just ahead of us, and in that’s not incentive to get up everyday, im not sure what is. We all cant wait!

i will try and keep this updated!