Fresh Salsa

Our garden is starting to slow down so Mark insisted on making some fresh salsa with our tomatoes and peppers. So we found a recipe for a Verde salsa and altered it to fit our needs. You know me I never follow the recipe to the letter. There is always room for additions. So here we go:

we boiled gently for about 4 minutes 11 tomatoes just until their skin pops. Then we threw in the peppers. We used 4 jalapeno peppers, 1 yellow pepper not sure of its' name, 2 Anaheim peppers. Those we boiled till their color changed and they were soft.

I let all this cool and then we peeled the tomatoes, skinned the peppers and put them in the food processor. I sauted some onion and garlic and added that to the food processor too. then we chopped some cilantro and added that to it. We zested a lime and juiced it.

Mark was the official taster he said it was missing something and I remembered when we had made salsa last we added some cumin. So I opened my jar of cumin to add it and Mark said what is that smell? He said it smelled like arm pits or BO. I laughed because that is a key ingredient in Mexican food. Not arm pit odor or BO but the cumin.
So when it was time to eat the salsa I tried it and it was way to hot for me. My kids loved it and I never really thought I was a light weight when it comes to hot food but yikes. So I did not eat very much of it. I think next time I won't leave all the seeds from the peppers in it. You know the seeds are where the heat is.

Dinner Out

So we went out to dinner last night. We took Jack, Thomas did not want to go eat Japanese. Jack got to pick because he had won the basketball pool that we did back during Basketball season. We do it as a family and who ever wins gets to pick their favorite restaurant. Jack won and he loves eating at the Japanese Steak houses where they cook the food in front of you and do the tricks. He also loves the shrimp.

We had put this off for a while now and just decided last night was a good night to do it. So Thomas went to stay with Marks' Mom while we went to eat. He was very happy with that too. He does not get to spend as much time with Marks' Mom as Jack did at that age. It is just hard for her to keep up with two of them, heck it is hard for me to keep up with the two of them. He took some of his toys and a movie for them to watch.

So we get to the restaurant and sign in and I am looking around at what everyone has on. Two people come in in tank tops. I mean ragged no sleeves and shorts. I just cringed. Here we are dressed nicely to eat at a nice place and these folks come in in shorts, not even dress shorts and a ragged muscle shirt. Yuck!
Well, you can just guess who we got to sit with. Yes, ragged shirt dude and his girlfriend with short shorts. Now I am not a snob but, I do expect people to at least wear a shirt where their armpit hair is not able to be seen at the table. Please!!!!! The other three were at least clothed but they did not take their sunglasses off the whole time. But, I had rather look at someone with sunglasses than the gentleman, and I use that term very loosely, sitting next to me with ARMPIT HAIR hanging out. Gag me!!

I am not a snob but I do believe people should have some respect for themselves as well as the people that they are sitting around. Now Jack did have on shorts but they were nice shorts and he is 9 for heaven sakes. He also had on a nice shirt.
What ever happened to restaurants having a dress code? What ever happened to common courtesy? What has happened to us as a society where that is acceptable behavior? I do not accept it. I don't know what I can do about it, but I do not accept it.

Home Owners' Insurance

This is my public service announcement for the month. I received a notice from my insurance company, that holds our Home owners' policy, telling me that there is a Bill in the State of North Carolina House that will be voted on that could raise our premiums a substantial amount. My Insurance agent also called and told me about the proposed legislature and said we need to be sure our representatives know how we feel about this.



The Bill 1305 decides what portion of our insurance bill goes to pay for these losses that the Government funded Beach Plan does not have to cover losses due to hurricanes on our coast. That means our premiums go up to cover those $1million dollar houses that get damaged in storms like Hugo and Hazel. If the wording is not seriously looked at our premiums could go up as much as 200%.



I am sorry that things like that happen but I don't live down there for a reason. They pay a ton of money for insurance and now the insurance companies cannot afford to pay out on the damages. There are many folks in North Carolina that are teetering on the brink of loosing their homes and all it would take is their home owners' insurance to go up by 50% to make their mortgage to much for them to afford.



My insurance agent also told me that there are several insurance companies that will not do business in North Carolina because of this. The North Carolina Beach Plan does not have enough money in it to cover losses and the Bill 1305 will decide where the extra money comes from. There are many insurance companies that will not cover homes in North Carolina for this reason. If this bill passes there could be many fewer still. The ones that do cover will be going up on premiums to cover their losses. Check out the website www.fixthebeachplan.com


I urge you to contact your local representative and senators.

Wake Forest Football Camp

I went to the Wake Forest Women's Football camp today. It was great! I had so much fun. We learned how to hit, block, throw the ball and catch it. We learned the different positions. I think my favorite was the linebacker position. You get to hit in that position. That was fun!

This was my second year doing this. I highly recommend it if you have not done it before. If you have any interest in sports or if you have boys that are going to be playing football at some point. I learned a lot. It was a little warm today but we had a good breeze.

The coaches did a really good job telling us and showing us what we were supposed to be doing. Lanie Pope was there today from WXII channel 12. She was in our group. A lady in our group came up to her and said I know you don't I. You look so familiar. I wanted to say; "That is because she comes into your living room every day to give you the weather you boob." But I refrained. Come to find out their kids go to the same school. HA HA!! Any way. She was really funny and she did a good job on the drills too.

See you on the football field.

Juggling

I took the kids to the International Jugglers Competition. Yes, they have such. It was a free thing opened to the public yesterday. They had all sorts of jugglers. The kids had a lot of fun. They even taught us how to juggle. I can only do the scarves but I can do it. There were a lot of kids there. They had one that was 9 years old and he had been juggling since he was 6. He could juggle 7 rings. He did really well. They had junior events and they had events for older people. There were several kids that performed for us and a couple of older folks.

After they had performed they let us try it and that is where they taught us how to juggle the scarves. I did pretty good if I do say so myself. They let us go to the gym down the hall and see all the other jugglers. They had guys doing the batons, balls, these weird giant yo-yo things, and rings. My favorite was a family from Virginia. Check out their website www.penguinjuggling.com This is a family that performs and teaches juggling. They also sell props for juggling. I bought Jack some balls to juggle. He thinks he is going to be the next juggling star. Thomas got a set of the scarves. It does help with hand eye coordination.

Just another day of our fabulous summer vacation.

Swimming

Well, we went to the pool again yesterday and boy was it hot. It was a lot hotter than the day before. The boys had fun. It was just us and one other couple with their kids so we had the pool to ourselves. That was great because I did not have to worry about Thomas getting knocked around. He spent more time under water than he did out of the water. He loves that he can go under now and is fascinated by it. He dove for the torpedo a million times. He is starting to actually swim under water but he does not realize that is what he is doing.

We stayed at the pool from 12:30-4pm and they were tired. They both came home and laid on the floor. They did not move until their Daddy came home. Then they stirred just a little. We ate pretty early and then went outside and played dominos on the big table on the patio. Mark says it is perfect for dominos. We played till it got dark. The skeeters came out then and ran us back in the house.

They both slept late this morning till at least 8:45. Yeah! I know most of you might say that is not late but for my two little solar powered boys that is late. I love the pool!!!!!!

Learning to Swim.

Well, Thomas is just full of surprises this summer. Yesterday he learned to swim on his own. He put on his goggles and put his head under. I was shocked when I saw him I thought it was an accident so I told him how great that was that he just went under. I told him to try again and this time to remember to blow out through his nose. So he did it again he did not have his whole head under but he was close. He said, "that was fun Mommy." I said, yes and I have been trying to get you to do that all summer. So I decided I would get in with him and see if he would try swimming.

As soon as I got a foot in the water they were both splashing me like crazy. Then Jack proceeded to push me off the steps into the cold, cold, cold water. Once I regained my composure I showed Thomas how he could put his face in the water and push off with his legs and swim. He did and loved it. He jumped up and said Mommy I did it!

Before yesterday he would jump in but, he would not put his head under. Now, he jumps in and all of him goes under. He looks pretty cute with his goggles on. The little tendrils hang off his head so far they look like antennae.

My little one is growing up so fast. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels and learned to swim all within a week.

Learning to Ride the Bike

One of our Adventures this summer has been for Thomas to learn to ride his bike. The boys did not get bikes until we moved to this house. We used to live on a main road and so bikes were out of the question. Our first Christmas in this house Santa brought the boys bikes. They both had training wheels. Jack was 6 when we moved here and so that is when he learned to ride a bike and shortly after that learned to ride without training wheels.

The other day the boys were out riding and one of Thomas' training wheels broke. Mark said ok, it is time to learn to ride that bike without them. So he took the training wheels off and started practicing with Thomas on how to ride. His bike is really probably to small for him but he likes it and right now it will have to do.

Day three of trying to ride without training wheels and Thomas has mastered it. He is so excited that he can do it. Once he starts riding he does not want to stop.

My little baby is growing up. Oh no, I am not ready!

Party !!!!!!

My friend Lori and I are having an Initial Outfitters party on Saturday July 11 at 1pm at Loris' house. Everybody is invited. Initial Outfitters is a unique group they carry jewelry, monogrammed items like soap, candles, bags ect. You can preview the catalog at www.initialoutfitters.com if you would like to place an order email me at pamperedpage@bellsouth.net and I will take care of it. They have some really great items and their products have been featured in Style magazine and during the Ms. USA pageant.

If you would like to come to the party please email me and I will get you directions. It is a treat our consultant LaChell is wonderful. She did our party last year and it was a blast. That is why we are doing another one.