What to Make

This recipe is not for those of you watching your waistlines. Unless of course, you are watching them outgrow your belts.

First, take a pat of margarine and melt it in a skillet. Then saute an onion, chopped fine, until it's aromatic and tan in color. In a seperate bowl, mix together 1/3 c light mayonnaise, and 1/2 c each of cheddar and Parmesan cheeses. Add to the mix some garlic and a few splashes of hot sauce. Add the sauteed onion to the mix and heat through in the oven or microwave (depending on how much patience you have). This dip is good on bread or with crackers or chips. It's not great for you but it sure TASTES great.

I made some last night and shared it with my kids and hubby. I'd like to tell you I only ate 1/3 of it (with the other thirds equally between kids & hubby), but I'm pretty sure that'd be lying.

I Finally Got My Float Pictures

We had a great time on the float this year in Laughlin. Here's the girlies with our animal prints on. Goldie had hers under the tank top, you'll just have to take my word for it. As it turns out, most of the pictures (read: all but 2) are from the day before the float, when we were on lake Mojave. The only other shot from the day of the float was my ridiculous brother...
Oh well. We still got some great pictures on Friday:
The first one is my "little" brother, jumping from the cliff. We all took turns making the leap. Even Goldie showed her character by overcoming her fear and taking the plunge. I was SO proud of you Goldie.

We attached the raft to the boat so people had something to hang onto when they got into the water. Of course, this led to a little mayhem. Note the location of my hubby's foot...At over 100 degrees, we were happy to have the shade on the boat every now and then.
The boys in particular took advantage of the shade.
While we girlies spent more time in the water -By the end of the day, there were several antics going on. Yes, that's a squirt gun in his mouth.
There were two big highlights of the day. First was, like last year, feeding the wild donkeysand the other highlight was getting to skim board with some nice guys who offered to let us girls use their equipment. I got up on the first try. Yay for liquid courage!

Labor Day

I understand that Labor Day has it's foundations in the trade unions and labor forces in New York back in the late 1800s and, other than being related to the military involvement in the Pullman strike, it really has no military background. But Labor Day often reminds me of Memorial Day since both seem to be the bookends of summer. So today I am thinking along military gratitude lines and watched a film on Utube that a friend of mine sent me the link for recently.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:
Forgotten Star Spangled Banner Verse

I am grateful every day for many things. The military and our freedom provided by them is one of the many blessings we all should be grateful for.

For those of you interested, it's actually the FOURTH verse...here's the full lyrics by Francis Scott Key -

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!