Month: October 2016

Newton County Christmas for Kids & Chili/Non-Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction

Imagine it’s Christmas morning. You’re laying under the covers and wondering just exactly what Santa has brought and left for you under the Christmas tree. Now, imagine that your family has stumbled across some hardship in the form of loss of jobs, extreme medical bills, etc. Christmas might seem like just another grim morning when you wake up. Enter the NewtonCounty Christmas for Kids organization.
What exactly is Newton County Christmas forKids? We are a non-profit organization run solely on the generous donations to help make a better Christmas for the less fortunate kids in Newton County. The Newton County Christmas for Kids is made up of volunteers from the local Newton County Fire Departments, Newton County Ambulance, and the Newton County Rescue and Recovery groups.
With local support, the Newton County Christmas for Kids helps over 190 children from Granby, Neosho, and Joplin Head Start with gifts at their Christmas parties each year as well as helping over 400 children in Newton County have a better Christmas each year. All donations are used to supply toys at Christmas for the less fortunate Children of Newton County.

Now that you have a history of what Newton County Christmas for Kids is, let me tell you about one of the fundraising events coming up October 22, 2016… Drum roll please…. The 4th Annual Newton County Christmas for Kids Chili/Non-Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction.
Four years ago we set off to come up with a way to help raise funds for the Newton County Christmas for Kids fund. The idea of a chili cookoff was presented, put into action, and here we are on the 4th annual chili cookoff.

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D’Arpino’s Italian Cafe {Springfield, MO}

Back in 2009 I had a big group of friends that got together once a month and tried new restaurants. The girls liked to dress up so it was usually business casual or higher in dress, we tried to pick restaurants that were local to the area versus being a chain restaurant, and we went back and forth between the Joplin area and the Springfield Area. 12 Restaurants and I made 11 of them. D’Arpino’s Italian Cafe on National in Springfield was one of the places that we went to.

Jump forward to 2016, about a week ago or so, and a sort of date night, but the baby was with us, and Mark and I were trying to decide where to eat. Our normal go to in Springfield is Zio’s but we wanted something a little different. We threw out this suggestion and that and eventually landed on D’Arpino’s and asked why we’d only been there the one time.

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RSV Paint {Joplin, MO}

A blog that I’ve followed for years, Jill’s World, up in Canada started discussing how she and her friends were attending a paint night. I wondered what that was. Basically, she and a group of friends go to a place, learn to paint, and have fun. How awesome is that I thought. I figured something like that had to exist here in Southwest Missouri, right? I mean we’re not always the most cultural people but….

Not long after I read one of Jill’s posts, my friend Danielle asked if I’d be interested in doing that. I said sure but I’m not artistic at all! That’s no joke! Well nothing came about from that conversation. I didn’t know where to find it and she never said anything about it again so the dream kind of died… until…

My friend Jody posted something on Facebook one day that had something to do with a paint night. I shot her a message and asked if she knew anything about it and had done it. She said no, but she wanted to, so again, we started pursuing it, but this time she knew of a place in Joplin called RSV Paint.

So basically you go on line, sign up for a class, show up, and it’s a date! Now it stands for:

Relax. They say don’t get too uptight about your painting. Easier said than done….

Sip. Yes, you can sip wine, alcohol, do a shot, whatever. If you bring your own, there is a $5 cork fee for a bottle of wine or every 6 pack of beer you bring.

Visit. You’re amongst friends. We even had our instructor visiting with us about Kayaking, Canoeing, Fishing, SCUBA diving, and Riding horses.

and lastly Paint. Because well that’s the reason you’re there….

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The Original Gringos {Webb City, MO}

Did you know that yesterday was Taco Tuesday? It was also National Taco Day (Oct. 4). What does that mean? Well, obviously you need to have Tacos for dinner. I guess lunch would have sufficed or better yet, both meals! :). My friend Jody met me at Gringos in Webb City for dinner. We know the owner and he came and talked to us a little bit. I mentioned how crazy it was to get into the parking lot just to park and he said that it’s typically like that on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Tuesdays there is a special for 2 Tacos since it is after all Taco Tuesday. Fridays special is Taco Salad. I’m not sure what was Saturday’s draw. I didn’t pay attention to the menu I guess.

Here’s the thing though, someone asked on Jody’s Facebook where the best place in Joplin is to get Tacos and we were like Webb City. That would be Webb City Gringos in case you wondered. It really is.

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I Painted a Purple Cat… or something like that

Do you get the reference? It’s from Girl Meets World. I love that show. I was a big fan of Boy Meets World back in the day.

So anyway on Girl Meets World, Riley has a friend Mya. Mya is a great artist and Riley draws purple cats. I can barely draw a stick figure so I figured I might as well just draw the purple cat and be done with it.

Ultimately I blame Jillian for this want I have to paint. She’s always blogging about how she and her friends attend paint nights and she always does a fantastic job too, I might add. I thought it sounded like a blast. Then a friend of mine hit me up about a big group of us attending a paint night one night to try. Well that was a year ago and we still hadn’t looked in to it. Finally another friend brought up something… maybe posted on her facebook page something about one of those paint night places around here and I hit her up about it.

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