Happy Birthday Teresa!

Still glowing and ravishing as ever.

Thanks for being such a Totally Awsome sister.

Happy Birthday, Crystal!!

Wishing a wonderful day to a super sweet, amazing, thoughtful, kind, wonderful, beautiful (and did I mention, skinny) sister! We love you!!!!

I wanted to share two of our losses of recent. First Mckenzie getting to say goodbye to her braces after three long years.

Then Izzy finialy shaving off his "Elvis Hair".

Las Vegas Trip

Judy and I went to Las Vegas (two weeks ago). I can't believe it has taken so long to post the pictures. I had to be there on business and Judy went with me for fun. The one picture of an unrecognizable food in my hand is a deep fried twinkie. Its a trademark food at Mermaids casino downtown. Judy took all the pictures and it was dark by the time I got out of my conference on most days. We both had so much fun. Judy spend most days seeing the sites or staying in the room relaxing until I was finished for the day. She said the best place in Las Vegas, was our hotel room.

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ivan

Fall Pics - Missouri

Teresa requested some fall Missouri pictures. With the exception of the first picture, most of the rest of them were taken in and around Branson about a week ago.

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What's for dinner tonight?

Judging from the poll...no one cares what's for dinner tonight. I guess I'm just tired of feeling intimidated by Judy's beautiful tile work on the trailer and I'm ready for new post. So, anyone up for a recipe? Of course, I don't claim to be a great cook --- that would be Crystal :) however, I don't mind cooking if I have some good ideas and it doesn't take up my whole day....and if I think my family will eat it. Anyway, here's a few ideas of what's cooking up at my house this week:

Pizza Bake (I made this Monday night and NO LEFTOVERS!)
1 lb. ground beef
1 med onion
1 med. green pepper, chopped
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 can pizza sauce - 15 oz. (I use spag. sauce - it's whatever I have on hand)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp. oil
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
10-20 slices of pepperoni

In large skillet, cook the beef, onion, pepper and mushrooms over med. heat until veg. are tender and meat no longer pink. drain. Stir in garlic powder and oregano. Transfer to a 13 in by 9 in. baking dish coated with non-stick spray. sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, oil, flour, and salt. Pour over meat mixture. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and pepperoni. Bake uncovered at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

We're having pumpkin waffles/fruit tonight. And next week, I'm trying out these 2 new recipes I got from a mom's list -- they've gotten good reviews.....at least they look easy (part of my criteria).

Smothered Chicken
4 chicken breasts in pan. Whisk together can of cream chicken soup, half can of milk, pkg of Lipton onion soup mix. Pour over chicken and cover with tinfoil. Bake for 2 hrs at 325. Uncover for last 30 min. (extra sauce goes good over potatoes! so if you make more chicken double the sauce)

Hamburger, Cheese and Noodles
1 1/2 lbs. Ground hamburger
1/2 c. Onion
1 can Campbell's Cheddar cheese soup
1 can Campbell's tomato soup
Cheese
1 bag med. Egg noodles
In a large skillet cook hamburger and onions. Mix both cans of soup in the hamburger. Boil egg noodles until done. Drain. Place in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Mix hamburger in with noodles. Place cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and casserole is hot.

Post a comment and let us know if you try any of these.....

Trailer Update

Hi everyone! Yes, I am finally posting Teresa. I got home from work yesterday and Judy and her Dad finished working on our camping trailer. We knew there was a leak and couldn't find it. Judy did some serious detective work and found that water was coming into a screw hole inside the water heater cover when ever it rained. We noticed a problem initially because the linoleum had dark spots and asked a dealer about it. He said that he thought it was caused by too much glue being used when it was manufactured.... Wrong! The floor when you walk in the door was getting extremely soft. Judy and her Dad removed all of the linoleum replaced all the bad wood and put new tile down. Not ceramic but the stick down kind... but a little thicker. Although we are ceramic tile crazy, I don't think it would ride in a trailer very well without cracking up. She is so talented! You can tell by the pictures of the finished product. I forgot to take pictures before and during... but I got after shots.

I found this picture when I was looking for the trailer pictures. Jake was tasked at school for science to build a vehicle that could propel itself for 1 1/2 meters (Still teaching the metric system in school saying the US will be going to it someday. Thats what they said when I was in school, over 14 years ago!). The "mouse-trap car" ended up working but we modified it from the picture to be front wheel drive (turning the mouse-trap the other way) and using a rubber band instead of string.

We Survived SD Wild Fires 2007

Checking In

Good morning everyone, just wanted to let you all know that were doing fine. We are only two miles away from Qualcome Stadium which is the main evacuation center in San Diego and blocks away from the fire command center and where everyone has been holding there press conferences. So I'm feeling pretty safe where I'm at. Tim's work is also dropping off some masks at the house and an emergency inhaler for Tate in case he would need it, but so far he is doing great just hanging out in the house (thank goodness for the Wii) Its been pretty ashy and smoky outside but pretty good compared to the rest of the city. I've been driving Tim into work the past couple of mornings which takes me across the Coronado Bay Bridge in the south part of the city, so as i drive i get an amazing view of the Harris fire in Chula Vista.
Its been neet seeing the city come together in a way and seeing the outpouring of generosity. Qualcome has asked for no more donations because they were getting so much dropped off, even after sharing the donations with other evacuation centers. On craigslist people are offering up there homes for others to stay at. Even the baby i watch, his family just moved up to Fallbrook last weekend, they were evacuated because of the Rice Canyon fire. Shortly after showing up at a evacuation center they were approached by a family that offered to take them in, which they were grateful for. Well i ment to just give everyone a quick easy update, but i feel like I'm starting to ramble.... love you all. P.S. See i did post Ivan just no picks yet. & thanks for posting the map Teresa.

San Diego Fire

Our heart and prayers go out to you, Crystal..... Take Luck!


View Larger Map

MOAB

Well, you're not going to believe this, but we found out where the name Moab comes from...it's not only biblical, but an acronym as well! By the way, this is a restaurant we found in Mexico.

Saturday Night Lights

Took some pictures this saturday, thought I'd share.

Yea Katie, Happy Birthday!

Go Katie, Go, Go!

Happy Birthday Cheer From

Cooper and the rest of us Mitchell's

Happy Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Hope you're having a great time in Las Vegas! Remember, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".... ha ha....

Hi guys,

This picture is from Sirena's 5th birthday (Sept 29)--a little dark, but very current.

Paul is doing fine-getting settled and all that. He calls once or twice a week, and we e-mail lots.

Hope all is well with you all.
--LuShaun

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 WHEN.....

1. You accidently enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3 . You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

My First Ever "Blog"

Alright, well let see..."blogging"? Kind of feel like a dork because I have never blogged, and until Teresa started her page I didn't read any blogs. I Guess I am so behind the times. Well, I lead a pretty boring and routine life so this week has been quite eventful for my mundanesness since we finally broke down and got cable yesterday (It is football season after all). Its been so long since we have had it its taken us two days and lots of calls back to the cable company to figure this out. OK its really not that hard, just lots of technacial problems. What a headache though! O' and other big event was to brake down and get another Costco card. A whole year of holding out saying we didn't need them....the withdraws were too much, exspecialy Teresa taking me there when she came to visit and reminding me what I was missing out on.
Wow, the excitement! I know I know, you all wish you were me. I can't wait to see what this next week holds for me. Pretty funny when your actually looking forward to your dental cleaning appointment in the morning.
Yea! My first blog......

A Fresh Start

Okay, I know I'm pretty brave in admitting this, but I'm going to vow in front of my family to start exercising more and take better care of myself --- maybe then if I make this announcement, there will be some accountability attached to it. It's taken a while to realize this, and feeling my clothes become tighter and realizing I'm not feeling my best has finally settled in. I'm just doing baby steps right now ... for instance, I've decided one thing I was going to do different was to start walking at least 30 minutes a day 4 days a week. I announced this to Joseph this morning as I was getting the little boys ready to go...he was so excited and said "Okay, but can we go 5 times around the park?" You have to realize the walking trail inside our park is about 1/2 mile. Yikes..... 2 1/2 miles is alot to start with, but to humor him I said I would think about it. So we went and started at the other end of the trail and eventually came to the playground and then Joseph piped in "okay mom, 5 times around" and pointed to the playgound. Whew, that was a relief, he meant 5 times around the playgound - now, that I can handle! So while he and Josh played in the sand, I want you to know, I not only did 5 laps around the playgound, but I did 10!!! How's that for a start! Remember...baby steps.

I'll go first!

Hi everyone. This is just going to be an informal blog so we all can post pictures, messages, little things we want to share with each other. Lets have some fun with this!