Christmas Time

My mom

Zachary

Frankie, Justin S. and Grand-Paul

Kurt and mom

We had a great time with my side of the family staying at my Grandma Lorna and Grand-Paul's house with my mom, Zachary, Great Grandma Julie and a few days later Kurt joined us too. (A side not Zachary is over 6 feet! He's getting so tall and handsome!) We ate lots of delicious food and were stuffed the whole time! Two nights Justin, Kurt, my mom and I stayed at Harrah's casino. We had a buffet at Valley Views casino too which later had its effects on me. I either ate too much or had something bad but that following day my stomach hurt and I was nauseous. (That was a bad day)

Christmas Eve we all attended my grandma's church at St. Mark's Catholic Church. It was very packed and we stood in the back listening the the choir and the message. It was very nice. After church we raced home and started cooking for Cooking with Lisa. My mom and everyone made sure they had all the ingredients while I made sure I had my camera all set up. We made the video and ate appetizers with Justin (Paul's son) and Frankie (his soul mate) joined us for dinner and great conversation. Dinner was amazing and could have fed 10 more people. After dinner we open presents. This isn't normal for our family. Normally we open 1 gift or pj's and save the rest for Christmas but this year we were headed for Disneyland on Christmas.

We got to Disneyland around 9:30am (gates opened at 8am) and we thought everyone should be home with their families. We were very wrong. It was the most packed we've all ever seen it. Space Mt. had a 85 minute wait. Other rides were about 55 minutes (which is about normal). We got stuck in a traffic jam of people while a parade was happening. We seriously couldn't move and the worker kept yelling "keep walking"... ummm we can't move. People were stopping to take pictures and finally I took Justin and started shoving people to get them moving a little faster. It was CRAZY but we all had a good time.

December 26th- Justin and I had to say our goodbyes to head home. It's always bitter sweet heading back home. We missed the Colwells, friends and Justin's family for Christmas and we really missed our BED. But leaving my mom, Kurt, Zachary and the grandparents is very hard. I hate having us so far apart. I know its really hard on my mom because once we have kids she wants to be closer so her grand kids know her. Zachary misses his sister a lot (and he misses his other sister:Lorraine) It's hard for me because I miss everyone and I don't want anyone's feelings to be hurt but saying goodbye to my mom is super hard for me. It's not because I love her more or anything. I just really miss her and living with her for 18 year to not seeing her is really hard. It's hard for me knowing she's going to be so far away and that I cant call her and say lets go to the mall or out for lunch or let me make you dinner. I hope one day I can do all those things with her and make her go work-out with me and BUG her. ;) Enough of my sad story... I just miss them all a lot! Once we got home Ben, Lorraine and Benjamin picked us up at the airport. I sure did miss my Papas (Benjamin). We got home unpacked a little and crashed.

Tonight we'll be doing a gift exchange with the Regules'/Colwell family. We are very blessed to have so many people who treat us like family and involve us. We go around saying they are our second families. I've know the Regules' for 9 years now and Lorraine and I just say we're sister to make it easier... except when people are say, "what your dad is coming out". Then I have to explain they are my adopted family and I really have a different family. Justin has known the Regules' family longer then me! We love them all but most of all we love Papas (our nephew)!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Blessed New Year!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=490462712848&saved#!/video/video.php?v=490462712848&comments

Hopefully that takes you to Cooking with Lisa!

Quesadilla...

Ingredients:
1-2 Tortillas
Salsa
Bacon
Chicken (can be leftover chicken-I used shake and bake from last night)
Cheese-shredded

Cook bacon to desired crispy-ness. Use a griddle pan and spray with cooking spray or use butter on medium heat. Place tortilla on pan. Sprinkle amount of cheese (you desire) on tortilla, add bacon bits, chicken cubed, a few spoonfuls of salsa, more cheese on top of it all and either add a tortilla to the top or fold tortilla in half. Make sure you cook quesadilla on both sides. Cook till cheese is all melted and outside is golden brown. (Justin loved this quesadilla and I thought it was pretty tasty too)

You can top with sour cream or more salsa. You can add any fresh veggies you desire or other ingredients like refried beans.

Cheeseburger Casserole

Here's another meal my mom use to make. Zachary, my brother and I loved this meal! This week Justin wanted me to make it. I thought I'd add it to our blog.

1 lb. lean ground beef or ground turkey
3 c. tater tots, baked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 c. milk
salt (optional)
pepper (optional)

In large skillet on medium heat, cook ground beef until thoroughly done. In casserole dish, combine baked tater tots, cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup grated cheese and milk. Drain grease from ground beef and add to casserold dish. Salt and pepper to taster. Mix well. Add remaining cheese to top of casserole and place in oven. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted.

You can add canned/ frozen veggies too like corn or peas. Justin and I like corn. You can also add a tsp. of garlic, minced.
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Justin and I are doing great. We set up our Christmas tree this weekend. Someone on Facebook said they put up their tree about a week 1/2 ago and that kind of inspired me to get ours up. Why? Justin and I will be in California for about a week in December and I don't want to put it up and take it down 2 weeks later. I told Justin in advance that I'd like us to put our tree up. He was a good sport about it. Normally both of us are Grinch's around Christmas. We feel like Christmas is very commercialized. It's not longer about spending time with loved ones and enjoying their company. Also our biggest issue is most people don't ever bring up the real meaning- Christ. It's about buying, how much you can spend, I NEED, I NEED and the number of presents under the tree. It's kinda frustrating because we know Christmas is about the birth of our Savior. It's not Justin's birthday or mine. We will exchange gifts with each other and family but we want the holiday season, Christ focused. We want to enjoy spending time with each other and family. Hopefully more people can tune into the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. But we look forward to seeing my grandma, Paul, great grandma Julie, Zachary, mom and Kurt. It we be a nice break from normal life. :)

Justin has been busy working. Finally his hours have been cut to around 10 hours at Sears and he'll be joining a different department this week. That is a good thing! :) His other job is busy and he seems to enjoy it. As I type right now he's working on homework for his class. He's a busy guy and is a little under the weather but he's good.

I've been busy working with the kids I watch, running them to preschool and picking them up. Past few weeks they are in LOVE with hot chocolate so this weekend I got them a huge tube of hot chocolate. They were very excited about that today. Then I've been working at my church on Thursdays and Fridays. It's going well. I've learned a lot of stuff about church things that I never knew. Like all the licenses we need. It's been a good learning experience for me. What do I do? Everyone always asks me that. I do admin/secretary work. www.genesischurchspokane.com I started my photography class last Tuesday. My friend and I learned so much last week. I look forward to it tomorrow. We hope everyone has a great week!!!

Chicken Cacciatore

I wanted to add one of my favorite meals. My mom use to make this for me all the time and now I make it every so often for Justin and I. Very yummy!!!

Chicken Cacciatore:

1 tbsp. butter
1 while chicken, cut up (or legs or breasts)
1 pkg. Liption Onion Soup mix
1 large can tomato sauce
1 large can whole tomatoes
1/2 c. water
1-2 lbs. frest mushrooms, cleaned (or canned)
In large pot on medium-high heat, brown chicken on all sides in butter. Reduce head to medium, remove chicken from pot and combine soup mix, tomato sauce, tomatoes and water. Place chicken in the sauce and add mushrooms. Cover pot and cook for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve over steamed rice or cooked pasta. (I like rice with meal)

Enjoy!

Let's catch up...

Hey Everyone! I haven't been too great about updating this and for the past 2 weeks I keep saying I need to blog.

Justin has been doing online Bible classes. He's in his second term and was taking two classes but ended up dropping one. He wants to learn as much as he can and not just speed through his classes. I think he made a great choice. :) Sears has been a big pain for him. He is only part-time there and wanted to lower his hours to about 8-10 a week and the lady in charge of tools hasn't been very nice about that so he's hoping to switch departments. Insight is good and busy. Justin is an amazing husband! I'm very thankful for all he does. He's the best!

Me- I've been taking photography classes at a local community college. The first class I could have almost taught. I learned maybe 3 things but I loved taking it with my friend, Lisa. Our next photography class starts tomorrow. Pretty excited about this.









Craft Show was this last weekend. Diane and I got pulled in at the last minute so we didn't have time to really be ready. We sold 3 paintings. It was kinda frustrating because so many commented that our paintings were so beautiful or cool and then wouldn't buy them. But we will figure out what direction to go with this. We were more there to help this lady set up her stuff and tear down. She did very well selling jewelery, which was good. Diane and I did get really cool purses. I was very excited about this. I haven't ever spent a lot on a purse and these purses change shells. Its really cool.

Well, that's all I can think about as of now. I promise to update sooner then last time. I hope everyone has a great November. Let's find something to be really thankful for...

Mine

Diane's but we promised to share our shells with each other :)

First Post

Why does it seem like the first post are always the hardest to write? Maybe not everyone feels this way but I do. I never know what to say or not to say. But anyways I'm going to make a blog for Justin and I. Well, for now till our family grows. But as of now it might just include the funny things we do or recipes I try to make or just life... Welcome :)