Edwards is the only candidate in this race who has never taken a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interests. He's not going to ask the drug companies, insurance companies and their Washington lobbyists to bankroll his campaign—he's depending on the support of tens of thousands of people like you.

Respomse

Good morning, Yes Kelsey it is wierd to be where there is only one zip code and one area code, although it was like that when we lived in Willits. Yes Barb we know where the Christmas tree is going and we are so excited that you and family and Tom and family are going to be here and anyone else that can make it. The adjustment was easy and not easy. I had several melt downs wondering what had we done but now being in our dream retirement home and having met some wonderful friends it is OK and now that I can fly we plan to fly out west and of course drive to Florida.

I noticed that some of you have little postage stamps pictures by your messages, how do you do that?

The Perils of Being a Tech

Right now, I'm sitting in the Portland Hilton Grand Ballroom running audio for a charity dinner prepared by all these famous chefs from around the northwest. I am surrounded by this great looking food and I can't eat any of it. I'm slowly going mad!

It's nice to see everybody pick up on the blog thing. I'm still working on a doctored family picture but I need a lot more, so please send me photos.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Hi!

Okay....so I finally got signed in...I will post some new pictures soon....Nick and I are also going to see Dave Matthews Bandon Saturday...that was his birthday present from me, I am so excited!!! I will talk to everyone soon!!!

Thanks

Thank you Jason--this blog was a great idea.
Mike

Address correction

oops, P.O. Box 115

New mailing address

Our new mailing address is: P.O. Box 114, Elizabeth, IN 47117

Hey, has anybody seen Brother Mike????

Our new home.

Hi everyone, here are some pictures of our new home. We moved in 2 weeks ago. When I was packing in Las Vegas I wrote Mike about the "stuff" aliens that kept adding more "stuff" just when I thought I was done. Well they have found us, we empty about 10-15 boxes every day but there are always more waiting for us, but we still can't find the "stuff" we really need-like dishes.

One of my favorite times of the year

Hey Fam!

I am very excited about this blog idea. Great work Jason! I am scraping for something to post about so I'll just tell you that Melissa and I just got back from our annual Dave Matthews Band mini tour. Melissa and I are big fans of the band and we always attend the Florida shows when they come every summer. This year we saw them on a Wednesday in Tampa (took the rest of the week off), drove down to West palm Beach (on the east coast) and saw the band on Friday night and Saturday night. Our best Friends Sam and Alaina were with us the entire time. What a great time!

Hello All,

This is very cool. I like the way it looks. Once I get the hang of it we will send in some pictures of the girls and I.

All is good here in Southern California. Jacy is in 10th grade and Chelsie has started her second year in college. Chelsie is also working at Medieval Times taking reservations. Chelsie is the Stage Manager at Cypress College and loves it. I have gone to a play and she does a fantastic job.

Jacy is working on getting her license which if all goes well she will have it by mid October. She is playing softball this winter so every Saturday is double headers which is a lot of fun. She is playing catcher which I love to watch her do.

Plan to see the Nor Cal crew in October for Granny's birthday. Chelsie, Jacy and I will be coming up.

Well, that's it for now. Take care and I will blog again soon!

Hello to all

What a great site!! How fun to share all our thoughts and experiences. Jason, please keep us updated. Mike and I just returned from a great weekend at Tahoe. Met friends there and golfed, ate, drank (something new for us) and gambled. We did our usual "time share" presentation and had a great time; 3 nights in a gorgeous 1 bedroom condo for $149. The weather was alot like Barbara was describing but turned out to be a wonderful weekend.

Love to all,
Mardi

First Day of Fall

Happy First Day of Autumn! We have great weather here today - but yesterday, the last day of summer, it snowed up on Mt. Charleston! Erik is up there at a camp with a bunch of elementary kids from church and he said it hailed, lightened, and washed away the walkway to their cabin on Friday night. Also, we had gobs of rain in the valley here and tornado warnings on Friday night, go figure. But, today, it's all calm and blue skies, a wonderful day. We finally have all the windows open and are enjoying 62 degree weather. AHHH... Triple digit temperatures are gone, we hope!
Love to you all
Barbara

Hello!

Great idea! Thanks Barbara, for sending the email letting us know about this. So, a post from my blog over on Wordpress - sharing a recipe!

Random Recipe- Manny's Manly Meat Sauce, by Rachel Ray

Okay, so every once in a while it hits. Domesticity. I do not cook. My dear husband, Keith, has the cooking skills. I can bake, make candies, decorate and clean like there's no tomorrow (when i absolutely have to, anyway). But cooking? Geez... I don't know what happens but the lame gene comes out and most of my stuff is seriously bland or over spiced, underdone or hockey-puck. No happy medium. Thank god my husband has the talent. He's been hunting this weekend with his friend Jesse and coming home tonight around 9pm. While he was away, it hit! The domesticity urge. Coulda stamped today... but no. I cleaned the house. I played with my Photoshop Elements (like my new banner?). I watched Hot Fuzz on pay per view (funny!). AND... I am making dinner right now. I am hoping that since I followed the darn recipe my friend Linda recommended, it'll turn out. Bolognese sauce is my favorite red pasta sauce. If this works, I'll be so happy.

[AND NOW.... i'll put on my wine snob hat: The wine i'm drinking with this, as well as tossed in the sauce, is Kenwood 2004 Zinfandel, a California wine from Sonoma County. I bought 2 bottles as it was on sale for $9.99 and if you think you can't get a good bottle of vino w/out breaking the bank- you are sadly mistaken! This particular wine is one of those awesome bargain finds and I'm lucky to find a bottle or 2 at the store... since it's usually sold out! It's not too heavy, and has a delightful bouquet, smooth finish and dances on the tongue. Impressed with all that wonderful wine terminology? I looked it up... lol. Simpler terms? ME LIKEY VERY MUCHY! YUM. GIMME MORE!]

For those of you who, like me, can't cook and are always looking for a recipe that you could actually fool everyone with... here ya go. It's a Rachel Ray recipe so it's quick and easy. And my friend Linda recommends spicing it up a little by using Fire Roasted Crushed tomatoes in the can if you can find it. SHE can cook (sadly, she is CONSTANTLY bringing in her dishes as work, force feeding us into porky-dom), so I'd listen to her if I were you.
Oh ya... Bon Appetit!

Manny's Manly Meat SauceRecipe courtesy Rachael Ray

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil,
1 turn around the pan in a slowstream
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 pound ground sirloin (90 percent lean ground beef)
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed under the flat of your knife with the heal of your hand
1 /2 teaspoon allspice, a sprinkle or 2 pinches (secret ingredient- very important!)
Coarse salt and black pepper
1 medium portobello mushroom cap, finely chopped
1 /2 cup (a couple of glugs) red wine
3 /4 cup beef broth or stock
1 (28 to 32 ounce) can crushed tomatoes, (fire roasted if you can find them)
A handful chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 pound rigatoni, cooked to al dente
Parmesan or Romano, grated, for garnish

Heat a deep skillet or heavy-bottomed pot over medium high heat. Go once around the pan with a slow stream of extra virgin olive oil. Add crushed pepper flakes and infuse oil 10 seconds. Add beef, onions, garlic, and seasonings. Brown meat for 5 minutes; add mushrooms and cook 5 minutes more. Add wine and reduce 1 minute. Add broth and tomatoes to sauce and reduce heat to low. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes to combine flavors. Toss pasta with half of the sauce and serve with extra sauce for topping. Pass grated Parmesan or Romano and warm crusty bread at the table.

Boy? Girl? No telling for now...

Here's the first picture of new baby Potter!

BRAINS : )

Hey, so I am taking a neuroscience class as one of my grad school classes right now - We basically have to memorize and be able to label/identify all the parts of the brain and spinal cord - - Our professor has his M.D. in neurology and then he got his Ph.D. and now he is part of our hearing, speech, and language sciences department at Ohio University - anyways, so he has connections being an M.D., so we get to go to the med school twice a week to work with brains in order to apply what we have learned (which is seriously awesome and fun - we're one of only 2 or 3 speech pathology departments to still work with actual human parts in the whole nation!)
So today in class I took pics of them to help my friends and I to study for our upcoming midterm - I posted them to my flickr so I could share them with everyone:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelsey825/


**Disclaimer - i would consider these "graphic" images, so you might not want to be eating while you view them :) enjoy!

Divers

Hello all. Here are some pictures of the girls diving.

Brother Bob

Attempted Murder

Last night around 11:30, as I was waiting for the train home, 2 men started fighting right next to me. They were really going at it when all of the sudden 1 man took the other man's cane, broke it in half over his knee and STABBED THE OTHER GUY IN THE FACE WITH HIS OWN CANE! There was blood everywhere, the victim screamed and ran away. I called the police and within minutes 8 police cars were on the scene. They caught the attacker and unfortunately he got a good look at me as I was being interviewed by the police. I had a lot of nightmares last night. And I think I'm going to go a different route to and from work for a few weeks. Wow. What a crazy world we live in sometimes.

OK it worked, thans Jason, I am going to email some pictures to you.
Love you all!!

Well I made it in I think, this is very cool.
Linda

Warning

This is a great idea, but I recommend that you NOT click on the link that says "Next Blog!

Burying dead cows!

Does anyone know how far away from a shore line you can bury a dead cow in an emergency? This is one of our study questions, for real!

Ta Da

Hey! Here I am! Thanks, Jason for the neat idea.

On Board!

Okay...I'm on board.
I'll check my photos and see what I have...I think you're right Jason...There may be no photos of everybody together...
Maybe we'll get one next year?
I think this blog is going to be a good idea!

Welcome

So this is the family blog. It's still a work in process but I should have everything ready in the next week or so. If anyone has any good family photos please email them to me. I can also try and photoshop a complete family photo since I don't think one exists. Let me know if you have any coments or suggestions. Have a good day.