Family Fun

Well, Brooke and her husband Carl were here for a week and we had a great time visiting with them. They weren't actually here in Reno but were mostly at their time-share up at South Lake Tahoe. The Sunday they arrived Jess and I drove them up to the Lake and we spent the night. Why are hide-a-beds so uncomfortable?? Jess and I didn't sleep very well that night. There was also a funny sound that we thought was a rusty iron gate opening and closing. Turns out it was the elevator cables! Their room was right by the elevator. Big old fancy room by a squeeky elevator. Go figure.
Mike and I went up again on Thursday and spent the night. Had a great Scrabble game and a steak dinner in the condo. As the elder statesmen of the family we took over the king sized bed this time. Didn't make much difference.......squeeeek, squeeeek!
Then we saw them again on Sunday and Monday as they came down to Reno before they flew out. Very nice to see the Brooksters and Carla!
Looking forward to the invitation work starting on Sat. The weather is supposed to be near 70 starting about then. I'll believe it when I see it. 20 degrees tonight!
Hope everyone is doing well wherever you are. :)

Skiing!

I was finally able to go skiing last Wed. I and two other sisters had been trying to coordinate a day that would work for all of us plus it had to be a beautiful day.....we are fair weather skiiers only! Wed. fit the bill exactly. Unfortuantely one of our group had to deal with health issues with her Dad and couldn't go with us, but Heidi and I went anyway because we had already made the arrangements.
We went to Sugar Bowl which is by Donner Lake just over the border in California. About an hour and 15 minutes from Reno. In all my years of skiing around Tahoe I had never been there. It is a very nice resort! The snow was perfect, the ski was bluer than blue and the sun was out. What more could you ask for?! Oh yeah, and my ticket was free!
I find skiing to be like riding a bike. I don't think it's something you forget how to do. I haven't been for 2 yrs. but was able to ski non-stop for a couple of hours. Then I decided not to push it and ate lunch and sat in the sun for another hour while Heidi kept skiing. Her son came with us too. He sat with me and waited for his Mom. A very nice day was had by all!
On our day of skiing it was 65 degrees in Reno and about 55 up on the mountain. On Sunday we had a record breaking snowfall here in Reno! 1 to 2 feet in town depending on where you live. Crazy. And the really funny thing was that it didn't stick very much to the roads. Maybe the pavement was heated up by the days of warm weather preceeding the storm. At any rate, we had no meeting on Sunday :( This afternoon it's supposed to start snowing again, but we'll see on that.
Our daughter Brooke and her hubby Carl are flying in on Sunday afternoon for a week of skiing at Tahoe. We will take them up Sunday afternoon and we get to spend the night at their time-share. That should be fun!
Hope all is well with everyone no matter where you are!

January Summary

I wasn't kidding about not posting very often any more.....it's been almost a month! But I know some of our friends keep up with us via our blog so I'll try to catch you up.

January was a cold wintery month which makes sense, since it is winter! On the days we couldn't go in service we both worked on our "projects" for bringing in some income. My home companion agency is very slow but the owner had the idea that she could refer actual nursing cases to me as an independent nursing contractor. So, I got all the necessary licenses ($) and insurance ($) made some cards and a free website and I R in business! http://www.renohomenurse.com/
Fran, the owner of the the home companion agency has gotten me two little gigs, as she calls them, so far. One I do every week until the family decides otherwise. I set up a ladies pill box for the week, scour the house for where she has stashed the pills, pick up prescriptions and advise the family on what's going on with their Mom. Mom is a very nice lady with Alzheimers that doesn't remember anything from one minute to the next. And she has 13 cats! Last week she gave away a new full bottle of Nexium to someone.....we don't know who or where.

Yesterday I drove waaayyyy out into north Sparks to assess an elderly lady for admission to an assisted living facility in California. It didn't dawn on me how old she was until I got home....she was born in 1915! Sharp as a tack with a few health issues but she still enjoys life.

Jess and her Michael were in Michael's younger sister's wedding on Sat. Everyone was lovely and it was a very nice affair. About 75 people at a local hotel. We were real party poopers. Left after dinner because Mr. Mikey was about asleep in his soup! We just disappeared out the side door and no one missed us at all. Well, maybe a few people. :)

We have a couple congregation members in hospitals today so now we're off to do a few visits. Hope everyone is well!

A Bit Warmer

Thankfully it is a bit warmer this last week. Not much snow on the ground now. It has rained a few times which probably helped wash some of the snow piles away. Weirdly it has been warmer in the mountains than down here in the valley. The inversion layer keeps the cold air at ground level, so "they" say.
We found out we are going to Sacramento for our district convention! Everyone is excited about this. It's closer and all the hotels seem to be very close to the convention center. It's only 7 & 1/2 months away!
Michael and I are still trying to get some income coming in. I have a couple of projects I'm working on and so does he. I was hired by a home care company but they haven't needed any nursing services so far. Something will work out!
Mike started a study with an old high school friend yesterday! They studied for 4 hours. It was OK because Greg wanted to. He wants to get into the book of Genesis first because so much happened there that he doesn't understand. What a good idea for a starting point! He was very appreciative. Greg was the person that got Mike interested in the Bible 35 yrs. ago!

On second thought.......

I've decided I'm not so crazy about snow after all. If it could just fall on the ski slopes and not the roads and sidewalks, that would be perfect!
I think we have had the last 3 out of 5 meetings cancelled these last couple of weeks. Also, service is very treacherous but getting slightly better. The snow plows did some of the streets and made 3 foot piles on the sides of the roads covering the sidewalks! One of our friends fell flat on her back off someone's porch in service. Black ice; she didn't even see it!
We are getting a bit stir crazy not being able to do our usual routine!

Missed This Last Year

I mean "missed" in two senses. We weren't in Reno last year in the winter, so "missed" it. And we actually like a dose of it now and then! You guessed it........SNOW!

In the last 24 hrs. we've gotten 12 to 16 inches right outside our condo! Reno was virtually shut down today. I hear there's been 2 to 3 foot accumulations in the mountains. If it didn't cost so much to ski these days I probably be going up there soon. The last 2 mornings it's been -4 degrees!

We were to have our Service Meeting/School tonight but it was cancelled. We covered the material at home, so that was fun. Actually went out and walked to the store earlier today. That was very nice. Took some pics as you can see.

We were just in Palm Springs for 4 short days last week. Were going to stay a bit longer but needed to outrun the snow storm and get home sooner since we were driving. It was nice to see our two older kids and their spouses and the grandkids. Economically everyone is worse off but still eating, so that's a plus!

My entries are slowing down but I will post to this blog every once and a while!

October was a busy month!

Whew....glad that month is over! Whenever I aux. pio. and we have the C.O. it's busy as you all know. Add interviewing for a job and running around doing stuff for that. Oh yeah, and Brooke came but just for 3 days. Hmm, maybe I'm just getting older....ya think?!
Today I spent over 3 hours driving around and waiting to get pre-employment tests done. It took 45 min. waiting to get the drug test done, which took about 3 minutes. Oh well, it all got taken care of except I do have to go back 3 more times for the TB test. Have to have two for some reason. Oh yeah, I'm going to be the Client Care Coordinator for a new home health agency that is opening. It may take some time to get it going but I think I will like it.
We are just being lazy tonight watching the World Series. Then we will watch House, one of our favorites.
It was 70 degrees today. Very nice, but kind of crazy considering it snowed less than a week ago!
Everyone in the congregation seems healthy right now. No more H1N1 going around at the moment. Our Congregation Coordinator just got back from the school in NY. He is floating on air and very enthusiastic about his experience.
Not much else new. Hope all is well with everyone :)