The past week was quite good for the whole family. The boys are excited because they are now on spring break. We ended the week with Parent/Teacher Conferences and were glad to hear Matthew and Nikolas are both doing quite well. Each seems to be doing better and seemed to have begun to settle in to being in Elko.

Gail and Andy continue to do well. Gail had a bit of a reprieve this week. She was gone Thursday to Saturday at a Pampered Chef training in Salt Lake City. She also got to do some shopping and visited some friends. All reports are that she had a good time and we were all glad to see her return. I think she liked her away time (mostly the peace and quiet).

Andy and the boys had quite an adventure while Gail was gone. Friday afternoon they all went out to Wendover and spent the evening with some friends of ours. Saturday morning we got up and went exploring into the mountains in our friend's jeep. We were going to try and find an old abandoned mine, but the trail up there was not yet passable with all the snow. The view from where we were was spectacular and we could see almost 100 miles to the Wasatch Range. We all met up on Saturday evening in Wendover and had some great Mexican food at this place that is on the Utah side. Needless to say we were all quite tired and went to bed early Saturday night.

We all hope you are doing well and until next week.

Well, spring is slowly trying to make its way to Elko. We had beautiful, sunny weather this week with temps in the 60's only to wake up this (Sunday) morning to snow on the ground. It was melted by noon, but sure dulled the spring excitement. Gail was so excited about spring coming that she left the back windows of the van open all night, only to discover small snow drifts on the back seat of the car this morning. Good thing it's only water.

We all had a good week and everyone on this end is doing well. Matthew finished up several sections of his Webelos scout book and will get three new awards this week at pack meeting. He also finished writing ten different poems that will go into a book for his fourth grade class. He ended the week by reciting a poem to the class, something he was very nervous about.

The boys are excited about thier spring break coming up the end of the month and Mom, well, she's working on keeping them occupied. She is planning to head for Boise later that week where the boys will be able to have some fun with their grandparents. Andy is going to be busy getting ready for some jury trials coming up over the next few months.

The most exciting thing to occur this week was the trip to the dentist. Matthew got out without any cavaties, again. Nikolas is excited, because as he descibes it, he gets some silver teeth. His molars are not doing so well and the dentist wants to put some crowns on them. Dad just says "Yipee."

This morning a stray dog appeared on our doorstep. It was still there when we came home from church, looking very lonely and a little hungry. Mom and dad are encouraging the dog to go home, where ever it came from, Nikolas is just stepping over the dog on his way in and out the door, and Matthew has given the stray a name. "Cooper" as he is now called, shows no signs of leaving, we may be the proud parents of a big black dog, whether or not we wanted to. Stay tuned for updates.

We hope you all are doing well. Until next week.

What a busy week we had in the Mierins household. The week started off fairly typical, but then got fun on Wednesday.

The boys' babysitter from NH, who now lives in Utah came with her husband and baby for a three day visit. The boys were so excited to see Irene and we had a great time with them. We thought we would add this cute picture of Oscar to our blog. He is getting so big and will soon turn 1. Last year when we went to his blessing, Nikolas was jumping on a bed and fell, receiving a concussion. Thankfully, this trip went safely and everyone, including our family, left in one piece.

Then on Friday evening, a law school friend, Kerri, who now lives in Northern California, stopped by on her way to Utah. Thus, on Friday evening we had 5 additional people in our very tiny apartment, but enjoyed seeing her. We had not seen them since 2002.

Then to top it all off we travelled out to SLC on Saturday to see our good friends, Josh and Becky and their twin boys. We enjoyed spending the afternoon with them and had a great visit. As you can see their boys are getting much bigger Needless to say we are all very tired. We have not done this much socializing and visiting since we arrived.

The boys continue to do well in school. Andy went with Matthew's class on a field trip Thursday morning as his class released trout frye into the Humboldt River. It was quite exciting and Matthew was so glad his Dad was able to go.

Gail and Andy are staying busy as usual. Gail lead a choir Saturday morning and following the performance was approached and asked to become the musical director for a local theater group wanting to do musicals. She was also asked to perform. The smile on her face when she came home said it all.

We hope you are all well. Until next week.

We all had an exciting week. The best part was the nice visit we had with Grandma Mierins and Aunt Millie. They were here last weekend. They had driven back with Andy when he returned from Las Vegas after the Bar exam. We were glad they could come for a visit. Monday morning we drove them to Salt Lake City and they flew home on Tuesday. While In Salt Lake Matthew had a doctor's appointment and we went on a nice little tour of Temple Square. All reports indicate Grandma and Aunt Mille got safely home. While Grandma was here she got us a webcam and we are now signed up with Skype. If any of you have this as well, let us know because we love using it.

The other exciting thing was finally have Andy back home. He had a busy week and then Friday afternoon he drove up to Boise to take the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. It was the last thing he needed to do for his admission to Nevada. He will have all the results in April and he and he rest of us are glad because now we can have him home in the evening and weekends. He has some jury trials coming up in April and May and he is ready now to focus on those. He is still doing the juvenile cases, which keep him extra busy.

Gail continues to do well and is looking forward to some Pampered Chef parties coming soon. She is also directing a choir that will perform at our Stake's Woman's Conference next weekend. On top of her cleaning she has stayed quite busy.

The boys continue to do well. Each is anxious for spring to arrive as they have met a new friend at the apartments and have been spending a lot of time playing outside.

That about wraps up our week. We hope all is well with you.

All is well in Northeast Nevada. We are awaiting spring which should be here in a few weeks. When spring finally arrives, the dust storms might not be as strong and we might not see quite so much mud blown onto the car.

It has been two weeks since our last update and much has gone on. Two weeks ago, we had a fairly quite week at home. Andy spent every spare moment studying for the Nevada Bar Esam. He left Friday night for Wendover to spend a relaxing night with a friend before heading for Vegas. Saturday he drove to Las Vegas and settled into the place he would stay for the week.

Andy spent this past week doing something he said he'd never do again. He spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Las Vegas taking the Nevada Bar Exam. While he doesn't particularly like talking about the experience, he said it went OK. The results come out on April 29, 2009 so it will be a couple of months until we know, although he said he felt good about the essay questions, it is the multistate bar and performance test that he had no handle on. He reported that the weather was nice in Vegas. While there he did get to see his good friend James, which helped him to relax.

Andy was glad to get home. When he came home he returned with his mother and aunt who are here for a visit. Grandmom met him in Las Vegas and before coming back they went to vist the Red Rock National Park. We have enjoyed having Grandmom and Aunt Millie here.

Gail and the boys missed having Andy at home. While Andy was away, they went to Idaho for a short visit. Matthew got to spend some time working with Grandpa Davis on some of his Webelos requirements by building a fire and cooking a tin foil meal. The boys had a great time playing outside and turned Grandpa's hauling trailer into a Viking Ship. Everyone was very happy when Andy returned from Vegas and we were very glad the exam was over and Andy was home.

We're glad the last few weeks are over and life can return to normal. We hope all is well with each of you, until next week, have a good one.