We are excited because the nice warmer weather has continued this last week. We have hovered around 50 degrees for the last week and with the bright sunshine it has felt great.

Our warm weather is a reflection of this last week. All continues to go quite well for us here in northeast Nevada. Report cards came out and both boys are doing well. Nikolas especially has shown some great improvement over the last year. We are especially proud of him. Matthew proudly announced at dinner on Tuesday that he has straight A's (not bad for the 2nd day of the semester. We strongly encouraged him to keep up the great work).

Gail continues to add voice students and seems very excited about the opportunity to teach lessons. She spent time this week assisting the high school choir with an upcoming competition. There has been a different outlook at the Mierins' home since Gail found a musical outlet.

Matthew was off Saturday to a merit page powwow and reported he worked on his wood carving, pet care and horsemanship badges. He said it was great, especially getting to go to McDonald's for lunch.

Andy continue to be busy with all he is involved in. He started teaching an evening class again and so now Tuesday and Thursday evenings he is at the school. Friday night he went with his friend Brian to a Utah Jazz game. He said it was fun and enjoyed the opportunity to get out of town for the night.

Hope all is well where ever you may be.

Another week has come and gone and all continues to be well for us. We had quite a turn in temps this week. Monday we hit a high of 55 and the rest of the week was in the mid to upper 40's. One of the things we like about living in the desert is the milder winter temps. Not much has changed for the family this last week. The boys had a short week of school. Monday was a holiday and Friday a teacher improvement day so only three days of school. Gail was a bit batty by the end of the week, but survived.

Andy was wrapped up in his trial prep, but then Friday the case came to a resolution and so we had him home for the weekend. Since he was planning to work all weekend in preparation for trial, his being home freed us up to work around the house all day Saturday. We ended up cleaning and organizing the garage, which was badly needed.

Not much else to report on this week. We hope all is well with you.

This last week sure flew by. We are all doing quite well and have survived a bit of cold, well at least cold for Northeast Nevada. This afternoon it was in the lower 50's with the sun shining and Matthew was outside with his shorts. While that may be extreme, it sure felt much better than the cold temps we had been experiencing.

The boys continue to do well school wise. This week will mark the 1/2 point of the year and the boys are glad. Nikolas got a nice break this week. Andy had a meeting to attend in Reno Wednesday and Nikolas went along to keep him company. They hit some snow on the way which slowed them down a bit, but they made it safely and had a nice evening together. They stayed at Circus Circus and Nikolas cam home with quite a bit of loot won at the midway.

Andy is in trial mode so we will not see much of him until after next week. He starts trial next Tuesday so this week he will be cloistered getting ready. Gail continues to serve with her theater group and she is getting quite excited about some upcoming shows.

We are starting to work on our summer vacation plans and we are hoping to coincide a trip back to NH with a conference Andy will be attending in Washington DC. We will keep you posted.

That about sums up our week. We hope all is well wherever you may be.

We cannot believe how quickly this last week has gone. It was back to school and work for everyone. Gail was glad to see the boys back to school after a two week break. It was great to be able to do things together as a family, but cannot say heartbroken over Christmas vacation being over. The boys seemed to adjust quite well to returning to school and it is hard to believe that half the school year is over.

Winter started off quite snowy for us, but lately it has been just cold. it appears we may get some snow this week. We shall see.

Gail and Andy were back to work this week and we barely saw Andy for much of it. He was in town, just extremely busy, leaving early and returning late. He did have a quick trip to Wendover Wednesday, but otherwise was in court quite a bit this week. Gail got back to her routine of cleaning, voice lessons and holding the fort down.

A closing thought. It is great to know that from now on until June the days will get longer. Hope this week is well for you wherever you may be.

Happy New Year to all our friends and family. We know two weeks have passed since we last posted. The Mierins clan has been busy and enjoying the holiday. We had a trip to Idaho and then resurrected the Mierins Family Holiday Festival.

Christmas was spent with family in Idaho. We arrived on Christmas Eve and spent the evening with Gail's family at her Grandmother's house. We were able to attend a traditional Christmas Eve candlelight service that brought back many memories for Andy. We all got settled in for the evening and the boys made it to 8am before each discovered that Santa brought Nerf guns this year. Mom and Dad were not happy, but sure enjoyed the excitement. Once some presents were opened, it was off to Gail's parent's home and then to spend the afternoon with Gail's Grandmother. We enjoyed visiting with her and describing our neat trip to Georgia in November. The boys ended the evening at the movies, while Gail got some much needed quiet time back at the hotel room.

Monday was spent doing shopping and everyone picked out what they wanted. Tuesday it was time to return to Nevada. Tuesday morning it was raining/snowing in Boise, but by the time we got outside the city, the rain stopped and thankfully the roads were dry the remainder of the trip.

It was back to work for a few days until New Year's Eve. Nothing exciting happened that evening (Andy slept in the chair, Gail played on Facebook and the boys watched movies on their portable DVD players). New Year's Day was full of excitement as we had a party, the first official in the house. We cleaned and organized and cooked and then greeted 14 guests to our home. We had a holiday feast and it was wonderful. Andy was in his glory cooking away.

Tomorrow it is back to school and work. We are very grateful for a wonderful 2010. Heavenly Father has tremendously blessed us with health, jobs, a house and great friends. We look forward to opportunities to serve in 2011 and wish all of you a Happy New Year.