Well another fine week has come and gone at the Mierins household. The boys continue to do quite well. Other than going to school and Matthew having scouts, not much happened. Nikolas is a bit concerned because he has not had a chance to use his snowboard and it has been sunny and in the 40's nearly every day so what snow we had is long gone. He is hoping with a few more months of winter left we may get some snow and he can get out and use his board. Matthew did find some new Legos this week sitting on top of a garbage can in our apartment complex and now has even more to create with. We are glad he has something he both enjoys and requires him to use those creative juices.

Gail and Andy remain the same, both went to work and were quite busy. Andy has about gone into hibernation stage as he takes the Nevada Bar Exam in three weeks. When he is not at work or sleeping he has been studying and we have seen very little of him this weekend. Gail continues to work cleaning in the morning and Pampered Chef in the afternoon.

We are all well and doing fine.

We hope all is well where ever you are in this magnificent world. Until next week.

Greetings family and friends. All continues to go quite well in Elko. This past week was a typical week for us all. Matthew and Nikolas were in school and on Friday grades for the second quarter came out. Matthew and Nikolas both had great reports. Neither is on honor roll but we are proud of the effort each has given. All we can ask is they give their best. Nikolas is getting excited about playing baseball. Little League sign ups begin this week and Nikolas wants to play. He is sad that there has not been much snow this winter to use his snow board. Even our local ski area has been closed since all we have had since Christmas is rain and relatively warm weather. Matthew is glad that scouts has begun again and he is working on earning as many awards as he can. He has taken an interest in archery and we will see what we can do about this new curiosity.

Gail continues to work in the mornings and develop Pampered Chef business in her afternoons. She is seeing a renewed interest in shows and has had a few bookings lately. Andy continues to be busy as always. The Nevada Bar Exam is in four weeks and he has been studying away and over the next 4 weeks that will be his main focus. He has a few bench trials coming up in the next two weeks and has a jury trial scheduled for April.

Nothing else exciting to report. We hope all of you are doing well.

We had a very great week. We all were quite busy. The boys were back to school and Gail and Andy both worked. We are proud of Matthew who earned his Webelos badge this week and you can see him giving Gail her Mother's pin. The same evening was the rain gutter regatta. Matthew gave it a great shot and did the best he had. We are proud of the effort he gave.

With the long weekend we decided to go and explore Reno, Nevada for the weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday the 19th. We stayed at the Circus Circus Casino which is in the downtown area and had a nice room. Andy was able to work quite a deal and we had a suite for less than $80.00 a night. The boys enjoyed the Ccircus acts and you can see the booty they brought back from playing the midway games. As you can see Matthew ended up with more prizes. He playing this cork shooting game and was knocking the cans over like there was no tomorrow, he ended up trading prizes up for bigger prizes.

Saturday morning we headed to Carson City, the state capital. Everyone enjoyed Carson and Gail decided that maybe Nevada is not all that bad. She was ready to move to Carson City. From Carson City we were off to Virginia City, a old mining town in the mountains outside of Reno. As you can see the town still has wooden sidewalks. Virginia City is also known for launching Mark Twain's career. It was here as a newspaper reported Mark Twain took his name and began writing what became classics
of American literature.



The Delta Saloon is one of the many saloons in Virgina City. Another famous saloon is the Bucket of Blood Saloon. The Suicide Table is famous for the amount of owners who committed suicide following losing fortunes at it. The table is a blackjack table and now enclosed in glass. In addition to the saloons there is a beautiful opera house and a firefighters museum, which the boys really enjoyed.





We tried to get up to Lake Tahoe while there but didn't quite make it. We did get to see the temple which is beautiful and from it there is a great view of the city. We are excited to get back to Reno to do some more exploring.

We hope you all have a great week.

It was back to school for the boys this week and after 2 weeks at home, Gail was glad to see that school was back in session. Other than the normal readjustment to schedules and getting back, it was a smooth week for the boys. Matthew has shown some great improvement in his grades and Nikolas got to be the line leader this week, which means he was one of the best behaved in his class. The boys were glad to get back to school and be with their friends.

Gail was back to cleaning this week and thankfully has been healthy. She is looking to some upcoming Pampered Chef shows as it has been a few weeks since she did one due to the holiday. She and Andy had the opportunity to also go out on a date twice this week, which was excellent.

Andy was quite busy. He was in Reno Monday and Tuesday touring a state run facility for juvenile boys and girls. He came back quite impressed. The rest of the week was chaotic with work. He set a record this week with one of the shortest trials he has done. He tried a case Friday that last 35 minutes and resulted in a not guilty verdict. Besides the fact his client was happy, he was excited for how quickly it went.

This past weekend we had a fun family outing. We went to Wendover to attend the baptism of one of Andy's friend's daughter. After the service we went to their home and went for a ride in their jeep out into the desert and mountains. We really enjoyed the scenery and stopped to see an arch which kept the boys really entertained. Each of us also had the chance to shoot an SKS rifle and Andy discovered the Gail is quite a good shot. Nikolas was the best to watch as the rifle was longer than him and it was funny watching him try and shoot. Matthew was able to hit one bottle, but the best part for the boys was the semi-automatic feature which allowed them to shoot off 10 rounds in a row which they found exciting. We had a great time and are thinking about getting a rifle to use for some target shooting here. We ended up spending the night in Wendover as our friends got a baby sitter and we were able to go out to dinner.

We hope you are all well. Until next week.

Happy New Year.

What a fast week this has been. We hope everyone is well and has a happy and prosperous new year. With all the terrible things occurring in the world, know that the Mierins family is well. We are all healthy and are together and despite what may occur around us we have each other and the joy that relationship brings. We hope the same is true for those friends and family who read our blog.

Matthew had a pretty exciting week. He spent the 1st half with his grandparents in Idaho. He was excited to get home because with his Christmas money he bought 10 pounds of Legos on Ebay. The box was waiting for him when he got back Wednesday afternoon. He enjoyed his time in Idaho. He played with cousins, went to the YMCA to swim (Grandpa reported he looked like a prune when he got out) and just had time away from "his annoying brother." We are all glad he had a good time.

Nikolas liked having the house to himself, but did complain (surprise, surprise) that he didn't have anyone to play with. He did like having unfettered access to the computer and the ability to watch whatever he wanted on TV. We got a new TV for Christmas and bought an amplified antenna, so we now have all the major networks to watch. We are holding firm though to no cable. While he won't admit it he missed his bigger brother. It became quite apparent because within 15 minutes of Matthew being home the two of them had an argument.

Gail and Andy are well. Gail had a few cleaning accounts, but mostly enjoyed being home with Nikolas. Andy had to work and had a busy Wednesday before heading to get Matthew on Wednesday. He met Gail's parents in Grasmere, ID to get Matthew. It is about a 2 hour drive. Grasmere only has an abandoned gas station and is quite a sight. He was off on Thursday and then back to work on Friday. Friday was pretty quiet, which he liked. He is getting a bit nervous about taking the Nevada Bar Exam in February. He as been doing some studying, but has put together a great plan for then next two months. The rest of our weekend was uneventful.

We had a family night for New Years. We played games, watched a movie and enjoyed each others company. We all went to bed fairly early. Thursday we worked around the house and just hung out.

We hope all is well with you all.

We Hope You All Had A Nice Chistmas

We had a nice white Christmas in Nevada. The snow fell pretty much every day since last week and so everything was nice and white.

We spent Christmas up in Idaho with Gail's family and we all had a nice time. We left Wednesday morning and other than a little snow between Elko and Wells, had cloudy skies and dry pavement the whole trip. Once we arrived in Boise, we stopped to have dinner at Gail's favorite place, Olive Garden. We then traveled to Gail's Grandmother's for a family gathering. By the time we left, the snow was falling and by Christmas morning there were a few inches on the ground. Christmas morning was fun watching the boys get excited. As a family we went to see a 3D movie and then went back to Gail's parents for a gathering of her brother and sisters.

The day after was the shopping mad rush and each of us got what we were looking for. Nikolas got a Star Wars helmet, Matthew more Legos, Andy some gloves and Gail some nice flannel sheets. We had a great time shopping.

We stayed at Gail's parents until Sunday morning and then it was time to head home. Despite bad forecast, we had a safe trip home. Matthew stayed in Idaho to spend time with his Grandparents. Nikolas is glad to have the whole house to himself.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we all wish you a happy New Year.

Holiday Greetings To All

Winter has finally found us in Nevada. It began to snow last Tuesday and continued to Friday. I need to clarify to those who live in an area where it really snows. What this essentially means is that it will snow for an hour or two, then stop, then start and then stop, so on and so on. Saturday the sun did come out and when all was said and done we had maybe 3-4 inches. Before you all say that is nothing, let me further explain. While Nevada is enlightened in many ways, the concept of plowing has not made its way westward. It is one thing Andy does miss about NH. So what happens is everyone drives through the snow, compacting and melting it, to then have it freeze and be covered by more snow. In addition to the snow the night temp. has hovered around 0 to 10 most of the week. Gail has had a few choice words about this phenomenon. Hopefully, the picture is now becoming a bit more clear. Friday night we had a bit of a scare, but no one was hurt and there was no damage to the blessed Volvo.

The boys are "finally on vacation." This last week of school went fairly well. The boys had the standard Christmas (yes, it is actually called that here) party, with the mandatory junk food. Each is doing well and very excited about Christmas. Matthew attends a respite program on Saturday's and this weekend the place had a family party which we all enjoyed. Matthew made a beautify ginger house and snow flake decoration. Nikolas is just excited for a new snow board so he can tear it up on the slopes, at least that is what he tells us.

Last Sunday in church the local high school select choir came to sing a few songs and it was neat to hear them sing about the birth of the Savior. That evening we went to hear the local hand bell choir do its Christmas concert, which we all enjoyed. The concert ended with a candle light rendition of silent night. The hand bell choir also did a number accompanied by some instruments from Africa, which was really neat.

The one down side about this week was that Gail came down with a leg infection on Sunday evening, so she was out of commission for the good part of Monday and Tuesday. Andy's schedule was such that he was able to help out with the boys Monday and by Tuesday, Gail was well enough to at least get the boy's to school. Her doctor tried a new form of treatment and it seems to be working quite well. Thanks to Gail the Christmas shopping is done and soon our annual letter should go out.

Andy was very busy this week. He had a few bench trials, several detention hearings, about 8 juvenile intake hearings and a juvenile extradition hearing. Friday he was in an all day preliminary hearing and bail revocation hearing. Needless to say he was quite tired by Friday evening. Thankfully, the next two weeks should be a bit lighter and we are all looking forward to having 5 days to spend together over Christmas.

That about sums up the news from Northeast Nevada. We hope all are well and have a Merry Christmas. Please take time this week to reflect upon the many blessings we enjoy and the source of those things. We as a family are extremely grateful to all our friends and family and wish you all the very best. Merry Christmas