Where has the year gone?!

Wow I can't believe it is almost March! Wasn't it just Christmas? Lots has happened in the past two months. We feel so blessed in so many ways. We appreciate the support of friends and family. In January I got called to be Young Women's president. I was and still am excited and loving the calling. But I know with my night shift schedule it will be a challenge. My counselors have been very supportive. Our ward is going through major changes and it has been crazy. A week after my new calling we got a new young men's president. Then two weeks later a new bishop! Things are falling into place. We love our ward even though it is at 9am and will never change. Mike has a calling in the Sunday School presidency. He is over the youth 14-16. He is a great teacher.
Mike has been busy with school at Sac State. He also has four guitar students and might start teaching one of my young women piano. Mike has also been trying to put on open mics at our home. Our first one might be Saturday night. He has met some great people he plays guitar with every now and then.
I got a new job with Sutter health in the Nursery. We finally have benefits! I started that in January. Then out of the blue Kaiser calls me for an interview on their new pediatric floor. (They just opened a huge women's and children's hospital...so nice). I said what the heck...I am not looking for a job but what have I got to loose by interviewing. I found out Kaiser has a much better retirement with full medical and the pay is significantly better. I will start my job with Kaiser in a few weeks. Unfortunately it will still be nights but being a new facility I am hoping to move to PM's soon! Keep my fingers crossed.

Mary's 30th Birthday in Reno!

Mike planned a great birthday for me this year! It was the big 30. Scary. I still think I am in my twenties but I am sure that will be short lived. We went to Circus Circus in Reno. The drive over was smooth sailing. No problems. We enjoyed being with each other. We ate at the buffet and other restaurants at the hotel. We plaid in the arcade. We had some long games of air hockey...one of which I think Mike let me win! Happy Birthday right?! Mike even won me four stuffed animals. I think our little animal zoo is almost complete. We went to the Reno temple Saturday night and did a session. It is a beautiful temple but of the small ones I think it is the smallest. We listened to bands play music. We got to see the Chinese Acrobats.

Now the fun begins. We decide to leave the night before, save money and get home early for Mike to get ready for school on Monday. Okay so Sunday night can be a little busy on the 80; everyone trying to get home. It was only raining at first and it said snow chain warning. I was thinking this is sooooooooooooooo stupid because I have driven in worse in Idaho and Utah. It is rain. Then as we made our treck to the top of donners pass is was snowing a little. But nothing like the mess we got our self in December. Lets just say it would take an hour to drive 1 mile. We left Reno at 5pm and got home at midnight. Besides snow chains there were other crazy adventures. Kind of hard to find places to potty when you are stuck in traffic on donners. We finally found a gas station where we could take off the chains, gas up, go potty and get some food. Walked in the gas station and there was the county sheriff just hanging out there like in the movies. There was a sign on the door that said toilet out of order. But there were port a potties. Mike checked it out and it was overflowing and no tp. I walked in the station and asked for some and they said we didn't have any. I was mad! I said this is ridiculous. I am sure I would have walked out with napkins if the sheriff wasn't there. That is the least they can do...I mean I bought gas there.

Then ten minutes later I felt like I had to go again. So we found a burgerking/shell station at the bottom of donners. Needless to say I think the State Health Dept. should shut the place down. I had to wait in line for almost twenty minutes. I practically went in my pants. Then Mike waited in burger king line for almost a half hour. It was slow and scary. I told Mike we better pray hard we don't get Hepatitis A. After all that time they screwed up mike's food so I shared with him. Monday we felt sick to our stomachs and I am sure it was burger king.

What adventures!

Happy 1st Birthday Noah! And the Hockey game!

Happy Birthday Noah. We couldn't make it to the party but we went to the Hockey game with Rachel, Garrett, Noah, and Amanda and Jeff and their family. The thunders won! All the kids got free jerseys.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it is 2009! It seems like yesterday that Mike and I were packing our bags in warm Arizona and heading out west. Mike starts school the end of the month. I start my new job for Sutter Hospital. I will be the nursery nurse. I will be working eight hour night shifts. I can still keep my other job which actually pays more. Mike has kept busy writing and composing music. He has met some great musicians in Sacramento and has been playing with some people at night. I have kept busy getting ready for my new job. We love our home in Sacramento and enjoy living close to family and friends.

Our Christmas Adventures

We had a really great Christmas. We were able to see almost all of Mike's family...but his Mom. We speant a lot of time with his Dad and sister. His step Dad Dean is a chef and made a great early Christmas dinner. The trip back from Utah was so much better than the trip there. On the way up we ran into a lot of snow.
Christmas Eve we went to my mom's house. It fun to watch the kids open their presents. On Christmas Day we went to Rachel and Jordan's house. I helped Rachel cook dinner. The dogs got out and sent us all on a hunt to find them. Luckily they were safe. Rachel's dog had four puppies, they were about ten days old. I would love to take one home. On the way back home we stopped by John and Karen's house. Mike helped Lindsay and Molly with their new guitar. He helped them tune it and gave them a few tips.
I will post some pictures later!