Fall

Glen is excited to almost be retired... for the 3rd time. Just 3 more weeks (and since he only teaches part time, that's only 5 classes before finals). He says he's really not going back again this time. I believe him. He does still plan to sub occasionally, I think.

The local newspaper recently held its annual "The Best of..." for 2022.  Glen was nominated in 2 categories and won the Best Volunteer and also came in 2nd for the Best High School Teacher (after the ROTC teacher Robert Kerman)! Congratulations, Glen!!!

We finally got around to doing the tie-dye session that we'd been planning for a while. It was so easy and a lot of fun!

Eric turned 31! We played GuGong for the first time in a long time...and Glen beat me in a tie breaker.

coming up with what to wish for

wish completed and candle blown out

In Reno, Hannah found a job, an apartment, and a great roommate and is doing well. Alex is at school, but came home for a few days at Thanksgiving. We were able to take a photo to send out with my Christmas cards. We played a lot of games...including a new one. We played "pie poker." You ante up with pieces of your pumpkin pie. The funny thing was, when we went to eat our pumpkin pie, we found out that I had forgotten to put sugar in it.

summer

(pictures are not necessarily in chronological order)

We have had a houseful this summer: my mom, Glen, Eric, Hannah, Alex, and me. Now Hannah has moved to Reno, Alex just went back to college, and my mom just went back to Vegas. So things have quieted down a bit.

mom and me 9-11-22

We had a house full of projects this summer. Glen and Hannah have been renovating many of the rooms. 

Glen's helping Hannah by holding down the counter so it can be screwed down

whether or not he might have been napping is beside the point.

 

They look great and it is so wonderful to have all that storage!

spray painting the bathroom cabinet doors

the tub in the back bathroom was torn out

new tub installed and the walls repainted--countertops will happen at some point

In May, my foot was finally operated on. My foot still doesn't feel 100% but I'm still hopeful. The doctor has another treatment he'll try if it's not better by December.

the doctor draws pictures on the bandage so he can tell if you took it off

Glen and I attended the Dragon Lights Festival in Reno.

Glen retired for the 2nd time in June. And then unretired 2 days before school started in August.  He is teaching 3 blocks of a "Teachers and Training" class for high school students who are interested in secondary education as a career. This is part time (only Mondays and Wednesdays) and only for this semester. Another teacher will take over in January.

Alex and Ben hosted a Super Smash Brothers tournament at the old Fallon theatre. They had a pretty good turn out and had a good time. 

Glen and I have been riding our bikes in the mornings. It's a gorgeous time of the day!

we're your friends, we're your friends, we're your friends till the bitter end...

And, of course, we've been playing lots of games.

one of Eric's new games-Bunny Kingdom (I lost, of course)

Glen, his dad, Eric, Alex, Hannah, and my mom playing Farkle.

I started taking the pottery studio class again. Yay! I made this bowl last December and finally got to glaze it.

before firing

and after

Glen took Dad on the Fallon Community Theatre's float for the Labor Day parade. 

one more picture from our bike rides--sunrise Sept 8, 2022

Movies

 

UPDATE--Take Ferris Bueller's Day Off off the list. Apparently I had watched an edited version several times. I just tried to watch it on Netflix and the language was pretty bad. So, if you were surprised to find that on my list, that's my explanation (but I still think it was a very funny movie).

We are ranking our movies and then going to compare. This is what I have at this point. 

Hey, Alex and Ben! Stop judging!!!

Spring Break

When there's only 3 of us here living and working, there doesn't seem much to write about. The last 3 months have been relatively quiet. 

In February, Glen and I drove down to Vegas for a quick trip to bring my mom her things that we had picked up in Brookings a few weekends before that. It was wonderful to see Deni, Pat, and my mom again. Watching a bit of the Olympics was fun, too.

Spring Break started on Saturday April 9th with the wedding of our nephew, Thomas, to his bride, Maryann. It was a beautiful morning in Reno for the temple sealing and the evening in Fallon at the reception. Alex had come in a few days before for the wedding, so we had a great time visiting and playing games. Little sleep was had by some.

On Sunday, leaving the warmth and sun of Nevada behind, Glen, Eric, Alex, and I drove to Idaho and spent the night with Ryan and Angeles (and played a game, of course). It was so good to see them!

The next day, we continued our trip with Glen doing the driving while it snowed. We spent a fabulous week with Hannah and Kaellen in Montana. It snowed those first 2 days, but it was great. We went to Hannah's dental hygiene school and had various things done--x-rays, cleanings, and I was on the receiving end of 2 injections from Hannah so she could pass off one of her requirements. She did a great job--it didn't hurt at all!

Our activities that week included going to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center, visiting the falls of Great Falls, feeding the fish at the fish hatchery, watching the first half of Hamilton! on Disney, doing a little shopping down town,  and eating at a fabulous Brazilian place Five on Black.

On Saturday, Glen, Eric, and I flew back to Reno while Hannah and Kaellen drove Alex back to school since his new semester started this week. We left the minivan behind so Hannah and Kaellen can use it in a few weeks to move here.

We got home just in time to enjoy a wonderful Easter Sunday--no jelly beans or chocolate, but there was church and a ham dinner with Dad P. How grateful we are for the Savior and for family!

Maryann and Thomas

.

Hannah at the hatchery

Alex and Eric 

Alex-where one of the shortest rivers (201') meets the Missouri

me in the freezing cold feeding the fish at the hatchery

me, Alex, Eric, Hannah, and Glen

Glen, me, Alex, Hannah, and Eric learning about Lewis and Clark

dinner at 5 on Black

5 on Black-Kaellen, Alex, Eric, Glen, Beth, Hannah

Eric having a little fun while we were out shopping

one of the falls

Jan--moving mom, family history, a little bit of culture

This school year for Glen is now on a downhill slope heading (for the second time in his teaching career) to the end of his last year! Alex has just started his college years and the rest of us continue much as we were at the end of 2021.

Hannah already posted about the room makeovers. We did a little bit more after she left. It really is SO nice to go back there now. Hannah's old room is now ready for my mom for whenever she comes to be with us.

Glen and I drove to Oregon this month to help move some things out of mom's house so it can be put on the market. We love Brookings and will miss our visits there--however, mom is now 3 hours closer to us as she is settling in Vegas at Deni's!

I was contacted by Eric Ross who found me from my posts on my family history blog (https://turningourhearts-beth.blogspot.com). He is my 4th cousin once removed and is a descendant of Joel Jervis and Elizabeth Smith through their daughter, Phebe Maria Jervis Van Buren. He has a bunch of Phebe's papers, which he scanned and generously shared with me. I've been transcribing the 140 or so pages and some of it is so fascinating! Among other things, she has some stories from her great-aunt who lived through the Revolutionary War. So, a lot of my free time in January was spent working on various aspects of family history. 

And if that wasn't enough genealogical excitement:

Some years ago (5?6?) I was contacted by a professional genealogist who was doing research for a client (Kyle Riddlebaugh) writing a book about the Riddlebaughs. His book Riddlebaugh-Since 1666 was published this summer and since he had used things from my blog, he sent me a copy! However, due to transcribing Phebe's papers, I haven't done more than flip through the pages, but I'm excited to give it a closer look later.

Our book club meeting this month was spent discussing the book The Woman They Could Not Silence: the Shocking Story of a Woman Who Dared to Fight Back by Kate Moore. A fascinating true story about a woman, Elizabeth Ware Packard, living in the 1860s when men had complete and total control over their wives and their wives' property and could easily get them locked up in an insane asylum, as Elizabeth's husband did. (often thinking of family history, I thought to look her up on familysearch and she is Glen's 5th cousin 5 times removed...everyone at book club was either related to her or her husband)

Reno Taiko Tsurunokai, a Japanese drumming group, came to our library yesterday for a performance. I just happened to see the facebook notice that morning and Glen, Eric, and I were able to go. They taught a little bit of culture along with their musical numbers. We quite enjoyed it. 

One of the cultural tidbits involved the Japanese lion, Shishi, who came out to dance. Being bitten by Shishi is supposed to bring you good luck (apparently during parades, parents will hold up their children saying things like "bite my child"). Glen was one of the few who was chosen by Shishi to get bitten! Unfortunately my camera was at home and I don't have a photo (these photos are from Glen's camera). We came home and played Eric's new game, The Isle of Cats, which Glen won, so that might be all the proof you need. (The Isle of Cats is a great game, by the way, and we highly recommend it)

Tsurunokai means the gathering of cranes, so cranes are on their outfits

Not the best picture of the Shishi, but it was the only closeup we have

two villagers go to wake up the shishi so they can get bitten for good luck

New Room Alert!

 

December--travels, birthdays, and Christmas fun

December started off with Hannah's birthday. It also started off with Alex and me traveling to Brookings to visit my mother.

While there, I had my 60th birthday (Hannah threw me a "black" party for me on December 31st). Back in Fallon, Glen had arranged for the marquee at the old Fallon Theatres to broadcast it:

some misread that as my goth birthday and not my 60th--hence the black party for me

Alex made us shrimp scampi for my birthday dinner!

While in Brookings, Alex and I also were able to visit the annual Christmas light display at Azalea Park. I had gone once years ago when Hannah and I were visiting Brookings after Christmas. It's totally amazing!

Alex taking photos...

Everyone was able to come home for Christmas! Eric even took the week off so we could spend lots of time together. We stayed up late, ate too much, enjoyed a little bit of snow, and played tons of games. COVID changed some of our gaming plans with the extended family, though. :(

Another really fun thing we did was something Hannah and Kaellen set up. They organized us into 2 groups, gave us different challenges, filmed us performing the tasks, and later showed us what everyone had done, and scored our challenges. It's from a show on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/Taskmaster).

The 2 groups had different challenges. Andrew won in his group (which included Alex, Glen, and Angeles). Eric won in my group (which also included Ryan and Heather). SO much fun! We laughed so hard. 

Tasks included things like make your funniest noise (I did a Tarzan yell, which sadly was not good enough for me to win that challenge), eat 345 calories from an array of food in front of you (that was a task done in Glen's group), and do something that would look impressive when it is played backwards (another task from Glen's group). 

The backwards challenge had 2 amazing entries: Andrew (who won the challenge) was filmed scrambling up 3 solved Rubik's cubes while blindfolded, which turned into the amazing feat of him blindly solving 3 cubes very quickly. Alex set up a complicated game with lots of pieces and then pushed all the pieces to the floor which then looked like he set up the complicated game in a few seconds. 

Grandpa, Joy, and Henry making cookies for caroling

these were for us

Andrew, Henry, Joy, and Heather with their little snowman

All ready for Santa to come

Henry and Joy left out treats that Santa ate

Hannah is the pickle finder this year!

Joy

Angeles, Andrew, Heather, Ryan (and Henry)

Joy, (Eric), Hannah, Kaellen, (Alex), and Glen

Let the show begin!

Alex, Glen, Angeles, Andrew, and Henry watching their clips

the clip of Glen trying to eat 345 calories from the food choices given

We kept track of all the games, gamers, and winners

Hannah had been planning on throwing me a birthday party inviting friends and family to come, but because of COVID, in the end there were just 8 of us (Andrew and his family had already left). Black clothes, black decorations, black fingernail polish, dark cake...

turning 60 is such a serious occasion

we had Gary take a few photos of us...brrr