My Week: April 2-8

Thank you for stopping by my blog!  I hope you enjoy reading about my life here in Reno, NV.

Holy moly, it was a busy week!  Where do I begin?  LOL!

Sunday was a wonderful and busy day!  I had nursery duty for all services.  My sweethearts, Autumn and Naomi, volunteered to do the nursery for the 8:30am service.  I love their sweet spirits.

10:30am service - Melissa and Addie volunteered to do the nursery for me - great girls!  But there was not much room to sit in the service - we had 177 in total for both services - what a blessing!  So I went to help with all the little hooligans in the nursery. Ha!

A super blessing was seeing all these folks follow the Lord in baptism!  Very special to my heart is one of the families - Coach Zach (Autumn's softball coach), his wife and three kids that were all baptized that day.  Sometimes, it takes a long time for your tree to bear that fruit - but when it does, it is oh, so sweet!  Praise the Lord!

Got some work done in the afternoon and then back for the evening service and then off to work.

Monday -off at 8am and off to the gym for my Monday workout.

Then I had a photo job to do on the way home.

I can barely remember the rest of Monday - ha!  School, softball, work...one of those days. :)  Never enough time in that day.

Tuesday, off at 8am.  Worked on school, laundry and ironing, watered the lawn and preparations for our meeting.Glad for a nice day to enjoy. :)

There's my Max under my feet on the deck.  LOL!

My pretty Belle. :)

Swimming lessons 2-2:45pm.

Meeting at 4pm.  I took sub sandwiches to the meeting because none of us would be going home after our staff meeting.

5:40pm - Left the church and dropped off Addie and Melissa at their scrimmage at Mayor's.

Then went straight to Summer's practice at Silver Lake.

Dropped off Summer at home and headed to work after practice.

Wednesday, off at 8am.  I went straight to the gym for my workout.  Near the end of my workout, I got a call from my husband asking if I had taken his keys or his handguns that had been in his car.  My heart sunk.  Of course, I hadn't.  In his rush from a long day at the church, meetings and softball scrimmage, he didn't lock his car when he got home.  Someone during that night had gotten into his car and took his sunglasses, keys and two handguns.

That changed the whole mechanics of that day, right away.  So I had to make one stop of Lowe's for Miracle Grow soil that was on sale as well as a new doorknob/deadbolt set which was $50 and then headed home.  I called Autumn and said, "Get ready, when I get home, we are going to leave right away."  I picked up Summer and Autumn and we headed straight to Andy's Lock and Key.  It took about an hour and a half - we had the lock changed on my driver's side door.  It was cheaper for now than doing the lock on the door and the ignition.  So $90 per lock - thankfully, my van only has the one lock!

We got done just in time to pay and to make it to their dentist appts to get sealants - three minutes early.  I just wanted to get everything done I could right away in this situation.  More money for more dentist appts.  If anyone is in our shoes and can't afford dental insurance - we use a plan called Access to Healthcare for our family's dental "insurance".  We pay a premium - ours is $150 every quarter.  (It is based on per adult and per child you have.)  Then our dental rates are discounted whenever we have to get anything done.  With six people, in the last two months, I have paid over $1,200 in dental bills - that is at the 60% discounted rate!!  Yikes!  Even though I would definitely rather be putting that money into my savings, I am so glad that we have Access and we don't have to pay full price.

The sealants didn't take too long, thankfully, and we were on our way.  We had to make a stop at Wal-Mart to drop off my pinwheel order at the deli and pick up a few items for the Couples Retreat the next day.

Home.  I don't know if I even got a shower that day.  LOL!  It was one of those days where I had so much to do...then it was pick up the Bialys at 5:30pm - drop off for Youth Group.

Drive Autumn to her practice at 6pm (my husband was still in his counseling meeting).  He came and I went back to the church to take Addie and Melissa to practice at 7pm after Youth Group.  Then off to work from there.

Thursday, off at 8am.  And yes, I got to take a shower.  Ha!!  I first went over to the church to get set up for our Couples Retreat.  Tables and tablecloths for the food.  Books, pens and candy out.  The big thing that took the longest was the media set-up.  I had created a Power Point for the retreat to use - however, my laptop wasn't compatible.  So we transferred it to my husband's.  Then we tried using the presentation clicker (whatever it is called - LOL!) and the stage was too far away from the media room for it to work right.  So we finally had to create slides in Media Shout to use for that night.  Oh yeah, it took a lot more time than I wanted.  Ha!

Almost forgot swimming lessons because I was so focused on the retreat.  So off to lessons and then back home.  I had the pinwheel trays scheduled to be picked up at 5.  When I showed up, they had not started my order.  I was so mad...wanted to cry.   Here I am in charge of this retreat and this happens.  I can't be in two places at the same time - well, she said give me ten minutes...which stretched into forty.  I feel like I am going to hyperventilate worried that I am going to be late!  I needed to get the food set up before six plus I am leading this retreat!  Well, I get there about ten minutes to six.  Get the food set out and ready.

The retreat went so well!  I just enjoy the small groups and sharing and learning together and I think everyone did as well.  Our first session was "Seek God".  This year, we used a curriculum called "From This Day Forward" by Craig and Amy Groeschel.  We do the format where I opened it up with a question where people would engage and talk it out.  We then watched the video teaching and then ended it with about 20-30 minutes of engaging.  I led the sessions with questions and we all shared.

I just want to thank all the couples of SVBC who did engage and was a part of our retreat.  You guys are awesome!

Well, after the session was over, I was exhausted but I was glad.  Glad it went well and glad to share life and great teaching with our couples. :)

When we got home, then I ate.  LOL!  I can't eat when I am organizing or running an event!!

Friday, my husband left early for skiing.  I worked on school with the girls and did laundry and ironing.  I left the majority of the housework for them to complete after school.  I had really needed to go grocery shopping that morning...but I had too much at home to get done.

Pack up for the retreat - give chore lists for Friday and Saturday for the girls while we were gone - and off by 2pm.

It was raining and snowing all the way up the mountain.  A lot of standing water on the roads.  I had a Coke and some Slim Jims on the drive - LOL!  I think I forgot to eat in my busy morning of trying to get all done that I could.

Met the hubby at 3pm at our hotel - the Hampton Inn and Suite in Truckee.  We checked in and then went out for a bite for an early dinner.  We tried a place called Marg's Taco Bistro - it was OK.  The atmosphere and the waiter was excellent.  We just weren't impressed by their food.

At 6pm, we met some of the couples down in the lobby, Josh and Jenny, Brenden and Nicki, and Carlos and Shannon, for some Phase 10 competition.  Three hours later...Ha!  It was a blast!  Josh ordered pizza, we had the free coffee, hot tea and hot apple cider in the lobby...what a great time!  I'm glad we spent this time together having fun.

The next morning, I went down at 6am for a workout.  Then coffee and a shower.  Eric and I had breakfast in the lobby together at 8am and then to the conference room to set up for the day.  This was the view from the workout room.

At 10am, we started our sessions for the day.  I ran the entire day - it was really great - thank you to everyone who was there and engaged!  It is such a help when you are leading a group to have people really care and want to be a part.

We broke for lunch at noon and tried Jax on the Tracks - very good!  I had the smoked salmon eggs benedict - yummmy!!  We had lunch with Chris and Abbie and it led into another great conversation about raising kids.  Isn't that what we all need?  Friends who are willing to share, open up, ask for help?  I think it is so healthy.

Then back to the afternoon sessions.  Our sessions for the day was Fight Fair...Have Fun...Stay Pure...and Never Give Up.

The retreat ended at 4pm.  Again, I was mentally and physically exhausted.  LOL!  But it was a very good thing.

I drove home and we spent some time playing with the kids - we taught them how to play Phase 10.  Ha!  Then it was off to bed - I couldn't think or do anything more even if I tried.

I hope you had a great week too!  God bless!