Happy Birthday to the February Babies!

If February is your month- Happy Birthday! It's hard to believe that one year ago today I was in Hawaii celebrating my birthday. Since I'm such a slacker, you can look back just a few short posts for those pictures! Today brings a gray but good day in Reno. I started the day with fellowship at church, then went to see Coraline with a friend, her husband and their kids (good movie, but a bit intense for little ones) and now I'm sitting down with a fabulous New York strip hot off the grill and some heavenly scalloped potatoes! I had a beautiful and fun luncheon with my closest Reno girls yesterday, and the cake picture is from that. It was, as Katy called it- a Cake Fail. The thing just wouldn't stay together! So- we had cupcakes instead, but she did send me the picture- it is the thought that counts! Alright-that's enough, here go the February shout-outs... Barb, Lyndsey Filer Hall, Eric, Justin (48 hours technically makes me your elder but I would watch it with the smart remarks!) those fabulous "Ritter" girls, and your brother Mike, and to anyone I forgot- so sorry, but please know I wish you every happiness for a fantastic year. Thanks so much to those of you who sent well-wishes my way, back at ya!

First post(s) of 2009!

It's been forever and a day since I blogged- so sorry! I am going to do a couple of posts at once here to catch you up on all that's been going on in the past few months, so look below for a whirlwind tour of the past.

I want to say a BIG thank you to those of you who have commented recently and sent me e-mail, and to those who have linked my blog to yours (Chris, Katie)- I love you all! And Mark- thanks for calling. I am over the moon about your news. The pictures of Virginia City are for you!

Just for fun- here is a random picture of a gorgeous Reno sunset (this pic does not even come close to doing it justice), something we are not short on here!

Merry Christmas!

My parents and I spent Christmas at their home in New Mexico this year, and we had a really nice time. I don't have a lot of pictures, as we mostly ran around to get ready for hosting company on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but don't worry- I got plenty of shots of Bailey, the cutest, best dog ever. Hard to believe she'll be 14 in April! Highlights of the trip were going to the Botanical Park to see the Christmas light displays and the luminarias that one of my parents' neighbors put in front of all of the homes on their street- a generous gesture almost as beautiful as Christmas itself!

Here is dad putting something together...

The River of Lights at the Botanical Garden

Luminarias in front of homes

more luminarias...

Bailey the wonder dog =-)

A cuter dog does not exist!

Tallahassee

Thankfully there was no flooding or drowning when I went to Tallahassee in December, just a sweet city with gorgeous flowers and amazing oak trees dripping with moss. Can I just say that I love the south? Who knew?! This was a great trip on which to end my year of crazy work travel. The weather was sunny and warm and the people could not have been nicer. Here are just a couple of pictures of downtown from my hotel.

same view by day and by night =-)

Thanksgiving

I know, it's been three months since Thanksgiving but I just wanted to revisit it for you all real quick! Thanksgiving was a BLAST! 16 of us gathered at the home of some friends for a huge organic, free-range, co-op turkey cooked on the grill (best. bird. ever.) and gourmet sides galore! I brought my dad's cornbread dressing and it was a hit. The celebration went on for 8 hours before all was said and done! Sorry I don't have any pictures of dinner- still no real camera (just the iphone...which I love, in case you haven't heard ;-) but the next day my friend Katy (fellow Oregonian-yay!) and I went up to Virginia City- this really cool, old mining town about 30 minutes from Reno and I did manage to snap some pics from that day. Here they are! Inside the famed Bucket of Blood Saloon

The Delta Saloon and the Suicide Table

The Opera House

And, just in case you wanted to pay homage to my current location on your Oregon license plate... you're out of luck. And no-that's not my car.

Ummm...wow

I am headed to Tallahassee on Sunday for a meeting, so I was checking out weather.com to see what I'm in for. Apparently there is some localized flooding on a nearby river and I found this piece of brilliance from the National Weather Service:

SAFETY MESSAGE... ALL PERSONS WITH INTEREST ALONG THE RIVER SHOULD MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS... AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY. DO NOT DRIVE CARS THROUGH FLOODED AREAS. IF YOU SEE FLOOD WATERS... REMEMBER TO TURN AROUND AND DO NOT DROWN.

I really don't have anything to add.

Georgia...Georgia

The week after my second trip to Miami I traveled to Georgia! I spend a lot of time in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport (eight times in the last 26 days) but getting out of the airport and enjoying the state is something I've only gotten to do twice in the last year. Our program recently added eight new courts, including Paulding County, Georgia, and that one is mine! Paulding County is about 40 miles NW of Atlanta and is a really nice little (but growing) community.

This is downtown Dallas, GA at rush hour =-)

I must say it's truly a breath of fresh air to have a jurisdiction with a population significantly smaller than the others where we work. To make a comparison- Los Angeles has around 22,000 children in foster care. Paulding County has about 94. And they already have a great collaborative structure in place, great court practice, a great child welfare agency- I'm excited! It's going to be fun working with them, and in such close proximity to Atlanta! I LOVE Atlanta! I'm not sure if I could ever move there... but of course I don't love Reno and I moved there, so I guess if God wanted to move me to Atlanta I'd have no objections! After a two day site visit where I met basically the whole town and observed court, I drove up to Stone Mountain, GA for a conference. The entire time I was in Georgia it was overcast and foggy- which was nice! It reminded me of Oregon and was a great backdrop for their gorgeous trees.

This is the view from my hotel balcony

The county is growing so quickly that they have decided to build a new courthouse and county administration center, so on my way out of town I got a tour.

Here is our entourage driving up to the new county complex...

And here is the judge in her "new" courtroom pretending to call us to order. She is great!

So that's it for Georgia- thankfully no mishaps hotel or otherwise. I'm actually posting this from Charlotte, NC... and you'll be hearing about this trip in the not-too-distant future!