My BEST Friends

Let me tell y'all about my best friends...

Well first, there's this guy:

And then... there's this guy:

I literally can not put in to words how much they both mean to me.  And the best part?  They love each other too!  Together, we are a family.  And that is amazing.

Tomorrow, Mike and I will have been married for 5 years.  We've been together for 15 years!  Let me tell you a little bit about him...

He is kind.  He is adventurous.  He is SO funny!  He cares about me.  A lot.  He motivates me.  He pushes me outside of my comfort zone sometimes and that's a wonderful place to live!  He supports me in everything I do.  He has a good heart.  He's strong.  He's incredibly patient (unless he's driving).  He has the strongest work ethic of anyone I've ever met.  He's amazingly handsome!  He's the best friend a girl could ever ask for.  And he's mine.

We've made the most incredible memories together in our 15 years together.  I am blessed beyond what I deserve.  I get to spend the rest of my life with him. I jumped up and down on our wedding day as the preacher announced us as husband and wife and not a single thing would change if we got married today.  Mike, my life is so much better because you are in it.  I love you.

Lately, my other best friend has been a little under the weather.  He's injured, and we aren't totally sure how or why.  The vet gave us some meds to try, but it's unclear right now if they'll help.  He's pitiful and it's breaking our hearts.  Please say a prayer for a full recovery.  We know he's getting older but we aren't ready to let go of him yet.  We want the last years of his life to be the BEST years of his life.  Let me tell you about this best friend of mine:

He's the most lovable, snuggable, 4-legged companion.  He had a rough start in life.  But, God put him in Mike's life and they both were healed.  He filled a spot in my husband's heart in a way that no human could.  He's faithful.  He loves unconditionally.  He's protective (especially of his momma).  He will MELT your heart with his puppy dog eyes.  He absolutely loves his orange ball above and beyond any other toy on the planet.  He's a SUPER picky eater (but he'll eat the molding from around a door if we leave him at home when we go out of town).  He's ours.  He will always be our "furst" baby.  And we love him (probably beyond what is normal between a pet and it's owners... whatever, no shame here).

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS IS NOT MY BED????

The two of them have a ridiculously strong bond.  The three of us... we're a family. Thank you Mike for being the amazing person that you are.  And thank you for bringing Zater into our lives.  My life is immeasurably better with you two in it.

Typical Tahoe???

Well, Thanksgiving is over and now we are just waiting on Christmas.

I spent last week in San Francisco for a work training.  Meanwhile in Tahoe, it snowed almost a foot at our house.  Awesome.

I titled this post "Typical Tahoe" because we've had so much snow lately.  And, from what I hear from the true locals (those who have lived here longer than 3 years), that's how it's supposed to be!  We are close to average for snowfall this year so far... but to us, it feels like above average!  The last few years have been very sad winters.  I'm loving this start to the ski season so far.  Let's hope this is the "typical Tahoe" for many years to come.  

SKIING WITH MY FRIEND AMY

TOO BAD THERE'S NO VIEW FROM UP HERE... JUST KIDDING!

CLAW LIKE ICICLES HANGING OFF
THE SNOW CORNICE COMING OFF OUR ROOF!

 

THE VIEW OF THE ICICLES FROM OUTSIDE.
THEY ARE PRETTY CLOSE TO THE WINDOW. 

OUR NEIGHBORS HAVE SOME PRETTY GOOD
ICICLES TOO! 

SKIING WITH AMY AGAIN

THIS MORNING'S SUNRISE.  

 So that brings us to today... another storm is blowing through and will hopefully be bringing us 9-11 inches of snow.  It's SUPER windy out though.  So it will probably be hard to tell how much we get, simply because it's so blown around.  I'm very grateful today to have a nice warm home and I'm very proud of my hardworking husband who is braving this storm out on the mountain somewhere.  Bless his heart.  

Shout out to Mike who GOT THE HIGHEST GRADE IN HIS EMT CLASS!?!?!?!?!

Smarty pants. 

AND WHO ALSO PASSED HIS TEST ON THE MOUNTAIN THIS WEEK AND WHO IS OFFICIALLY A SKI PATROLLER (no longer in training)!!!  

Woohoo!  So proud of you Mike.  You can rescue me on the mountain any day (but I hope you NEVER have to)! 

Technical Difficulties (oh and Thanksgiving!)

Well, it's been a while again.  Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately.  I've been a little busy with the holidays and then my stupid laptop kept asking me to update to Windows 10 and I finally gave in... now I don't know how to do anything on my laptop (like download pictures from my phone).  Gah.  I knew I shouldn't have done that.  Oh well... what's done is done... now I need to put on my big girl britches and learn the new operating system.

OK... I have LOTS to write about... where to begin????

How about we start with Mike's new job?  He's finishing up school to become an EMT and he's working at Heavenly as a ski patroller this year.  I'm super excited for him because he'll be able to work outside in the snow!  So far, he seems like to like it.  Let's hope that stays true all winter.

Next? THANKSGIVING!  My parents came in town for a whopping 10 days!  It was absolutely amazing to have them here.  We live in a duplex and we are so blessed that our landlord let my parents stay in the "other" side.  This gave them a little more privacy to do whatever they want on their vacation.  We asked them to bring snow with them... and they delivered.  It stormed for several days and we had the coldest temps we've had in Tahoe since 2013.  Lows were in the single digits, daytime highs in the teens and 20's.  Brrrrrr!

I worked through Wednesday, then Mike and I made an impromptu decision to go get our Christmas tree that night (because we wouldn't have another opportunity for several weeks).  Well, you all know that we don't just drive to the store for a tree.  Nope.  We start looking for our tree during the summer!  On mountain bike rides or hikes, we will actually mark trees on a map or our phones so we know where to go back and cut down our tree.  So, we had a pretty good idea of where we were going to get our tree (there were several good options in the same area).  Since there was a nice layer of snow on the ground, we decided to skin back into the woods with a plastic sled, chop our tree, and pull it out on the sled.

LAST YEAR WE RODE MOUNTAIN BIKES AND
WORE SHORT SLEEVED SHIRTS TO GET OUR TREE!

I DID HELP... SEE THAT ORANGE STRAP?
YEP... I PULLED THAT ONE.  

This was a fantastic idea... and something we've been wanting to do since we moved here!  However, when it actually came down to it, it's not quite as fun as it looks.  We had JUST enough daylight (actually... that's not totally true... it was pretty dark by the time we got back to the truck BUT not quite dark enough to need headlamps).  Once back at the truck, with the tree loaded up, we were "hangry."  So, we stopped for a quick bite on our way home, then started on the task of standing the tree up.  It took some trimming (and some rigging) to prevent it from tipping over...

... and all that work was worthless because it still tipped over!  THREE TIMES!  Yep... that was a frustrating day for me.  But, now we've got it rigged with weights to keep it in place and... SO FAR SO GOOD!  It's been a few days and it hasn't fallen yet.  Let's hope it stays that way.

So Thursday morning I woke up and watched the parade... started prepping some things for THE FEAST... and waited on friends and family to come over.  In addition to my parents, one of my good friends from high school came over with his lovely new wife!  They are travel PT's and currently in San Francisco.  And they are the most lovely and adorable couple I've ever seen.

That's right East Wake High School folks, that's the one-and-only Frankie Sparacia (and his amazing wife Alli).

CHECK OUT THOSE PERFECT SNOWFLAKES!

THEY COULD HARDLY CONTAIN THEIR EXCITEMENT! 

They went skiing snowboarding Friday and Saturday but my ski pass was blacked out due to the holiday weekend SO instead of buying a lift ticket, I protested and stayed home (and decorated for Christmas). I was able to get all the Christmas decorations out with the help of my sweet momma!  It was amazing to have her here.  Normally decorating is a pretty lonely process (Mike just watches... he's not much for participating in the decorations unless I ask him to).

JUST AS IT SHOULD BE... TREE LIT UP INSIDE
AND FRESH SNOW OUTSIDE!  

Saturday, my friend Ann didn't have to work and wanted to go do some backcountry skiing which I enthusiastically agreed to!  The snow was amazing and we got a fantastic workout with amazing views, but there wasn't quite as much snow coverage as we were hoping.  We had to keep reminding ourselves that "it's still early season."

Sunday was my parents last full day in Tahoe, as Monday they were headed to Reno to do some sightseeing around there for a few days before heading back to NC on Wednesday.  Mom and I went to the movies to see Love The Coopers, then rode the gondola for the scenic views.  Sunday night they took us out to dinner for one last hurrah!

VIEW FROM THE GONDOLA

HOW CUTE IS SHE???

LOVE THEM!!! 

As soon as we got home from dinner Sunday night... the fun was over.  Literally.

Mom slipped on the stairs inside and fell onto her right arm.  It swelled immediately and was too painful to move.  After a quick trip to the local ER and few x-rays, it was officially diagnosed as BROKEN!  Geesh.  So, they splinted her, gave her a sling and some good drugs.  Bless her heart.  Pretty sure she's done visiting Tahoe.  That's twice now that she's had medical things occur while here.  I don't understand it.  Sorry mom, but I think it's best for your health if you don't come to Tahoe anymore.  We will come visit you.

I will never forget this Thanksgiving and I really can't say thank you enough to my parents for flying out to visit us.  I know it's hard to be away from home that long and I really, really appreciate it.  I absolutely loved having you both here.  And to Frankie and Alli - you were wonderful guests and it was so great to see you again (and to meet you Alli).  PLEASE come back anytime!

To all of our other friends and family: I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving wherever you were and whoever you were with.  This year especially I had so much to be thankful for.  I feel so blessed to be living this life and I'm grateful for every person involved in my life.  In a world that is full of hatred, terror and racism, I am so thankful for all the amazing people that I'm fortunate enough to call friends and family.  YOU all make MY world a better place! Love you all.  Happy belated Thanksgiving!