😲😲😲Wow, it truly has been a long time since I last blogged! Well, we are officially Nevadans! LOL😂😍
2021 was a long year as we waited and watched our new home being built, out initial November-December move in date was shifted twice and we ended up closing 1/31/22. As luck would have it, we closed on the sale of our Redwood City home 11/1/21 and we had 3 free months of rent back through the end of January, so we had one simple door to door move ~ just as I had hoped it would be. Mother Nature cooperated and though she dumped tons of snow in Reno the week between Christmas & New Years, she held off with more snow until mid-February, so we could get all settled!
✈🏨We did two mini-vacations in 2021, mainly due to our focus needing to be on the home build and Bill's shop being short-staffed with the move, he was not keen on taking off too much time. We spent 2 nights at the Ritz Carlton Truckee for our Anniversary in June and that was a delightful stay, we spent the afternoon sitting by the beach of Lake Tahoe, enjoying the beautiful scenery and witnessed another couple's proposal! Then in August, we surprised our friend Lisa for her 50th birthday and crashed her Disneyland trip! She was surprised and we had a great time helping her over this milestone! We did spend a week in the Bay Area over the holidays that turned into a little bit longer due to the Reno snow storms and our canceled flight, but we made the best of it and packed up the kitchen!
We LOVE Reno!! We LOVE our neighborhood!! We LOVE our new neighbors/friends!! We LOVE our new home!! Living in an AirBnB from June-January was tough and I did spend the majority of my time in Reno, the drive was easy most of the time and I'd go home every other week for 2-3 nights to collect the mail, get my nails done, sometimes get my hair done and always planned lunches/dinners with friends. We spent the majority of our non-working hours at the Clubhouse, meeting new people and hanging out with new friends. 🍷🍸🍹
I started teaching Line Dancing at the Clubhouse and became the group leader for two resident groups: The Travel Group and the Line Dancing Group. I've organized a European River Cruise for 2023 and have 55 of our neighbors signed up, we have some other trip ideas to bring to fruition soon. I've choreographed my very first Line Dance just a few weeks ago. We had a live concert at our Clubhouse this past weekend by a local artist, Jake Jacobson and when I knew he would be coming, I listened to his songs and decided to choreograph a dance to one of his songs. It was SOOOOOO COOL to see people on the dance floor, dancing my dance to a song being performed live by the original artist. The dance is called, "I'm getting over you" and it's danced to his song, "Speed of Neon Light" and it is listed on the Copperknob website of line dances! 💃💃😍😍
We have spent most of this year (2022) enjoying our new home, new friends and new community. There is always something going on: Bocce Ball, Bunco, Wine Tasting, Excursions to local events. We've gone to see the Van Gogh Exhibit, we had a Catamaran Mimosa Cruise on Lake Tahoe, we've toured Fallon Naval Base, we had a group movie night to see Top Gun, Memorial Day party, 4th of July Party, Concerts at the Amphitheatre...the list goes on. Plenty of days poolside for sure and the weather has been wonderful this summer. 2021 was not a great summer, lots of fires miles and miles away that gave us unhealthy air for weeks at a time! So blessed that did not happen this summer!
We have made a few trips to the Bay Area for weddings!! 💒💒We went to Petaluma one weekend for Kimmy & Ryan's wedding, managed to sneak a visit in with childhood friend Laura (John) and a visit to the Charles M Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa. I've always wanted to go, but it was always so far away. We had another weekend in Redwood City/Morgan Hill to see our dear friend Tiina marry Rob Tracy and that was special as we got to spend time with some of our Dance Family! We also snuck in some time with Diane/Mike and my brother! Then the big trip was to Kentucky for nephew Michael's wedding followed by a week in Nashville. We had a great time!! We have a few more trips to the Bay Area planned coming up in the next month to see a few⚾ Giants and 🏈49er games and we will get to see some friends as well! Our next big trip will be in November when we go to Mexico for 10 days and then spend some time in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving.
I am FINALLY getting back to ME and my FITNESS. I've been teaching Line Dancing twice a week and counting calories for what feels like forever but just not seeing any movement in the weight from the last 5-6 years (the last 3 years don't count)...but in any case, it's time to get serious and do whatever I can to lose the extra weight. I joined Weight Watchers again, it worked well 22 years ago and I hope that I can make it work again. There is also a Weight Management Group in my community and the support is already amazing. We all agree that it's very hard to stay on track when living in such a social community, so we're all learning on what works and what does not. The Support is AMAZING!! My first week, I lost 3.8 pounds and I'm back to working out regularly!!
Last week my workouts were amazing and felt so good! Monday- Line Dancing, Tuesday-Zumba & Yoga, Wednesday-3 mile walk and Water Aerobics, Thursday- Zumba & Yoga, Friday- Line Dancing, Saturday-Water Aerobics and 30 minute walk, Sunday - Line Dancing. This week, I'm off to another good start with Monday Line Dancing & a 40 minute walk with a friend and today I really needed to sleep in, so I busted out my BodyCombat 👊video and did the 50 minute workout and I didn't DIE!! I feel as though I'm getting into a groove again.
We have found a place to go dancing and have been dancing on Sunday nights which has worked out very well at the Pure Country Canteen. There are still a few other spots that we need to check out soon but happy to be on a dance floor again!
Labor Day weekend is coming up, I'm not sure where the summer went and time keeps flying by so quickly. There will be a party at the Clubhouse with live music in the Amphitheatre Saturday. Our friends Suzy & Charles are coming into town Sunday so we will get to see them all day Sunday and may join them Monday for the Rib Fest at the Nugget. Speaking of friends who have visited, we have had very few people actually use our guest room but we have had day visits from Jamie & Ron, Diane, Mike, Nolan & Brooklyn, Brad & his family. Bill's childhood friend Joe has stayed a few nights at the end of his quarterly business trips, my sister spent 2 nights with us in July and our friend Robin has made the most use out of the guest room because the 1st day she came up, she put down a deposit on a new home in our community! She's been spending long weekends with us during the summer but now has an apartment in Reno so she can come and go more freely without reserving the guest room!! She's been a wonderful long term guest though! We have had a few friends in town that we've met up with for dinner. In June, a group of 10 from the Dance Family were in town, so we met up with them for dinner and our friends Richie & Nancy come to town often and we've met up with them for dinner too.
Well, I think that about sums it up for the last 15 months! We are settled, we love it and are so happy with this decision to move to Reno!
