my parents have pretty much finished updating and redecorating their home in noblesville and have been there going on three years now... they are both doing well and stay pretty active... for those of you who know my parents, it will come as no surprise to hear that they have become the "social coordinators" of their little neighborhood hosting driveway parties, dinner parties, meet & greets with new neighbors, and the like... i'm glad to know that they haven't had any trouble fitting in and making new friends!!

teri & don are now "empty nesters" - their youngest graduated from high school this past spring and is now in college... so, after 30 years of having at least one of their five girls at home, they are now just home alone (and enjoying some of the freedoms that come with not doing any in-house parenting)!

trudy & william have been enjoying their grandbaby, genevieve, who they help out with from time to time... trudy stays busy with her fulltime job and she also continues to devote lots of time to working with the boy scouts' programs in the area (that both of her boys were involved in when they were younger)...

my 2nd oldest niece, jessa, and her partner justin are now homeowners - after jessa was accepted into med school, they wanted to move a little closer to school, but still stay in the indianapolis area... when i was in town this summer, i got to see their cute place (and hear about some of the decorating plans that they were working on)...

"middle" niece, lydia, is in her last year of PT school at indiana state university and i'm excited to announce that she will be coming out to vegas just after the first of the year to do her last two PT rotations... she'll be living with me and i'm already making a list of the chores i can have her do around the house (just kidding, lyd)!

my youngest nephew, keegan, is in his last year of school at purdue where he also works in the Purdue IT department; like his brother, he is also planning to get an IT-networking degree... i'm not sure what his post-college plans are; but, the family is wondering if he and his longtime girlfriend, kylee, might be announcing an engagement sometime soon!

my 2nd youngest niece, greta, is in her last year of undergrad work at IU (indiana university) and in the process of studying for her LSATS and applying to law school! i'm hoping that maybe she has her sights set on the supreme court where she can restore some actual justice to the bench!

my youngest niece, ella, graduated from high school this spring and is now a freshman at ball state university... she went in with an undeclared major, but i'm looking forward to chatting with her over the holidays to see how things are going on the college front and if she has decided what direction to head into... i changed my major three times while i was in college and i'm still not sure what i want to be when i grow up!

hotel california (the eagles, 1977)

in april, a few of my vegas friends (robert, jill & russ) and i drove over to wrightwood, california to help celebrate another friend's 60th birthday... kerri was taking a brief respite from her trek along the PCT (pacific crest trail) to enjoy a celebration with family & friends... robert, jill, russ and i rented an airbnb, enjoyed hanging out with kerri and her partner, martin, drank some margaritas, and even walked just a few steps on the PCT ourselves (so we could say we had been there)!

country's cool again (lainey wilson, 2024

the "big" trip i did this year was back to the "country music festival" (CMAs) in nashville with three of my vegas peeps (and country music fans) amy, jill and laurie... i can't say that any of us LOVED all the music (it's no longer your mama's country music); but, we really had such a great time and came away with lots of stories and stomach aches from all the laughing we did... we stayed in an airbnb just outside of downtown and, after walking back and forth on day one, decided to uber the rest of the time - that's where many of our stories started due to quite the cast of characters who drove our ubers...

we wore our requisite cowboy hats most of the time, listened to lots of music, checked out a number of honky tonks, danced, sang, and even got in a couple days of pickleball (no, we didn't wear our cowboy hats to the courts)... it really was A LOT of fun - not sure we'll go back to nashville's CMA's, but i think we will definitely try to plan some future trips together!

cookin'
(pete townshend, 1983)

the first year i was in my house here in vegas, i had both of my bathrooms remodeled and updated... this year, it was time to give my kitchen a bit of a makeover... it was quite a painstaking process to find just the right countertops, just the right floor tiles, just the right paint colors, and just the right appliances... but, when all was said and done, it turned out great and really does look like MY kitchen!!

many thanks to my friends amy, jill, laurie and marie who i dragged with me to tile stores or begged to come over to my house to look at paint swatches i had tossed all over the floor -
i couldn't have done it without you!

teach your children (crosby, stills, nash & young, 1969)

my parents came out to vegas for a visit in late april and i had several "activities" planned to keep them busy and show them around... i had a "kitchen open house" to celebrate my newly remodeled kitchen AND so my friends, who had met my parents last year, would have a chance to visit with them again... i took them to a vegas thrill volleyball match (the then newest member of the u.s. pro women's volleyball league)... we took in a donny osmond show - he really is quite the entertainer... we went to an authentic polish restaurant that's right around the corner from my house - my dad loved it! and, of course, i drug them over to the pickleball courts to take in a few of my weekly games... it was so great to have them here and to be a part of my vegas life!

planned around two, separate rounds of club volleyball tryouts this year, i made trips back to ohio and indiana in july and october... the purpose of the trips were for work with AiR CiTY CHiX, but it is always a nice bonues to be able to attach some family & friend visits to my trips back to the midwest!

in july, the CHiX held tryouts for our 14-and-older age groups - prepping for the 2024-25 club season (which just got underway a few weeks ago)... this is my 17th year of running the CHiX... we're still loving our new location and things are running smoothly!! i ventured back to ohio in late october for our 13-and-younger age group tryouts and these younger teams were filled quicker than every before!

while i was in ohio for both trips, i was able to stay on top of my pickleball game by heading over to friends' cindy & kelly's place where they have a private pickleball court in their backyard - beautiful setting, great hosts, and competitive games to boot!

my summer trip to ohio was pretty busy - time for volleyball and pickleball only and a short visit with old friends cindy & caroline; but, when i went back in october, i got to visit with a few other of my favorite peeps... dinner and drinks with friend and political ally, debbie; dinner with alter volleyballers dave, claire, jim and sue; and a get-together with my former neighbors from lownes court - soooooo great to see everyone again (i can't believe it's been nearly 8 years since i left the lownes court 'hood)!!

and, of course, on both trips i ventured over to indiana for some "family time"... we did a little family reunion in july - food, fun, family games, visits to nieces' homes... my october visit was mostly with mom & dad; but, i did get to see my sisters and their guys, my niece kira and her hubby, and my nephew's girlfriend, kylee... it's always great to see everyone and i'm already looking forward to my upcoming visit over christmas!

although it's just on the other side of utah from here, i've yet to spend much time in colorado (albeit a weekend volleyball tournament i coached at the first year i was here)... but, i've got several friends who live or summer over there so this was the year... in early august, i made plans for a multi-faceted adventure to the centennial state...

one of my besties, laurie (the popcorn girl) and her partner, mark, have a place in woodland park just outside of colorado springs so that was my starting point... i flew into colorado springs, met up with laurie and mark, played some pickleball the next morning and then laurie and i drove up to denver to see kenny chesney and the zac brown band at mile high stadium - i had also never seen kenny chesney so it was great to be able to add that to the trip... the concert was a lot of fun (in spite of the 45-minute rain delay between the opener and the zac brown band) and we made some quick friends with the young guy sitting in front of us who was there with his wife and mother-in-law - go figure...

the next morning we drove up to ft. collins and checked into an airbnb just a couple blocks from downtown ft. collins (a super cool little town, by the way)... our main reason for heading to ft. collins was to spend some time with suncity pickleballers & friends, pam & liane who summer just outside of ft. collins... we spent the next couple days playing some pickleball with P&L, celebrating pam's birthday, renting bikes, walking around the downtown ft. collins area, and just enjoying the unusually hot colorado summer weather...

after our ft. collins visit, we headed back to woodland park - played some more pickleball, did some hiking, enjoyed some kayaking (another first for me), and met up with one of my college roommates, lee, and her kids (they live in colorado springs)... it was a super fun and active trip - laurie kept me hopping, which is my kind of vacation, and i really enjoyed my first taste of colorado - i'll be back!!

the rest of my 2024 fun included:

buying a new road bike this summer (no, NOT an e-bike - i'm a purist and my bike is simply quad-powered by tina)... i've enjoyed riding around in my neighborhood and the 'hood across the street with friends jill, katie, robert, jamie, marie, jeff and sonja - or just tooling around on my own... typically i try to put in about 25-30 miles and have been trying to ride 2-3 times a week... i've missed biking as it was something i did quite a lot of back in ohio!

i finally got to see vonda shepard in concert at a small, intimate venue here in vegas with friends deb, janet and marie... i've been a fan since vonda was the in-show musical performer on the "ally mc beal" tv show back in the late 90s

in march i found that country singer, ashley mc bryde was going to be at the brooklyn bowl down on the strip - i had just started tuning into her music so a grabbed a couple tickets and talked my friend, jaye, into joining me... what a great show that was!! the place is super small and you just enter the venue and then walk into wherever you want to stand - we were probably less than 5 people from the stage and her music and performance was a treat (not to mention getting to hang out with jaye)!

in 2024, las vegas was the most recent addition to the u.s. women's pro volleyball league as the vegas thrill moved in - the team was coached by fran flory, who i played women's ball with after college and who was the iconic head coach of the LSU women's team for many years... i made several trips out to see the thrill (and mostly to support fran) - it was fun to see her and a few other coaches and players i remember from my own coaching days... i even connected with rick & allyson, very good friends of fran's, who were in town (from dayton) to also support the thrill!

in july, my hiking buddy jess and i joined the "caitlin clark phenomenon" and ventured over to watch the 2023 WNBA champ vegas aces host caitlin and the indiana fever... although i played a bit of basketball back in the day (before i fell in love with volleyball), i had never been much of a fan until the 2023/2024 NCAA and WNBA seasons - caitlin and the fever, and kelsey plumb, aja wilson and the aces had me hooked... and, when it was time for indiana to come to vegas, i couldn't resist! jess and i had a great time being part of the hoopla that is now caitlin clark and women's basketball!

and, to top things off, i bought tickets for THREE country music artists who are playing in vegas this month (december) - actually ALL of them are here this week!! i couldn't figure out WHY they were all here the same week until one of my friends told me that it was "rodeo week" here in vegas - okay, makes sense; country music and the rodeo... got to see terri clark on tuesday this week - her show started at 10 pm, which is a little out of my range; but, robert, amy, laurie and i managed to stay awake and enjoy the show she put on - i've also been a fan of her's since back in the day...

wednesday of this week, jaye and i got to see wynonna judd do an "evening of her greatest" hits - wynonna has definitely slowed down a bit, but she's still got that amazing voice!! and, to cap the week off, jill & i were supposed to see lainey wilson last night - we got to see just a bit of her while we were in nashville; but, not enough to really get into it - so, we were really looking forward to a much bigger setlist... however, both of us got sick at the beginning of the week and tried like hell to rally for the concert; but, as the week wore on, we just couldn't find the energy to make the show... so, finding lainey in concert somewhere nearby will be a bucket-list item for 2025!

looking back, 2024 feels like it was a pretty good year - nothing outrageous, but filled with fun, laughter, friends, family, activity and, yes, lots of music!! i'm grateful that it was a good one because i'm not sure what the next four years are going to look like for this educated, independent, feminist entrepreneur as i'm not quite over (or ready to accept) this country's election decision (don't even get me started)... but, i DO hope that you are happy, healthy and doing things you love to do; and, i hope that maybe our paths will cross in 2025!

please feel free to drop me a note (tjvolley2284@gmail.com) or visit me on facebook

HAPPY HOLiDAYS!