Category Archives: Friends

Oct21

Breckenridge Trip

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My Texas bestie, Robin & I had a great time in Breckenridge.  Perfect “girlfriend” trip, snow, chick-flicks, wine & great food.  The weather was sunny and perfect on the drive up.  When I took the off-ramp I couldn’t help but laugh . . . remembering when my cousins & sister came out to visit a few years ago.  At the top of the off-ramp there’s a roundabout and in the roundabout there are a bunch of aspen trees and in the middle of the aspens is a huge bronze statue of an elk . . . my cousins, Marsha & Laura “made” me pull over (illegally) and they climbed up on the elk (illegally) and I took a picture of them! So crazy!! But I laughed as I drove by it!!  Anywhooo . . . it snowed up there 2 of the days we were there, I never get tired of watching snow fall – just love it!! We went into town one of the days and went to lunch and did a little shopping.  And Michele – I did find a treasure!!!

Oct2

Vacation . . . Yountville

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Yountville is a little town just up the valley from Napa.  My girlfriend, Denise and her husband Lee live there and I spent a couple days with them while I was in California. Ahhhhh what a peaceful little place.  Denise & I went on a bike ride and just up the street from their house are vineyards and around the corner from the vineyards is this great old wooden barn.  If you look real close in the picture with the cattle . . . in the shadows on the right side there is a brand new baby calf . . . can you see it??? with the little white face . . . so cute!  We went on walks and went acorn hunting (I just had to have some).  Brought back a bunch of acorns, surely I will think of something to do with them. My most favorite thing to do at Denise’s is hanging out by the fire pit.  Lee is the master fire pitter!!  Denise’s sister & my brother came up to visit & we just sat around the fire, listening to country music and sharing some laughs. Great time at the Fonville 5 Star KOA – LOL!!!!! Thanks everyone for sharing your time with me!!! Love you all!!

Oct1

Vacation . . . Sterling Vineyards

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My brother works for Sterling Vineyards in the Napa Valley.  It’s actually up on a mountainside in Calistoga and overlooks the valley.  So gorgeous!  Of all the years I lived in Napa I had never visited Sterling before.  Randy (my brother) set us up with “special” lanyards that got us on the tram (the only way up to the winery), the wine tasting and THEN the “special” wine tasting reserved for “club” members only.  So much F.U.N.!  The weather was perfect.  It had been raining all morning but broke as soon as we reached Calistoga.  It’s “crush” (harvest time) right now in the valley so we got to watch some of the grapes going through the process of being separated from the stems, very cool.  In the picture with the red grapes you can see a guy pouring a bucket of oak chips into the grapes.  Some of the wine is stored in oak barrels (or stainless steel).  Sterling started added oak chips in the beginning of the process to enhance the flavor of some of the red wines.  One of the white wines we tried (and I bought) is called “Malvasia Bianca”.  Oh my word it was so good!  A little sweet and so crisp! Randy said it’s their best seller and they sometimes run out of it!  You can only buy it at the winery.  We all had such a good time.  Nothing like some wine and good friends . . . the only thing we were missing was some “hot chocolate” (inside joke)!!! Thanks Randy!!!! xoxo

http://sterlingvineyards.com/

Sep30

Vacation . . . Auburn

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During my vacation I spent a few days in Auburn, California with my girlfriend Sherry & her 2 kids.  I was there during “Gotcha Day”.  Sherry adopted Victoria & Liam a few years ago. “Gotcha Day” is the actual day she “got” each of them, which is different than adoption day.  “Gotcha Day” is celebrated with ice cream & this was Victoria’s Gotcha Day!! Yessssss

Sep26

Vacation . . . Reno

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Vacations should include fun, friends & family and mine had all three. I was in California last week and these pics are from Reno. One of my girlfriends & I went up there for a couple of nights. We stayed at the Tuscan Towers in the Peppermill. Gorgeous facility and anything Italian works for me, LOL!! We had a suite with 2 king beds and 2 TV’s, one in the main room and one in the bathroom which was huge, double sinks, all marble, jetted tub & huge shower.  Would highly recommend this place if Reno is ever a destination for you. We spent one day at the pools (they have 3) but it was soooo windy we opted for a day pass at the spa – very nice! My sister & two of her girls met us for dinner one of the nights. They live in Sparks and it was great to see them! Yessssss, even Reno has Home Goods!!! Found a cute pair of skinny jeans! LOL

Sep12

Pat’s House Re-Do Part 3 – Done!

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In Pat’s kitchen dinning room, we changed the overhead light fixture (Overstock.com), pulled back the drapes, bought baskets for toys and a stand for her TV.  In the family room we scooted furniture around a bit, changed the lamp shades, purchased a larger clock for the fireplace & large matted picture frames for the wall (Hobby Lobby).

Tips & Info . . . for all the rooms we shopped mainly at “Homegoods” & “Hobby Lobby”. Paint is the most inexpensive improvement you can do at your house.  For about $35 per gallon, and I only use Behr, you can change the whole look of a room.  A new color (even fresh same old color) makes such a difference, I’m always blown away by it!!  Changing lamp shades, large matted picture frames = simple changes.  I think the lamp shades were $20 ea and the matted picture frames & large wall clock all from Hobby Lobby were 50% off.  The sale prices were $15 to $25 each for the large matted frames and the clock was $50.  The fabric we chose for the formal dinning room chairs was about $40 and we bought 2 yards to cover her 6 chairs. The light fixtures (formal dinning & kitchen dinning) from “Overstock” were about $100 each.  The table by the front door was $100.  All these costs and more could be done over time – but Pat was wayyyyyyy to impatient – LOL, but it sure looks great and she just loves it!!

Sep10

Pat’s House Re-Do Part 2

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In Pat’s Dinning Room we removed everything off the walls & centered her hutch.  My original plan was to remove the top of the hutch and just use the bottom as a buffet, but the bottom part of the hutch didn’t have a top & a nice piece of granite wasn’t an option – LOL.  We added new art on the side wall and moved the curio cabinet to corner of the opposite wall.  With the drapes we did the same thing as the front room – removed the valance, brought the drapes forward and bought sheers for the back rod.  I recovered her chairs with the same kind of sage green that we put in the front room since both of the rooms are adjoined.  We (she) purchased the “new” gorgeous light fixture (from Overstock.com), love it!! And her hutch was so dark that I lined the back of it with some wrapping paper that I had. We couldn’t get over how much brighter it was, then we removed some of the glassware she had in it and added some picture frames.  Dinning room, check! More tomorrow . . .

Sep9

Pat’s House Re-do – Part 1

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We finished the re-do at Pat’s which included her front room, formal dining room, kitchen dining & family room.  Not sure if you’ll be able to tell in these pics but Pat first had the interior of the house painted.  All of her walls went from white to a light gray/brown/beige color – kind of a creamy mushroom.  The paint alone made a huge difference.  Changing the walls from white to mushroom made it feel sooooo much more comfy and homey.  She had the same drapes and triangle valance in the front room & formal dining area. They were hung on double curtain rods – we removed the valance, moved the drapes to the front rod & purchased sheer panels for the back rods. Yes, her carpet is purple!! Kind of a rich plum color so we added some sage green as an accent color.  We added new art on the wall behind the couch and new toss pillows.  We moved the curio cabinet out of the front room and replaced it with a cabinet that stores all her movies.  We turned  the area rug so the length of the rug would coordinate with the length of the couch.  In the entry way, we removed the halltree that collected jackets, shoes, etc. and replaced it with the table, lamp & canvas art.  Her front door is just to the right of this table and on the opposite side of her front door we hung art & a coat rack along with a large basket to collect shoes, so in reality she didn’t loose any storage.  I love the picture of her cutie granddaughter. We put the frame in an easel.   These easel stands are great for displaying picture frames or special books. Formal dinning room tomorrow . . .

Sep3

Fun Filled Weekend!

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Amie came home for the holiday weekend. We had Chinese food Friday night . . . Saturday, we did a little shopping (cause that’s what girls doooo) then we went downtown to meet friends for dinner and out to hear some music . . . Sunday, Jason & Tara had the family over for a bar-b-Que so we got to hang out with the “O” and play “washers”. Monday we rested!! LOL

Dec20

The Grinch Smiles

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So one of my good friends here at work is a Grinch at Christmas time. His name is Chip so we call him Chippy and he is fondly considered “one of the girls”. He says he gets grumpy at Christmas time and gets annoyed when all us girls are playing our “Rod Stewart” Christmas CD. We just laugh at him. Well Maurene came up with the great idea of decorating his office while he was at one of our other campuses on Monday. This is Chippy as he walked into his office while he was on his phone . . . .  SURPRISE!

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