Prayers Needed

Last week, my dear friend Jill emailed her closest family and friends about what was going on with her 2 year old daughter.  Unfortunately the news was not good.  It is with a heavy heart that I write this on the blog.  I am hoping you take this information and pray for 2 year old Emma, her mom Jill and her dad Dan.  Emma was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her pelvic area and lungs.  She started chemotherapy last week.  I cannot fathom what Jill and her family are going through.  They have set up a caring bridge website for her click here

Emma was also mentioned in an article on MLB click here

Click here to see pics from when I got to see Jill, Emma and Michelle for a quick visit

It is hard for me to wrap my brain around why and how this could happen to a sweet, innocent 2 year old.  So most other things seem trivial compared to this.  I think about Emma, and her parents daily.  I pray that God will keep them strong and remove the cancer that has invaded her small body.  Please do the same.

Sometimes, you gotta toot your own horn

I was excited to recieve the manager of the quarter award last week.  This is the 3rd time I have recieved this award and I was very surprised.  My team celebrated bosses day with a sweet card, flowers and lunch for me.  I felt ver special on Sunday.  This is our white board at work (I blurred my last name since this website is public and for other obvious reasons).  I have the best team and my recognition is their recognition.  We have definitely celebrated our successes and I am so proud of them. 

Before, During and After

Here are the stairs before the carpet was ripped out.  The walls and banisters had aleready been repainted. 

Here's the carpet in the dining room.  Not a smart idea to have carpet right under the dining table. 

Living room with the same light colored carpet, a nightmare if you have dogs, kids, etc.

During!  The crew arrived on Monday and immediately got to work.  It took 3 men, 3 days to complete the project.  We were thinking about doing the work ourselves but after it was all said and one, we are so happy we got the crew to demo/install everything. This picture shows the underlayment that was placed between the concrete and the wood.

Brazilian Cherry wood.  So rich looking.

We are trying to get everything back to normal.  It's been a slow process since we have been working so much.

Here's a good pic of what it looks like.  We are still going to be tweaking our wall art, etc.  It's very clean and we have already invested in a dust mop.  I have the best steam mop but unfortunately we cannot use that on the wood, only the tile.  We are looking forward to have friends and family over to see our new 'place'.

Like Peas and Carrots

Phoenix and Rosie are canine soulmates.  These buddies are so sweet, I just adore them.  They are the best guard dogs, you wouldn't tell by this picture but my money is on them if a bad guy were to cross them. 

Whimsical Evans/Akin Wedding

We trekked up to Flagstaff on 8/19 to celebrate the marriage of Alex Akin and Abby Evans that took place on 8/20 at 10:30 Am.  It was a most beautiful day.  Abby and Alex are a beautiful couple and had such a fun wedding. 

Life's a Beach!

Jimmy and I spent an overcast day at the Beach in Oxnard.  The beaches there are quiet, clean and familiar.  We both fell asleep on the beach listening to the waves.  There was also this random guy on a horse with a colt following him.  Jimmy also explored down by the power plant and saw a dead dolphin on the shore, that was sad.  We always enjoy our beach time and look forward to going back!

VINO anyone?

I am barely getting this blog post up after about a month.  Jimmy and I went to Santa Ynez and went wine tasting.  We visited 6 Vineyards in this order:  Gainey, Buttonwood, Bridlewood, Fess Parker, Firestone and Zaca Mesa.  The first 3 we have been to before and are our faves.  Buttonwood also has a peach orchard with the largest, yummiest and juciest peaches.  We stopped at Trader Joes in Westlake and packed a pic nic.  One thing I love about California is everywhere we went, THERE WAS A TRADER JOES, or a Gelsons, or a Bristol Farms, or a Whole Foods!  Our first stop was Gainey and they had a beautiful pic nic area overlooking the vineyard.  Firestone is a new fave, their tasting room and folks working are awesome.  The region has probably about 20 more wineries/tasting rooms that we could have visited.   Last Sunday we had Bridlewood's six barrell syrah.  SO GOOD. 

Fess Parkers

The lawn area outside of Fess Parker