courtney rebecca

On on second day in wine country, we decided to explore Sonoma. After a great breakfast at Gaige House, we ventured out to the oldest family owned winery in Sonoma, Gundlach Bundschu ! We didn't have a tour scheduled, so we planned on just sharing a tasting. Had I looked it up sooner, I would've realized that we could do our tastings for free! If you have a Visa Signature credit card, there are a TON of wineries that will let you taste for free. Anyway, it was only $10 and we shared it (since I can't handle that much anyway) and it was delicious! Before we went in for our tasting, we found a bench with a view of this beautiful water. This vacation was all about just enjoying time together and taking it slow. I loved just being able to sit and be with Jason. Gundlach Bundschu is a German family winery, and they had a fantastic Gewurztraminer wine that we loved. We took a bottle home with us, and then we ended up finding it at our local liquor store as well! Hooray!...

On Monday of our trip, after we spent the morning looking at the Golden Gate Bridge and having sushi in Sausalito, we drove out to where we would be staying in Glen Ellen, CA! This town was adorable and tiny. Not even sure I could call it a town, since it was more like a collection of wineries, restaurants, and our amazing hotel. We loved staying at Gaige House ! We got a great deal (stay 1 night get one free) so we ended up getting to stay in one of their nicest suites. Especially compared to our hilariously tiny room in San Francisco, this was an absolute sanctuary for us. We had so much space, including our very own private zen garden and a bathroom with a tub carved from one giant rock. Apparently these tubs are so big, they put them in, and THEN built the suites around it. Amazing! Our beautiful door. The suites were separate from the main house where we had breakfast every morning, fresh baked cookies in the afternoon, and a wine and cheese reception in the evening. ...

I know, I know. I still haven't posted about the holidays or anything. Whatever. Facebook makes things so easy, I just post it over there. But I know someday when Facebook isn't a thing anymore, I will be glad I did this so I can keep it! Jason and I have not taken a vacation for just the two of us (so, not going to visit family or friends) since our honeymoon in August 2007. Yes, it was a bit overdue! We spent the last week in San Francisco and Sonoma Valley, and we had so much fun. It was incredibly relaxing and just nice to spend that much time together. We flew into San Francisco on Saturday evening. Right into the St. Patrick's Day celebrations! Yikes, didn't think about that with the timing of our trip. It was pretty insane that evening, so we walked to a French bistro just a couple of blocks from our hotel and got some great food there. The next day, Sunday, we spent exploring the city on foot. First we walked over to the Ferry Building Marketplace. Such ...

Here's a month by month recap of our year! This was a big year, so this is a lot wordier than years past, haha. January I started the year by finishing out my last 2 days at my old job. Aaaaand ended up coming down with the flu the night before my last day. Awesome. I spent the 5 days between jobs laying in bed with the flu. I started my new job on the 14th! I learned so much in the first couple of weeks at my job, and the month ended with a sewage leak coming into the library that caused my teammate to have to move out of the library. Yikes! We had our first meeting with our realtor Kari when we met her on the 19th. The following weekend, Kari took us on a whirlwind tour, showing us 16 houses to give us a market education. She was amazing, so we decided to trust her to work with us as we searched for our home! February On the second day of February, Kari called and asked if we wanted to come see a house. It had just gone on the market, and she thought we would like it. We al...

 2014 Goals 1. Make 4 quilts 2. Get the rest of our house painted 3. Get to maintenance and maintain! 4. Read 30+ books 5. Be confident and don't second guess I was able to make quilts for other people this year. I would like to still make 4, but I want at least 2 of them to be quilts that stay here! I already have a quilt for my sister in mind, and I have a pattern that I want to use for one for me for a little throw. And my friends keep procreating, so I'm sure I will have more baby quilts to make. One is already due in April, so there's the first one! We have been here almost a year, so I hope in our second year of home ownership that we can get the rest painted. All we have left are: craft room, guest bath, our bath, laundry room, and closets. Blerg. Surely we can get all of that done in a year! I'm also fine with repainting in the future if we need to. I just want all the nasty yellow GONE. We have other house plans this year too, inc...

On Halloween this year (last year now, I guess haha), I flew down to Texas to spend some time with my best friend Cayce! She had her first baby in July, so I waited a few months, then went down to meet her little boy! My main agenda was hanging out with this adorable little guy! How can you resist that face?? It was amazing to get to spend time with my best friend. Two full days of just getting to be together and hang out like we used to when we were roommates. It's honestly hard to live far away, especially now that she has a baby. It hurts to be far away as he grows up! But of course, we love it here, so it's all a balance. While I was there, we went through some of his old clothes and got out new ones. If you watch HIMYM you'll understand why I took this picture... tiny sock! While I was in town, I also sneaked in a little time for my high school best friend Lauren. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture together, but I did grab one after our...

Before I post my goals for the next year, I always like to go back and update my goals that I established for last year! 1. Leave work at work (including stress) With my new job, I really think I accomplished this! My new job has been MUCH less stressful than my teaching job. Even when it was a little bit stressful, I was able to separate my work life from my home life. It was really refreshing. I went through a LOT of change at work this year, too. I got hired to basically do admin work as a Library Technician. Then I ended up getting my title changed to Public Services Librarian. And then our Library Director got a new job at the state library, and I took over some of his former duties in an interim role. A couple of months later, the leadership team at my job said they liked how I was doing, and so I became our project lead. It's been an absolute whirlwind of a year at work, and I'm thankful to have handled all the (very positive) change. I love my job so much, and I ho...

My goal for 2013 was to finish 4 quilts. I ended up finishing one twin size for Jason, making 3 baby quilts, and making 4 tiny quilts for mug rugs. I would call that Mission Accomplished! The first complete quilt I made this year was a very special one for a little girl named Mila. Our friends Aaron and Erin are missionaries in Russia, and they had their first baby this year! She is precious, and though we haven't gotten to meet her yet (failed trip to Texas in December... stupid ice storms.) we love her so much! I used Moda's Simply Sweet and backed it with pink minky. Bound it with red and pink polka dot fabric from Simply Sweet. I can't remember if I used fat quarters or a precut charm pack, but I  think it was fat quarters. I seem to remember cutting out these pieces. The next quilt I made was for a very special little boy! My best friend Cayce had her first baby in July. I was absolutely thrilled to get to deliver this quilt in person. It was amazing ...

Here I am, behind again, but I WILL catch up! At the beginning of August, Jason and I flew to St. Louis for Adam's wedding and to visit Jason's Grandma. We had a great time! Jarrod and Rachel also went and Glenn and Karen met us there. Our sweet friends the Jones kept Kingsley while we were out of town. It was so nice to know he was well taken care of and loved while we were having fun. We flew in on Friday morning and got our rental car. We drove to the hotel with Jarrod and Rachel, but our rooms weren't ready yet. Time for some Steak N' Shake! We met up with Glenn and Karen for lunch, then headed over to see Grandma! We caught up with her a bit, then Jason had to go to the bachelor party. He had a great time with all the guys. I stayed with his family and finally met him back at the hotel for some sleep before the wedding the next day! We got to the wedding venue really early, and it was so beautiful! Adam and Emily got married in a greenhouse filled ...

In August, we painted Jason's office and finally got it complete. We searched for quite a while for the exact right color of green that we wanted, and we found it called Sherwood! Perfect, right? In case you don't remember, every room in our house (except one random bathroom) was painted the same awful creamy dingy yellow color. And the trim was all off white as well. Gross. We had all the main areas and the ceilings painted before we moved in, but we are slowly painting the bedrooms ourselves. Here's a before shot of the office. Basically all we had in here was a bunch of boxes, a tiny IKEA desk, and our old couch. This picture is when we had just started to move everything around to get ready to paint. Yuck, big mess. So here's everything we ended up changing in this room: Painted the walls Sherwood green Painted the trim Decorator's White Hung curtain rods  and curtains (that we already had from Pier 1) Hung Jason's LOTR swords on the wall H...