01.28.2017: Blendz with the Bro

Vince and I decided to head up north for the night and hand with Kenny & Kelsea.  It was cold and snowy, but the roads were good (for the most part).  We decided to go out to dinner downtown at a cute little Italian place.  Afterwards we walked down the street to check out a new wine bar called Blendz.  The premise is that you can actually blend your own bottle of wine there.  Or you can pick from one if the ones that they blended.  They buy their grapes from different vineyards in AZ and a handful in CA.  They blend a few but don't bottle & sell them.  They store them in barrels and serve them at the wine bar.  Or you can create your own meritage of your own.

 

Its a cool and interesting concept!  We had a great time hanging out with the fam, drank some pretty good wine, and gained even more wine knowledge!  All pluses!

 

01.02.2017: 2017 Goals, Wants, Wishes

So, I've been obsessed with lists lately! Any reason to make a list for something and I am all in.  So, for the past few years, at random times thru the year, Vince and I make a list of wants & wishes to try to accomplish before the next year.  I think we initially started it as a New Year kinda thing, but noticed some of the lists I found later were thru the year, so not sure what happened.  Maybe we were just up wishing one night and decided to write it down.

I remember the first time we did this, we were sitting on the patio in the morning drinking coffee and daydreaming and wrote up this list of goals and wishes.  I think it started with a winning the lotto list of what we would do with our winnings...then turned into a realistic list of more normal stuff we needed to do (strangely buying an island wasn't on this list - guess that isn't "normal").  Anyways, apparently, somewhere I saved the list...then found it about 4 years later.  I remember clearly the moment we were sitting there writing it out and it was a great memory!

So, now I feel like I need to share my list - so, some of the things on there we accomplished, without even knowing or realizing we had "wished" for it....like, replace our coffee maker.  Apparently that was a big deal at the time!?  Something we never just DID, but thought about doing because we were consumed with day to day things. Other things on that same list like, remodel the kitchen, still haven't happened. Ahhh, baby steps! It was really nice to see the list years later and know that we crossed off many, many items on there (including the new coffee maker!)...and didn't even know it.  Funny though, as the years went on and as our lives changed, our wishes and wants still pretty much remained the same. 

So, here is a list for 2017....

1. Start working with a charity
2. Minimize our clutter and junk
3. Clean & purge the garage
4. Get new carpet in the bedrooms
5. Get a new bedroom set for our room
6. Redecorate Drakes room
7. Update the pics in all the picture frames
8. Organize the damn spice cabinet (Yes, this is a big one and needs to be on the list!!!)
9. Go on a BIG trip somewhere
10. Get in shape, lose 10, 15, 20 lbs...ok, .one can wish!!
11. Pay down our credit cards
12. Learn to speak Spanish
13. Scan old pics into the computer
14. Finish K&K wedding video that I started last year.
15. Get up to date with my blog!!!!

OK, so there's just a few things on my wish list for 2017.
I didn't ask Vince's input on this one. I'm sure his list will be a little different.  Maybe next year we will put some more thought into it together!  For now, here ya go.....

By the way...I love our coffee maker!  Glad we it got replaced! ;)

01.01.2017: First Sunset of the Year

Welp, there are no pictures of this post, because I didn't take any.  Our plan was to watch the last sunset of 2016 and get up to watch the first sunrise of 2017. We got up, but there was no (visible) sunrise.  It had POURED rain all night long and was still sprinkling this morning.  So, a sky of clouds meant no sunrise.  Oh well, we enjoyed our last morning in Mexico on our patio, watching the rain.  We ended up leaving really early to hope to beat the traffic back to the US.