What have you been up to since you graduated from Redwood?
Hi! Where have I been since graduating from Redwood? What a loaded question to ask a 75 year old! LOL..... Most of the years between 1961 and now have been spent in California. For many years my late husband and I had a home which we built in Tiburon in 1969. I kept the home for a number of years after he died in an accident on the Bay in 1984, choosing to sell it in 2000.
During our years there, I went back to university (UC., Berkeley) and received a B.S. in Business Administration. That was put to good use during my "corporate life" years selling and account management for multiple large corporations selling large computer systems to fill corporate needs. It was enjoyable, but in my 50's I decided I wanted to try my hand at flipping houses, something I had wanted to do for many years. Did that till I was 60 and have basically been retired since then.
I met my partner of 25 years, Earl Woodall, due to a disastrous house fire in my Tiburon home in 1994. He was a superb cabinet maker and I needed new cabinets! He retired a few years ago and turned the business over to one of his 4 sons who continues the high quality cabinetry for which Earl was known.
We have enjoyed traveling. One of our favorite places to go regularly was Puerto Vallarta. We jointly owned a wonderful penthouse condo overlooking Banderas Bay there for more than 10 years, selling it in 2006 and building a lovely home in Hidden Valley Lake, Lake County, CA., where we moved in 2007. Being "nesters," we were there until July of this year (2019)! While there, we delighted in modifying this or that aspect of the HVL property, expanding the original property by buying the adjoining lot in 2012 and building a 2nd garage for various hobby type activities, adding gardens and an infinity swimming pool below that. We enjoyed the property until we decided it was time to move out of California for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that California was becoming a socialist oriented state, where 1 political party virtually ensured there could never be competition from the opposing political party.
That led us to move to Nampa, Idaho in July of 2019. So at our advanced ages of 75 and 79, we're starting over! What an adventure our lives have turned out to be. Now that we've pretty much settled into our Nampa home, I've joined the Nampa Recreation Center which is a phenomenal facility offering 5 swimming pools, extensive exercise equipment, exercise classes and all of it inside! So far I've taken advantage of the lapping pool and the stationary bicycles, but I'm now getting ready to try the Zumba class! Gotta keep those muscles moving!!! ;-)
My little family is my delight. Son, Brad, is now 57 (can he be THAT old?) and he has 3 offspring. The eldest, Tyler, age 35, who became an attorney and currently works for the wine industry. Tyler and his lady of 5 years, Rachael (yes, spelled the same way as my own next grandchild), married last October. My next, Rachael, age 28, moved with her fiance, Craig, to Surprise, Arizona a little over a year ago. She currently works in a medical office. The youngest, Jayna, is 13. She is just plain FUN! They are all the apples of my eye, as is my wonderful daughter-in-law, Lisa. You can't help but love a d-in-l who actually asks you to rearrange cabinets, now can you? She is not only wonderful, she's smart and beautiful, too. Call me lucky or what? ;-)
Now that we find ourselves here in Nampa, ID, I'm looking to get involved in various other activities. Starting over takes time, but I've met some wonderful people here and now meet with a delightful few ladies every Thursday for breakfast. Once the weather warms up, gardening will be back on my to do list! Politics is another interest and over the years I've gone from being very liberal to being very conservative! Amazing how we can change. So one of my other activities revolves around staying abreast of politics and political and economic news as well as being a member of the Canyon County Republican Women. Last month, we had the wife of the governor or the state attend our meeting and speak to us. There are some fun things about being in a smaller state! We get more notice! Chuckles......
All in all, life is wonderful and I'm grateful that my health is such that I can enjoy many activities. I've kept in touch with all my friends made during my many years in Hidden Valley Lake as well as a few other dear people with whom I've been friends for many years, even dating back to our high school days. .
So that, in a nutshell, is a smidgen (don't ya just love that word?) of what's been happening in my life and where I am now. Life is wonderful! :-)
