Barrel Sales

My brother, Joe and I took a trip to Napa in early December to sell some of his hand crafted Missouri oak barrels.  It was a whirlwind trip, full of coffee, wine, and focus (and a few long showers for me with no kids banging on the door.)  We stayed at our cousin, Mark's, hotel in downtown St. Helena.  There are worse business trips. =)  Joe is an easy traveling partner and it was nice to spend a few extra moments with him. We visited a few nice wineries, and I had a mini Fresno State reunion.

 My old classmate, Sara, is one of the winemakers at Peju.

 The Hotel

 Joe unwrapping his barrels in the Hotel common area.

 The barrel room at Ovid was magical.

 A nice view of the Golden gate Bridge and San Francisco behind

 Mark, his youngest daughter, Lucy, and his wife Kris

 the outside of the Hotel

 the inside of the Hotel

 Sara amid her barrels at Peju

 The view from Ovid

 Mark, Joe and I at Ovid

 Ovid tasting room

 Joe enjoying himself at Ovid

 outside of Ovid

The Wydown Hotel's Open House/Meet the Cooper night

One of the best parts of the trip was when I struck up a conversation with the lady behind me at Dean and Deluca waiting for a coffee, and she ended up being the owner of Ovid winery and invited us up to the tasting room.  It was very exclusive, very expensive, and all three of us were on a high, not only from the wine and the view, but sometimes wine can be so exciting and make you feel so alive.

We went out there ultimately for an Open House/Meet the Cooper night at the Hotel.  Joe's barrels were well received and he has already sold some.  Very exciting to see him succeed at something he loves.

Everyone Recycles in Ca.

She's not the only one thinking outside the box.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Easter in Northern California

Charlotte's third plane trip!

Cecilia asleep on my lap on the plane, I just love her curls

Will fell asleep in the car on the way to our first winery, Plumpjack, so Melissa found a chair and held him while he slept and we brought her samples of wine.

Miss Blue Eyes

Family of 4 at Pine Ridge Winery

It was drizzling, but I really wanted a photo or two of the kids in front of the vineyard with the mustard cover crop

Will likes to run towards the camera- what a crack up!

Melissa and Charlotte

We spent the night up in Napa playing jump on John.

It's nearly impossible to get all three kids looking at the camera and smiling. This was our first attempt at Cliff Lede Winery.

A vision in yellow

Easter Morning; Will and his spiderman eggs and batman pajamas

Cecilia's first real Easter egg hunt- so cute!

Snuggle

Easter Morning- another lousy attempt to get a great picture of all 3 kids

Melissa and Will

Melissa and Cecilia

Lately

My Favorite Post to Date

I put together this compilation of my favorite moments from the past 5 years, because I'm that person. I love love love this post. There are some unhappy, very unhappy days in there, a lot of chaotic days lately, and just some downright frustrating parts of my life, of every one's life, but for me, it's important to remember how blessed I am, how great my life is, how amazing my husband is, how much joy my girls have brought to my life, how I am surrounded by family and friends who love me, and how nice it is to be 'happylaney.'

2009 in review

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We did have a good year, Charlotte sure is a welcome addition to our family, but 2009 also makes me sad because of our loss in our family, Brant. Please click here to read a beautiful article written about Brant.

Looking forward, February is Hat or Not Hat Month, so start gathering your photos and emailing them to me. I've got at least one good one of Charlotte I can't wait to share.

I am still living with your ghost. Lonely and dreaming of the west coast.

Cecilia refuses to fall asleep on her own anymore. She used to be the best sleeper ever. Maybe we bragged about her good sleeping habits too much? I think it has to do with our trip to California. I think she might understand more than I expected. I had a brief conversation with her about Brant. During the service she was so quiet and still, like she could feel the sadness in the air. Charlotte was making some noise, so I took both girls outside. I told Cecilia a little about Brant. I can't remember exactly what I said. I wanted her to know a little bit about what was going on, why we were there, and how to be respectful. Ever since then she hasn't slept well. She woke often in CA, didn't sleep all that well in PB, and now that we are home it has gotten worse. It has been a difficult schedule lately, 4 nights in CA, two nights at home, a night in PB, and then back home again.

We do our normal bedtime routine, bath, pj's, brush teeth, read book, tuck in, night night. Except now she cries when we try to leave the room. She wants to hold our hand. A couple nights ago she told John, "don't leave me," and last night she asked us to sleep with her. It's so hard to stand there and hold her hand. If I try to sneak my hand away and she's not asleep yet, she grabs it tighter. It's so hard, it pulls at my heart. I have never felt so needed ever before, but it's also exhausting, and it takes every ounce of patience in me to stand there, and then ever so slowly take my hand away and creep out of the room. If she wasn't in a crib, I think I would just curl up next to her and become my own little episode of Nanny 911.

I thought maybe it was getting better, but I know it's not. We've tried to let her cry it out, Friday we were up until almost 2 a.m. I've tried to put her in time out, I've tried changing her diaper, John has tried rocking her. I'm not sure what to do at all. Do I try to bring up Brant again, try to explain better what is going on? Do we stand there until she falls asleep for many more nights and hope the time we stand there decreases? Do we wait until she falls asleep downstairs and then try laying her down in her bed after she has collapsed?

Anyone been there/done that?

Anyone have any advice?

My Heart is Drenched in WIne

It's been 25 days. 25 pretty hard days. Everything I usually post all seems trivial now. Here I sit, in front of the computer, trying hard to avoid telling you my bad news. My brother-in-law, Brant, is gone. It happened two Thursdays ago, and we flew out there with the girls on that Friday. I'm sure you all have read his blog, or heard me talk about him. Can't hardly believe someone my age, someone I knew, has died from cancer. Such a horrible disease. Can't hardly fathom Melissa's pain and Will's loss.

They served Yellow Tail Merlot at their wedding in North Carolina, so many years ago, and I brought a bottle home with us from that trip, thinking it would be fun or funny to drink with them sometime when they came back to visit. On a fluke I came across that bottle of wine yesterday and so John and I toasted tonight with that bottle of 2001 Yellow Tail Merlot. We toasted to a great man, and peace to Melissa and Will. I thought the wine would taste awful, but instead it wasn't over the hill. Hmmm... Brant still had so much life to live.

If you could please close your eyes, and say a prayer for Melissa and Will, and everyone who was touched by such a "larger than life" man. Let the Lord guide them through this hard time and throughout their lives.

This picture was taken in July 2004.

Two Little Beautiful Girls

Last two from our trips...the top one is Charlotte with beach hair laying on Natalie's wooden bench, and the bottom one is Cecilia sitting on the bar at Grgich Hills Winery.

A Few From the Trips

Charlotte and I on Natalie's boyfriends' boat in the ocean
Charlotte and I in the ocean at Hollywood Beach, FL

John and Cecilia at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

cousin Will and Cecilia at the Giants game

Separate But Equal

John and I and the girls went to opposite ends of America last weekend for mini vacations. John and Cecilia headed west to California, while Charlotte and I trodded east to Florida. There's lots of pictures topost, but I'm just going to put up a few tonight. Sleep is precious- you understand.

Cecilia at a Giants game

Gabriel, Jack, Heather, me and Natalie

John says, "wow they're really tan," which is code for, "wow, you're really white."

It's Crunch Time

I've spent months saying I'm ready to have this baby, and now that the time is upon me, I'm feeling unprepared. Can you ever be totally ready for another life entering and rearranging yours? The baby is still some form of sideways, and so a scheduled C-section is in the works. The part of that sentence I don't like isn't the C-section part. I've done that before, I know what to expect. It's the scheduled part I have a problem with. I don't like picking the baby's birthday. Even if you don't believe in all sorts of things that decide who you are as a person by the day and time you were born, there are plenty of people who do believe and will judge you accordingly. Aunt Donna has already told me this baby will be a taurus and she doesn't get along with taurus girls.

When I first moved to Fresno there was a girl in the enology program that had this software on her computer where you entered your birthday and time you were born and it spat out of sorts of personality traits. One of the first times I met her we were all talking and it came up in conversation (she was very sneaky) when my birthday was and what time I was born. Through the course of hanging out with all these new people, this girl and I didn't have the best rapport, and then later I found out about the computer program and was always mad that I had been prejudged. It's highly likely this girl and I just weren't meant to be best friends, but I always blame that horoscope.

John took Cecilia to his parent's house for a few days and I have the house to myself. I was looking forward to it for more reasons than one, but now, here I sit at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, blogging, and doing laundry, and missing my family. She has the flu, and I know I can't do anything more for her than they are doing down there for her to help her feel better, and it would be best if I didn't get the flu, but I would like to be able to help him and her. That's what I do, that is one of my personality traits- I'm a helper. Don't need astrology to know that.

What happened to sleeping in? =(

The picture above is the coming home outfit for the new baby. Cecilia was born in the winter, so she had a red velvet dress. This baby is a spring baby, so she gets eyelet and sandals. I picture her tiny wrinkled feet to look so amusing in those little sandals. =)

I'm off the clean the world. This nesting stage for me has taken possession of my body. Last week I cleaned, organized and color coordinated John's sock drawer, and that clean deep freeze full of nicely stacked packages of beef just makes my heart sing. On the agenda for today- baby laundry, cleaning my car, planting flowers in the pots on the front porch, renting and watching either the Secret Life of Bees or Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 from the Red Box, and what I am most looking forward to is a big hug from my husband and child.