We trust this letter finds you well. Though you may know us in another context, or we may not have been in touch for a while, we wanted to take this opportunity to reconnect with you and to share a short story about ourselves. We’ve gotten to know many of you fairly well over the years and feel like we’ve not done a great job in letting you enter our life as much as we would like. This is our small way of inviting you in.

Sometimes we end up living the lives we least expect. For my part, I certainly wouldn’t have expected the rich family life I have today. As a mother of a blended family of nine, and with 23 grandchildren.  Family is the most important part of my life, and I treasure every minute I spend with them.  Where there is lots of family, there can be lots of drama ???? but doesn’t that teach us all the more how to better communicate with each other?  I truly believe that’s where I got my patience and my mentoring style of communication!

As with many of you, life has not been without challenges. It wasn’t an easy path to get where I am today, both as a professional and as a parent. Before I was even a teenager, I found myself caring for my younger siblings. Being thrust into that “mother” role at a young age taught me responsibility and financial awareness. We’d often be left with $200 in cash for what was supposed to be a week, but often turned into several weeks and we had to figure out how to stretch that money to pay for groceries, school lunches, and other necessities. Together, my younger siblings and I made it through those tough times, and became stronger together because of shared experience. It was during these times that I made a promise to myself that I would always be able to support my own family, without having to rely on anyone else and that I would not let my own children struggle like we did.  (Looking back, struggles are where we grow most and I should’ve let my kids struggle more at times! ????

This determination would stay with me through my entire life. In the face of people telling me what I couldn’t do, I went ahead and achieved my goals anyway, excelling first in banking (very much a “mans” world at the time).  I started at the retail loan level doing mostly 2^nd mortgages and then moved up until I was in charge of a series of Regional branches in Northern California and had responsibility for large commercial loans and the client relationships that went along with that.  I did that for 15 years.  When that bank was bought out I decided to take the experience I had handling large commercial clients where I had to learn their entire business process to assist them with the right kind of loan product into the high tech world working as a business analyst initially and as liaison between the business and system world.  Over time I handled more complex projected spanning the world and eventually earning the position of Head of Information Technology at ADAC Laboratories, a Medical Nuclear Equipment Manufacturing company and ultimately ending my career as Senior I.T. Director at Apple Computer.

I was always driven to find solutions where barriers were put before me.  After thirty years in the corporate world, I decided I wanted to go into business for myself.  I felt the Real Estate industry was a place I could earn as much or more than I had in High Tech while allowing me to take all my project management, negotiations skills and get back to serving people like I had in banking.  I had missed that personal touch being in high tech.  I also think God works in mysterious ways.  Real Estate allowed me to have a flexible schedule and more importantly I did not have to travel, something I did far too often in the high-tech world.

In 1991 I married Robert and we combined our families with a total of 7 children.  We then had our youngest daughter together and some years later adopted a preteen boy.  About 18 months after starting my Real Estate career, 9/11 happened and my husband felt an overwhelming need to serve his country again and was asked by an old commander to come initially to Georgia where the war planning was taking place and ultimately into the fight in Iraq and subsequently Afghanistan.  He was gone for most of the next 7 years.  Had I still been in the corporate world I would have had to quit my job putting our family in financial crisis.  One of us had to be home.  I had invested in income property over the year so was somewhat familiar with how Real Estate worked,   I had also negotiated commercial leases for both the Bank and different High Tech companies throughout those carriers, so had some basis of understanding both commercial and residential markets.  Real Estate allowed me to be set my schedule to be home each day after school with our younger children while my husband and 3 of our older sons were off serving our country.

During 2007 I decided to buy a little ranch in Granite Bay and move from San Jose.   We had already bought a 2^nd home in Incline Village, NV back in 1998, so we were now closer to that home too.   We have a cottage on the ranch we rent out to have help while we are in Nevada.  About 3 years ago we made Incline our permanent home and our ranch our 2^nd home in preparation for retirement.

I learned a lot in the last 20 years doing Real Estate and most importantly I learned that it’s not about sales, it’s about serving people, educating them on their options and helping them navigate various markets for their family or their investment future.   It has helped me feel connected to the community and has allowed the privilege of assisting many families in what often turned out to be more than just a real estate transaction.  I was honored to be let into some of your lives enough to share experiences that transcended just helping you buy or sell a home.  I am honored to continue to be of service in any way I can.  To that end I decided to get my Nevada Real Estate License in 2019 to assist past clients and new ones attain a 2^nd home around beautiful Lake Tahoe or simply invest and further commercial endeavors in Nevada.  Some to establish residency, some to remove themselves from the restrictive landlord rights being implemented in California.

I’m fortunate to be married to an amazing man who shares my values of serving others.  Robert and I had both been married previously—he had five sons and a beautiful daughter, while I had one young son. Together, we had another daughter, and adopted a son, completing our family of nine children. Robert and I have now been together over 30 wonderful years. Most of our children are married with children giving us over 23 grandchildren with 1 more on the way.  Six of our sons served in the military and two are still serving and one just retired this year after 26 years of service in Special Forces.   This year we had our first grandson enter the Army and is currently training in the medical core in Texas.  We are proud to see the family tradition continue!

Despite COVID19, we saw 2 of our boys get married in small but beautiful ceremonies.  Robert spends much of his time volunteering with various veteran organizations and finds that very fulfilling.  He also is part of a motorcycle “gang” (a bunch of retired military or law enforcement guys).  They volunteer for many community support functions as well.  With our combined life experiences, we make a great team both in life and in our passion to serve others.   Now we try to take time each week to be outdoors either riding horses, golfing, taking grandkids some place, hiking, boating or just enjoying a family BBQ.

I hope that gives you a little more insight into the Hipwell Family and who I am. I have felt honored to get a glimpse of so many of your lives I felt I owed you the same!