El Presidente

Hey Y'all! I'm Kevinnie Dreher, queen bee, el presidente, bat shit crazy nurse, whatever you want to call me. Best way to explain myself is a shit show circus full of odd jobs and crazy hormones trying to create some good in the world. The two jobs that I hope I am best at are wife to Billy and mama to William aka Liam (6) and twins, Addison and Harper (4). Since I have some time on my hands (you'll get that joke after you read this), I'll write a long version "about me" post. To start, I'm an only child (trust me it matters). If I preface people with this, they are often more understanding of my behavior. Things are usually a struggle if they are not my way, but I should also say that this behavior is beneficial in my job. I am a registered nurse pursing a doctorate in nursing so in just one year I will be able to practice as a nurse practitioner. So on top of working 120+ hours a pay period as a nurse, full time student with clinicals, being mama, being wife, I LIVE for a social life.  I am a Louisiana girl born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana, home of the famous Tobasco sauce. I am a Ragin' Cajun in every sense of the matter except, I went to LSU. So I guess you could say I'm a real life cajun girl. I am a sports enthusiast, dress loving (gives all the stuff room to breathe), beach loving, barefoot cook who loves handy man jobs and can change my own transmission and oil. Most importantly, I love those LSU tigers!!! A graduate of a catholic school and daughter of extremely strict parents, I'd say I was naive to what the world had to offer and really didn't know what I wanted out of life at the age of 17. In my freshman year of college when I was struggling with what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be (college basketball didn't work out for me), I met the love of my life, Billy, a former professional basketball player who shared my same interests, was so very easy to get along with, let me do ALL of the talking, and didn't look bad either ;). Our life journey set off moving to Lake Charles for Billy's job after we got married, I was just finishing school and still didn't know what I wanted to do (original plan was medical school). I took a minute to write a book *cue shameless plug* "High Sock Society" for my teen friends. Writing became an awesome outlet for me as my new husband and I began to speak of our new future. Creating characters and different paths in life for them encouraged me to explore different thoughts and viewpoints of other people. We met some of our very best friends in Lake Chuck and continue to nourish those relationships from far. More on Lake Charles to come, I promise. From Lake Charles, we moved to Billy's hometown of Fruita, CO and long story short it didn't work out and seven years later we were looking to move back to the South. This lands us here in Mandeville. I don't ever see myself leaving, the perfect distance from New Orleans with the perfect amount of family activities here, who would want to leave? Anyways, my love for wine began when I was in Colorado. Just north of the town I live in was a small wine country, Palisade, Colorado. I had begun to make friends with the wives of Billy's high school buddies and they liked to drink which made this Louisiana girl feel right at home. I shamelessly tried almost every winery and jumped on every wine tour. A self proclaimed wineaux and foodie, I opened a storefront business, Corks & Cookin'. I taught Cajun cooking classes along with wine pairing. If you're going to teach wine pairing, you should probably educate yourself right? So I began partnering with local wineries and using their wines during my classes. As I attended farm to table dinners, tastings, and became a Colorado Wine Fest regular, this heart of mine grew for all things wine. As I began to meet people, I noticed that several of my friends were in different wine clubs and I wanted in only to find out that it was exclusive and there were no spots open for me :(. Then my time came, a woman in wine club was moving to Denver and her spot would be open. First wine club I attended, I fell in love with the comradery and sense of sisterhood and found my very favorite wine, Roscato, a delicately sweet, gently fizzy red from Northern Italy. In August of 2017, I divorced my wine friends and we moved to the Lake Ponchatrain Northshore. I looked for something that resembled the wine club that I adored so much. After some encouragement from my new buddies, I decided to start my own with my Kevinnie twist and no one would have to work as hard as I did to become a part of this group. The more the merrier. Within twenty-four hours of a Facebook post about creating a wine club, over 250 local women messaged me about joining. Hence, The Winewives was born. I wanted to create a brand where women could network and support each other with the common love for wine as well as contribute in a positive way to our community through service and outreach projects. Although this is not my full time job, I love it wholeheartedly. It is my baby and I cannot wait to watch it grow and experience all of the fun things that I have planned for it and for you. I have assembled this awesome team of women who keep me sane, support me at every mishap, and slap me when I'm being unreasonable. My husband calls me "El Presidente" of wine club. *cue eye roll* I run a podcast with my friend, Jenn, who is my biggest cheerleader (after my mama). We drink, vent, laugh, and cry on our podcast, Sipsy & Tipsy. Although it took me longer than planned to figure out my purpose in life (still a work in progress), I feel like it is to create a platform where women can be empowered, connect, and support one another no matter their background, ethnicity, or just their current situation. Everyone deserves a chance to be great and if we don't encourage those who have fallen down, think of all of the creativity and greatness that we are missing out on. Let's take over the world together! It is filled with opportunity for us all to be awesome. Be kind to one another - Ellen   Cheers! xoxo-Kev
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