Karen Lopez-Schreifels:
CLASS OF 1978
Casa Grande High SchoolClass of 1978
Petaluma, CA
Barbizon SchoolClass of 1980
San francisco, CA
Casa Grande High SchoolClass of 1978
Petaluma, CA
Karen's Story
Life
After I graduated I went to Santa Rosa Junior College for awhile, was a cheerleading coach for three years for my sisters pop-warner cheerleading group, then I received a job at Pacific Bell in San Francisco and attended Barbazon School of Modeling and Window Display. Because of the commute I quit Pacific Bell and had a few other different jobs in the retail arena while I continued my schooling at Barbazon. At one of my fashion shows I was asked to model for a few different department stores, such as Macy's, Nordstrom, etc. I did runway modeling for awhile along with volunteering my time with the Petaluma River Festival and a few other committees in town. Later on down the line I joined the Army and traveled pretty much with my job and my continuing schooling to receive an associates degree in administrative management. I later married and had my first daughter, Amanda. Well, sometimes, life goes in different directions, so I ended up divorcing and furthering my career in the military. I later met my current husband and had another daughter Caylin. So I now have two daughters, Amanda 17 and Caylin 11, they are the joy of my life, and yes so is my husband David. We have been stationed many places and have visited many places, but now we have settle down, after a few deployments and mobilizations, it was time to retire. I have retired from the military after 23 years. We have moved to Georgia and had our house built on some land. I am still with the civil service, but have not had any luck finding a position at the time. So between trying to be placed in a position, and being CEO of my household, my two girls, substituting for the school district, taking dance classes 4 times a week, belong to PTO, and Chair the Security & Safety committee for my homeowners association. So as you can see I am very busy, but I do find time to go and visit my best friend "Jennifer Marotsis" in Florida periodically or she comes up here. We will take in a concert, go antique shopping or to a nice restaurant for drinks and good food.My husband is a Master Sergeant in the Army and is also soon to retire here. My goal is to open an antique shop. Our lives are very full and we are very much enjoying our blessings!!!!
School
My biggest crush was, lets see, I had a lot, hmmmm. gosh the list could just go on and I just mentioned Casa Grande,ha!ha!ha! I haven't even started with Petaluma High, ha!ha! My most inspired teacher was Karen Vinton but then I also thought Mr Howard was very cool also. Yes, if I could do my school years over again, yes I would in some parts. If I wrote down my funniest, happiest and craziest memories, I think I would run out of space, I had a wonderful times with wonderful friends. I never just stayed in one click, I had many friends from all parts and would never trade any of them.
College
My college consisted of Santa Rosa Junior College and Barbazon Schooling, which I received an Associates in Business/Retail Management. My military schooling also with an Associates of Business Management/Administrative. Met many friends and learned quite a great deal. My military schooling was the best of all, I traveled alot for my schooling, very meaningful. All this education had done me well for promotions and will follow me and guide me through my journey of opening an antique shop.
Workplace
Yes, when I was younger I did flip burgers, worked at A&...Expand for more
W as a car hop when I was in high school, answered phones as a receptionist and the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce. I then moved on to Pacific Bell as a secretary, work for Beauty Store and More as and receptionist and then worked my way up to a Manager at the Corporate Office.Did run way modeling for quite few years, for different departmenat stores, Macy, Nordstrom,etc, made good money,but the partying, dinner and banquets were getting to crazy. Joined the military and went from a Private all the way to a Staff Sergeant and retired with 23 years under my belt. I have many military award for effort and excellent standing. I am still in the civil service working for the military. One year, I was chosen from over hundreds of civilian personnel in the northwestern states as "Civilian of the Year", I received an award and they had an dinner in my honor.I now can run companies and manage over hundreds of employees to soon owning and running my own antique shop. So yeah, I guess you could say I progressed.
Military
This will take some time to write this, so I will be adding to this at times. Joined the military, the Army in March 1983, went to boot camp and my trade for 12 weeks in South Carolina. Back then they could swear at you, push you around and pretty much make you cry or feel like crap. What really upset the drills, they tried to make me cry but I never gave them the satisfaction..... When I graduated from the military I lived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina right on the coast for about a year. I worked in a boutique and cocktailed at night and did my military duty. Over the years I have been stationed at many different states and units. I have met many soldiers and have to this day a hand full of very close buddies. I do have one that I am still good friends with who I met in basic back in 1983, we still keep in touch and every 5 years with a few other close girlfriends, we meet somewhere for 5 days and party and enjoy life together to catch up. I have received over 25 different award/medals for my efforts and have attended many schools of training for them also. For years I worked for the military police running units of hundreds of soldiers, my additionl duty was planning military balls, dinners etc. Alot of blood, sweat and tears, but worth the effort and would do it all over again if I had to. I was deployed twice, which was very hard one of the times I had to leave my two girls and husband behind for one full year. I think that was the hardest thing that I every had to go. My career consists of running units of soldiers, anywhere from 300-400 hundred soldiers at a time. I am responsible for thier well-being, in every aspect, career progression, retirement, finance, you name it I take care of thier problems and needs. After doing all this for 23 years, I finally decided to retire, I did not want to leave my girls again. I wanted to be around to see them grow and enjoy life with them. I am still currently part of the civil service which is a civilian part of the military I did 14 years with them also. So now I am enjoying life as a civilian, trying to find a position since moving to Georgia. Once my girls are in college, I can then start on my business, opening up an antique shop, which I will rent space for others, sell my crafts etc., and my older daughters paintings, and adding on a cafe corner. We will see how this all pans out.....
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