Well, Now that we're Here - Where Exactly ARE We?

 

This blog has had quite a rest since my previous post back in 2019. Not going to even attempt to "catch you up" dear readers... Instead, I will start with observations from this side of the the Working vs. Retirement fence.

We will mark our first 5 years of retirement in just a couple months on June 21st, and while it has largely been a very positive experience, there have been some surprises along the way. Here are a few discoveries we've made along the way; 

1.  Age is relative when it comes to friendships. We have made many new friends in our new community in our first years as retirees. Some are our age, but many are much older or much younger than we are. While that made logical sense in our working lives, it has been almost surprising in our new post-working life. We have found many vibrant new friends who are further into their "golden years" than we are. This has been fun and a good thing. It's only tricky when it comes to finding doctors. We generally want doctors who are younger than we are... a good deal younger if possible. 
2. Unlimited free time isn't all it's cracked up to be. Maybe this one is a hazard particularly for former teachers who spent most of their working lives with very little discretionary time during the work day. In my first year of retirement, I promised myself 6 months before I made any long term commitments. I was tired, SO very tired. I wanted to read, relax, and do just about nothing. That lasted a very short time. We moved just a few weeks after our official retirement because our home in Missouri sold so quickly (less than two weeks!). This meant all the fix-ups we wanted to do on our new residence in Michigan had to be done after we moved in instead of before we made our move. We got tons of stuff accomplished and added a full guest suite to our lower level. It kept us hopping from late June until mid October when we finally declared we were finished. THEN when we stopped, we were suddenly "bored". How could that be?? We decided it was a result of not knowing how to pace ourselves, but boredom does indeed lurk in the retirement world. The solution? Commitments! 
3. Doing for others with others makes for a great life. Enter the time of "joining" things again. Church, Lions Club, Community Theater, Library Trustees, Soccer Coaching, Set building, Choir, Book Club, Fellowship groups... we got busy again. Our kids tell us we're busier now than when we were working. I don't think it is quite true, but we have found ways to fill our days. When we recently celebrated our 50th we decided to (in Ed's words) "pitch a big one" and invited all our new friends to share an evening of food and dancing with us. We quickly discovered we had nearly 90 folks to invite and 86 of them were able to come! That felt amazingly good. We may have to do it again every five years or so. Partying with the new friends you've made is amaziing. Your friends seem to inter-connect in the most surprising ways. Our church, theater, Lions, and neighborhood pals are amazing and so fun to be around! And we loved having our kids get to meet them all!
4. You visit the doctor more than you ever imagined you would. The only negative thing so far in retirement is how much harder you have to work to remain healthy. I used to see a doctor only once or twice in an entire year. Now it has become a monthly or bimonthly visit to one of several medical folks who keep Ed and I doing well. You have primary care, eye care, dental care, skin care, cardiology care, oncology care (Ed, not me and doing fine), sleep doctor care, knee doctor, physical therapists, etc etc. All these folks are wonderful, and we appreciate them greatly. However, they fill up more space in our calendar than we ever expected they would! Getting older is not for the faint of heart in terms of health. 

That's where I will stop for today.... and hopefully, I will be back before 6 more years have scampered by.

Staude's out!

Fun with Friends Who will Work for Wine!

Spent a delight weekend just past with good friends from Ft. Wayne. We were together earlier this summer in Indiana to celebrate their daughter's wedding and decided we had to get together again before the summer was over. That weekend coincided with the bottling of our 2008 Seyval out at Rolling Meadows! We spent the day filling, corking, labeling and sealing the new vintage into its bottles and then we had a really nice lunch provided by Gret and Leon who came out to the vineyard to enjoy the afternoon. Two customers made the day an all around success! This new wine is a winner... but sharing it with old friends made it even better!

June Brides & Old Friends

Mr. & Mrs. Alex Yoder... much happiness and God's blessings on your life together!

We had the honor and joy this past weekend to travel to Ft. Wayne, Indiana for a celebration of the wedding of the youngest daughter of our longtime friends, Cindy & Greg Tieman. Their daughter Lindsey became Mrs. Alex Yoder in a loving early evening ceremony. We also got to see the grandkids and other family members of Cindy & Greg which made this as much a reunion as a wedding for us! It was a great weekend... and I just had to post the cute shots of the couple, two of their grandkids, and our best buddies in the Hoosier State, Cindy & Greg. Much happiness to everyone!

Seth Tieman, Grandson of Cindy & Greg, in his ring bearer outfit!

Granddaughter Brianna served as the cutest flower girl (and princess).
She spent a lot of her time twirling in this pretty dress!

Mother and Father of the Bride, Cindy & Greg Tieman,
good friends and officially empty nesters!

Turkey for me, Turkey for you!

Ahh... Thanksgiving! My favorite early winter holiday! And this year was no exception.

Early morning was spent watching the St. Louis Thanksgiving Day Parade downtown. The weather was perfect and it seemed that everyone along Market St. was in high spirits. The funniest thing was when Ash saw his first giant balloon. He backed up about a foot and hid a bit behind his mom. Once reassured that it was just a balloon, he quickly recovered by saying, "Can we get one?"

Next, we spent a wonderful afternoon with family and friends. We all gathered at Gretchen and Leon's around noon and took our time finishing the meal preparations. Dinner was a little after 3... Doug, Carol, and Jesse Gaunt were there, and all the Harrmanns! So altogether there were 13 of us. The menu was huge and stunningly delicious... Turkey, Lamb, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cheesy brussel sprouts, gravy, herb-cheddar biscuits, cranberry salad, regular rolls, pumpkin pie, and chocolate pecan pie. WOW! Every cook involved brought out their finest skills! It was great!

Fireside Chats

This isn't exactly what Carol's stove looks like, but the hearth area is
similar. (sans the bear rug on the floor! yikes!) Next time I go, I'll take a camera!

I spent a happy 2 hours tonight with my best friend Carol Gaunt. Now Carol has a woodburning fireplace sort of stove in her family room. It is possibly one of the coziest places on the planet. I sat there toasting my toes and talking with her while rocking in a comfy rocking chair near to the hearth. As I got home later and reflected on my evening, it made me smile. You see, Carol is only just lighting her fireplace this year! It's been in her house since she moved into it almost 6 years ago, but until this year she didn't light her fireplace. Two winters ago we had a big ice storm. And it's taken that long for Carol to get the chimney checked and everything she felt needed to be done in order to eventually use her stove just in case there's another ice storm in the future.

Tonight, as we sat there talking and toasting, we laughed about all the things we each have on our personal "to-do" lists that seem to only get longer with each passing season. But just for tonight, we enjoyed the fact that Carol & Doug have checked the one called "get fireplace working" off their list! It is a great place to sit and I plan to do it repeatedly this winter! So here's to friends with cozy hearths! May the logs burn bright and conversation never run out!

Wedding Bells and Photo Fun!

This weekend I had the honor to shoot photos for a wedding of two of our former students. Josh and Amy became husband and wife, and it was a perfect day and a lovely wedding! We had such a good time, even while dashing about capturing all the pretty moments we could. Here are a few of my shots... the rest will have to wait until after the happy couple and their parents get to see them. I love taking pictures of happy occasions!























One of the bridal portraits of Amy.























What's a wedding without bubbles?























The happy couple... Josh & Amy!























Off they go, hand in hand!

The true things... or "Tag, I'm it"

I was tagged the other day by a good friend whose blog I regularly read and challenged to post Seven True Things about myself. Interesting.... well, at least hers were interesting... and she "tagged" me to go and do likewise. So here goes:

1. I have never walked past a bookstore without at least dipping a toe into the place for a few minutes and browsing. Is there a technical word for a "book addict?"

2. I have an insatiable fondness for noodles and butter... specifically Creamettes brand elbow mac and Land O' Lakes butter.

3. I am deathly afraid of open high spaces... which makes the idea of flying on a dragon with Dawn G. a bit impossible for me. (unless when the magical dragon arrives my fear also magically goes away.)

4. I have a soft spot for animals... which is how I came to have 2 cockatiels of which neither my husband nor I are excessively fond, but in a moment of weakness..... well, let's just say they live a LONG time.

5. I plan to put a stamp in my passport at least once a year from my 50th year until I can no longer hobble onto an airplane. (I really love flying... planes are ENCLOSED heights!- see?)

6. I deeply admire the women my daughters have become.

7. If I could do one thing for an entire week it would be KNITTING! Ahhhh... that would be grand!


Next, I TAG Katrina and Gretchen.... Time to post your seven true things! I'd tag my best buddy Carol... but she only READS blogs and doesn't write one!

Labor Day - Relaxing with Friends

I absolutely LOVE Labor Day weekend! It's right up there with the 4th of July! You don't shop, send cards, or feel frantic... you just relax, kick back, and "honor the American Laborer"! Hey that's us... we labor! We teach the laborers of the future too! So this Labor Day weekend we started by having dinner with our friends out at the vineyard. We drank wine and ate bruschetta till we thought we'd burst. Then we ate pasta, grilled Italian sausages, and salad... and of course, drank some more wine. Then we cued up the deer to romp in the meadow and it was a perfect evening! You gotta love Labor Day!

Everyone took a walk near sunset.


Isaiah is the cutest!


A classic Gaunt grin!


Just as we told about our deer herd... on cue, enter stage left... one deer!


Then when we had a good fifteen minutes to watch her, she decided to romp away.

Special Friends and Old Times

Had a chance on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to reconnect with some friends we don't get to see very often. The Mahnkens of Iowa were passing through St. Chuck on their way home from a family trip. Chris and I were roomies way back in the early 70's at Seward. Her youngest daughter is our godchild and we usually only see one another once a year. So it was fun to relax, talk into the wee hours of the evening and just plain catch up on all that's been going on for us. It's not often you have someone in your life who knew you back in high school... yes, Chris and I really go all the way back to Lutheran High West in Detroit... class of '73.... yikes! That's only 34 years ago now!!!! Okay... I am stopping while I still feel young enough to write this.
Mahnken family: (l-r) Chris & Merle, Sarah & Hannah


Chris and I - I don't think we've changed TOO much!!!


The girls... Sarah on the left (going to be a Junior this year) and Hannah, headed for the 8th grade!

All Grown Up

Just last weekend we had the final play of the season... "You Can't Take It With You" was a huge success. Gretchen directed it and Jesse was a major role in the cast. Hard to believe that just 10 years ago he was the little ring bearer in her wedding! He's graduating in about 2 weeks here... and we are all VERY proud of him. So this blog is for Jesse.. the little boy who grew up and who we know will do great things someday!