Friday, July 26, 2013

Road Trip

I'm packing my bags and driving to Cincinnati tomorrow morning.  I still do not have m y car back, so I rented one so I could get out of town and see the babies.  I am bringing my two nine year old granddaughters, Sara and Abbey, with me.  We'll probably stay until Wednesday.  I can't wait to see Stephanie and Julia (and Chellie and John, too!


Wayne redid the wall around the new steps.

They put up the gutters and facia and the ceiling of the porch.
Our house is coming along nicely.  They are going to knock the walls out between the front hall and out new bedroom and in the kitchen.  We had to get everything out of the kitchen before I leave.  That was a job.  They did a lot of taping and putting the molding up this week, and we went and picked out the counters for the kitchen and top for the bathroom vanity.  I hope everything comes together the way I picture it.

My old assistant from work called today and told me she had met with the dean.  Her last day is next Friday, so she wanted to ask him who will take over and do the training and the start of the semester.  He told her he is going to call me and ask me to come back part time.  There is a rule with our retirement system that you cannot work for thirty days after you retire, volunteer or for pay.  I know Wayne doesn't want me to do it, but I'm kind of going crazy around here with no car and workers in our house all day, so if he calls I'll do it.  My job has been advertised, but the closing date is the end of July and the start date is the middle of October.  Kind of stupid, but that's how they do things there.  I am missing the people and have been worrying about who was going to train the leaders.

I better go pack for my trip.  Pictures to follow.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Ordinary Days


This is my third week of retirement, and I can't think of much that I did.  I haven't had a car since the day before I retired.  There's a leak in the fuel line and it could take up to four months to get a new one.  Husband is sharing his car with me, but it's kind of like I'm in prison, not being able to take off whenever I want to.

Our house addition is really moving along.  Earlier this week we had like six trucks out in front, delivering dry wall, the plumber, the HVAC guy, the concrete truck pouring the sidewalk, then the two regular builders.   I was watching two granddaughters, so we took off and went shopping and out to lunch.  I watched my other three in-town grandkids Monday; I'm glad I can help the kids out but it is a bit confusing around here.







I'm renting a car next week and taking a road trip to Cincinnati.  Even if my car was running I would not take it on a road trip.  It's ten years old and like a big boat, and gets terrible gas mileage.  I'm bringing two granddaughters with me,  Sara and Abbey.  They are both nine and want to see the new baby.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Retired 1 Week

Well I've been retired one week and it still doesn't seem real.  I wake up every morning thinking I need to hurry up and get ready for work, then realize I don't work any more.  My days are mine.  It's pretty nice.  A couple of friends from work took my out to eat to celebrate my retirement, and they gave me the neatest gift.  It's a collapsible basket for working in the yard, and they had a rope with all kinds of gardening things attached with clothes pins.  There were packs of seeds, gardening gloves, ties for tying flowers up, gardening spikes, and lots of little things I would not have bought myself.  I always give a clothesline of baby clothes at showers, so they took my idea and made a line of gardening supplies.

We had a pleasant fourth of July.  I know I mentioned last year that our neighbors get together all day long on the fourth.  We just participated in the breakfast and dinner, and a few of our grand kids perform in the talent show at night.  It was kind of funny because there were lots of new, young people who have moved in down the street in the past couple of years, so we were one of the oldest couples there.  It was good meeting new neighbors.  When we told them who were were and where we live, they all started calling us the porch people, because of our addition.  Most didn't realize it was a whole addition; they thought we were just adding a porch.  They said we need to have an open house when it is completed.  We'll see.

I've been trying to work in the yard, transplanting flowers, but it has been so hot and humid here.  I usually work outside for about 45 minutes then come inside.  When I get overheated my blood pressure drops really low and I get nauseated, so I've figured my limit is 45 minutes.  Oure driveway flower bed is getting overgrown with tiger lilies, so I'm digging those up and throwing them away.  They're like weeds around here.  I still have flowers left from the church garden, where our addition is being built, so I'm transferring them.  Lots of my perenials needed to be thinned out, too, so I'm doing that as well.  Lots of my perennials needed to be thinned out, too, so I'm doing that as well.

Monday, July 1, 2013

M.I.A.

I guess I've been M.I.A. for a couple of weeks.  As of today, July 1, I am officially retired.  What a lot of paper work and hassle.  Hopefully, my pension is settled.  I've been working with a guy for a year, who is with the Missouri Public School Retirement System, and as of Friday I still did not have my annuity rolled over into my pension.  I was also trying to get all of my prescriptions refilled before the end of the month, since it may take a little while to get covered on RW's insurance.

So, now that I'm retired I have no excuse to not blog. Today was my first whole day off.  I think I answered the phone ten times between 10 and 11.  Then I went to the cabinet place where we are getting our new cabinets and signed the contract and gave them a deposit.  We decided on white cabinets from the start, but all of the sudden I want pale yellow.  I asked the cabinet man if it was too late, and he said no I could still change.  RW wasn't too wild about my idea, but he said I could do it if I really wanted to.

Speaking of the kitchen, our addition is really moving along.  They put in the windows last week and put the roof on.  The electrician put in the wires and boxes, and the plumber put in pipes.  Our contractor is out of town this week, but he called three times this morning and the plumber and dry wall guy still came.  I'm hoping it is finished by the end of August.  I'll take some pictures and post them this week.

My car broke down.  I thought I was smelling gas for about a week, and finally took it in to get looked at.  The guy called and said there is a break in the fuel line and it is leaking gas.  He said I was lucky it did not catch on fire.  He called Chrysler and they do not have the replacement part, and he didn't expect to be able to find one before the fourth.  So, here I am retired with no wheels.  Luckily, RW's brother called Saturday morning and offered to take him to breakfast (he meets his old Ironworker buddies every Sat. morning) so I could go to garage sales.  I only went to a couple but found what I had been looking for, a king size down comforter.  It was brand new, still in the bag, for $20.  I bought a duvet cover on line a few weeks ago and had been looking for the duvet itself, so I was thrilled.  I also got some cute decorative pieces there and a few toys, and a few Sterilite containers.