Retirement: It's What's Happening!

I know that I am behind in my blogging due to a very busy day yesterday, but what a nice day it was, at least for the most part! The county's school district office, from which I am retired, always hosts for its employees a Thanksgiving luncheon at an excellent restaurant. The even more wonderful part is that they always invite the retirees from the office! I retired from there in 1999 and have enjoyed this tradition for 22 years now. With a new superintendent, I was afraid that this would be one tradition she would forego; however, with some convincing from other co-workers, the tradition is being continued. Eleven of us retirees attended and we were given the opportunity to speak briefly (impromptu!): we were asked to tell what our job here entailed, how long we worked here, other places we had worked, and what we had been doing since retirement. In case you are interested in my past, these were my paraphrased words plus more: "I began my teaching career in this county as a sixth grade teacher for 5 years, became a language arts consultant for an additional 2 years and started working on my Ed.D in UNC-Chapel Hill before marrying a military man and leaving the state and country. I taught 6 years with the Panama Canal Company before returning to the 'land of the big PX'. I worked on my Ed.D while in Panama through Penn State University and after moving to Oklahoma, I was able to finish my doctorate at the University of Oklahoma (yea, Boomer Sooners!). Following my husband's retirement from the Air Force, I was hired as Associate Professor and Director of Teacher Education at a college where Don was also hired as an Assistant Professor of Business. We remained there for 7 years prior to my being hired as Associate Superintendent in this county where I finally retired, but continued to help them out on a part-time basis for an additional one and one-half years. Since 2000, Don and I have been traveling in our 38' motorcoach (in which I do most of the driving), t0 Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, all 48 states, and twice to Alaska and mid- and western Canada. (We also spent 2 weeks in Hawaii) For the past 7 years, we have enjoyed spending about 2 months in southwest Florida during the winter months. Since retiring, we have also gained 2 wonderful little grandchildren, camped across country with my brother and sister-in-law to CA to visit our son and his family, and just enjoyed being with our family and friends."
With the exception of losing my wonderful mom, my brother's and my recent heart problems, and my brother-in-law's sickness, we have enjoyed our retirement, and we look forward to enjoying many more of our retired years together...!!