I thought since it has been a couple of years since I have posted here that I would try to catch up a little with what has been going on with us, just for my own benefit, if nothing else.
Mike and I spent over two years taking care of his elderly mother and father. His mother had multiple health problems including a fist sized open wound clear to the bone on her hip that would not heal. It was very difficult to take care of and required numerous trips to Tulsa to the doctor, weeks in the hospital and finally the nursing home, where she passed away. Mike's father had Parkinson's Disease and died a horrible death because of it. Both of us were emotionally traumatized, as was Mike's brother. I took a leave of absence from work and spent my nights at their house (and most of my days) because Mike's father wandered all night long (typical for Parkinson's) and fell many, many times, many times requiring a trip to the hospital. When we could no longer take care of him ourselves, he had to go to a nursing home, too. At one point we had his father in St. John's hospital in Tulsa and his mother was in OSU Medical Center in Tulsa at the same time, for weeks at a time and we didn't know who was going to die first. Mike said it was the worst two years of his life. We had to arrange two funerals, clean out the house, which was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do (both physically and otherwise), hold an estate sale (ditto) and sell the house, which thank you Jesus, sold in one day. It was a hard time but we did the best we could for them.
After living here for 25 years we finally got the bathroom remodel done. It started falling apart soon after we moved in and we have been living with it in deplorable condition for most of that time. It required a complete gut job down to the studs and we spent thousands on plumbers because of water leaks that were discovered, repair of the water damage and treatment for the termites who loved the water, to say nothing of replacing most of the wood. The 'four week' job ended up taking almost three months to complete. We took our bathtub out and installed a large shower, looking ahead to our old age and learning from Mike's parent's difficulties concerning bathing. Our daughter said that it would make the house more difficult to sell, once we were gone but Mike told her that that would be her problem, not ours. A little harsh maybe but we feel we did the right thing.
Mike retired January 31, 2013 after spending 42 years at the same company. In March we went on our first cruise with a van full of our friends and had a wonderful time. I continued to work a little but am now officially retired. I won't lie, we were so thrilled, we could hardly wait to retire, only to find that it was a huge adjustment that neither of us was prepared for. But for the most part we have had a lot of fun and are still trying to figure out how to 'be'.
I let my hair grow long when I was taking care of Mike's parents because I did not have time to fix it... ever. And I found that it was so much easier to get up in the morning, pull it back in a pony tail and be on my way. I've taken to getting pedicures, something I had never done before and enjoy it a lot.
Just before Mike retired we bought a new Ford Edge and a few weeks ago we bought a pontoon boat. Mike said he doesn't even have a job and he's never been so far in debt in his whole life. We have enjoyed having the boat and look forward to spending more time on the water.
In the meantime our grandkids grew up on us. Jacob will be 17 in a couple of weeks and Jesse is 18 and headed to college Saturday. How can that even be possible. Mike and I find that we don't really 'fit in' anywhere because all of our friends still have little kids at home or little grandkids about all the time and we are very much alone. It's awkward. And sometimes lonely. Our daughters are doing beautifully and we are proud of them.
Mike and I like to go to the movies and learned that going during the week in the afternoon is a lot cheaper. We are sure to tell the restaurant that we are now Seniors and would appreciate our discount. We go on day trips quite often and love our schnauzer, Boomer and our cat, King Louie.
That might not be a nutshell but it's the best I can do at 3:30 in the morning. I'm finally getting the hang of this again.
Peace out and God bless!
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