The Holiday Winds Down

I took some time off from this blog while family visited over the holiday and now it's time to exercise this brain again.

We were so fortunate to have our California family, Holly, Erich, Zoe, and Ezra visit us for 12 days!!! To prepare for their visit, we bought sleds, boots, and snow outfits in the hopes that we'd have a snowy Christmas. Our grandchildren had never seen snow! Who would have thought that Christmas in Colorado would come and go with no snow! The mountains had plenty but the foothills...nada!

So, we went TO the snow...took a nice drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park, a 45 minute drive from our house. We traveled down a small dirt road and found a nice area to try out the sleds. Zoe loved it but not Ezra; he preferred being carried rather than walk in the snow! But, he managed to ride on a sled a few times. I had to smile watching him...he reminded me of Ralphie's little brother in "A Christmas Story"...a little whining and walking with difficulty in a cumbersome snowsuit!

Yesterday, they left for home. And, as luck may have it, we all awoke to beautiful snowflakes and a carpet of new powdery snow! There was no way they were leaving for the airport before they could try out sledding in our back yard! As Holly packed their bags, Erich, Zoe, and Ezra took their turns on the sleds.

Yep, you may have guessed it...the first time down the hill with Ezra in the front of the sled and Ezra had had enough! Too much snow blowing in his face! He wanted to come inside! Not Zoe...she was too busy eating snow and making snow angels! And Erich, too, enjoyed watching the snowflakes fall...a new experience for him!

I'm really glad they were able to see a snowfall even if they did have to leave for the airport earlier than normal due to road conditions. It sure was a great time having them here and especially having Sara and Zach join us at the house here during the holiday!

Daughters and Grandkids

If you didn't get to follow my previous blog which chronicled some of the thoughts and considerations that went into our decision to choose Colorado as our retirement destination, I'll quickly re-cap. It all boiled down to getting closer to our daughters and grandchildren; this is the identical reason I've found almost every time I've asked a retired newcomer here what brought them to Colorado!

Our oldest daughter, Holly is in California with her husband, Erich and two grandchildren, Zoe and Ezra. She has been living in California for over 10 years now. Sara, our youngest daughter, chose to move to Colorado "on a whim" since she was looking for a change from back East. It was actually Mark who said, "Why not try the Denver area? You love the mountains"! That was almost 4 years ago and today, she and her new husband, Zach, are living just north of Denver.

So, a couple of years ago, we set out on a quest to find a reasonably priced and fairly comparable home that we had been accustomed to that would be suitable for retirement. Or, at the very least, just find the area we would be happy to spend the rest of our lives at. Having lived in California twice over the years, we knew we loved the state and with our grandchildren out there, we started looking in earnest at houses.

No, nothing came close to what we were looking for and for what we were willing to pay. Oh, we did find a couple of homes about 5 hours away from them and close to my brother, Tom and his family, but those offers didn't pan out. Call it karma or whatever, we figured that a move to California was not in our cards.

That's when we shifted focus to the Colorado housing market. After a couple of visits with Sara and Zach, we were hooked on the beauty of the mountains and the wide open spaces.

So, about two years prior to moving, we started de-cluttering and getting rid of clothes that hadn't been put on this body in years! We made the decision to try the housing market and put our house up for sale the same time we took a trip to Colorado to visit Sara and Zach. This was in February and to our surprise, our house sold immediately; thus we were off on a whirlwind tour of homes in Colorado. In April, we had a door-to-door move and here we are today.

Our move was a difficult decision because although we wanted to be closer to family, we were actually moving away from family, too, specifically my mother, sister, and one of my brothers and their families. We looked at all the factors and determined what was best for us as well as where we wanted to be at in our lives in the future.

Now that you see what brought us to the Rocky Mountain region, I thought I'd talk a bit about daughters and grandchildren, THE best things to ever happen to us! I cannot imagine life without them, they are my heart and soul. We really are blessed to have awesome daughters with fantastic husbands and a granddaughter and grandson so full of personality and love that smiles immediately come to our faces just thinking of them! And, in just 5 short months, we will welcome another granddaughter into this world, Sara and Zach's first child!

To get to this point in our lives, there were many challenges: military moves, deployments, finding the best child care arrangements, sports injuries, teenage moods and hormones, worries at every stage of their lives and at every new event like teaching our girls to drive a car and then giving them the keys. Yikes!

These memories are so vivid yet occurred a long time ago. When you are living the experiences and watching your children grow up, you don't often hear a parent say that they wished time would "slow down". No, too often we rush through our lives, dropping kids off at school, or practice, working late, running to the grocery store, doing errands, trying to get dinner on the table, and doing a million other things that we let time slip away without really pausing to appreciate the time we have with our family. Enjoy your children each and every moment...they grow up and move away all too soon.

We are thrilled to have shortened the distances to our daughters and their families. We hope our East coast family can join us as they can, whether it be for a short vacation or a permanent move someday.

So I'm Retired...Now What?

It's been almost 8 months since my husband, Mark and I moved to Fort Collins, Colorado after living in northern Virginia for 20 years and we haven't looked back once. It's the best decision we've made in a long time! We traded the rat race that comes with living in the Washington D.C. metro area, the general lack of customer service in area stores, and the "Gotta be first, Gotta be first" attitude exhibited by the majority of drivers on the highways and byways there for blue skies, friendly people, smiles and courtesies all around. Sometimes I think I'm dreaming because it seems too good to be true!

Oh there are plenty of good memories from our days in Virginia but with our daughters grown and living across the country, it was time to move on. It no longer made sense to live with the daily irritations if we didn't have to. So, now as we start to settle in as Coloradans, I want to share our experiences as we transition into a fulfilling retirement life. You'll see the mundane aspects of retirement and as well as the exciting changes, new activities, and personal thoughts.

For the first 4 1/2 months living here, I telecommuted and transitioned to part time for the company I worked for in Virginia. The company lost the re-compete on the new contract so along with me about 30 people lost their jobs. I was a little taken back by the abruptness of this action but in the long run it opened the door to many other opportunities for me to explore.

So the shock of no job had surpassed after a day or so. But, now what? At 57 years old did I really want to do the resume and interview processes one more time or was it time to just try something completely different? Realistically, I know my age isn't a plus to most employers despite all my experience. I'm fortunate to have a military retirement pension as income so perhaps by really focusing on a budget and leaving the credit cards at home, I just might be able to try something else, something completely different. Maybe volunteer for a good cause, start a new hobby or take-up an old one? After all, I'm still new to the area and haven't met a whole lot of people yet; I need to get involved. I need to do something that really interests me.

So, I thought about the things that make me happy. What do I enjoy doing or what have I enjoyed doing in the past? Guitar. I've played guitar off and on since 8th grade, mostly off for the past 25 years, and thought it might be nice to learn some new strumming and picking patterns. I did a search on Craigslist and found a great guitar teacher.

If guitar lessons weren't enough, I also went into a local music store and signed up for drum lessons! Yep, I've always wanted to try my hand at drumming! After a few lessons, I knew I had the timing and ability to play drums so I visited Craigslist again and found a used drum set and purchased it! Who knows, I may advertise someday on Craigslist to put together a "classic" rock band.

Photography is something else I've always enjoyed doing so with the beautiful scenery that surrounds this area I try to keep my camera with me most times. I found there is a creative photography center in Fort Collins that hosts classes on different topics so I may look into that later.

We are really lucky to have chosen this area to live in because there are quite a few things to do. From outdoor activities, hobbies, fairs, festivals, theater, music, restaurants, breweries, the list goes on and on. The local newspaper lists activities and events as well as volunteer opportunities everyday. There is also a newcomers club that we joined and can be a member for four years. There are so many ways to meet people and so many ways to become involved in the community! I'll keep you updated on my music progress and any other activities I pursue.

In my next post, I'll share my thoughts about family and the anticipation surrounding grandbaby #3!