Back from Alaska and Canada!

We had a wonderful time in Alaska and Canada on our cruise of the inside passage on Norweigan Cruise Line...there were a few glitches that detracted from our experience but all in all it was a wonderful trip for our 26th anniversary. Woody went on the longest zip line in North America, I took so many pictures of eagles, we ate tons of salmon, and then the whale watching excursion in Prince Rupert, Canada was the best. Pictures are on facebook!

We're trying to get the yard "laid by" for the winter and for our possible trip to Hawaii...we're waiting to hear if I'll be working in Hawaii for a while this fall and winter...tough job but someone has to do it. This part time, occasional work is wonderful. I could never go back to full time!!

We're still trying to sell the house by owner but so far no luck. We talked to three real estate agents but all wanted us to drop the price way below what we wanted to do...we don't have to sell it but we really want to move closer to Savannah! On the 18th, Miss Savannah Elizabeth Ledwell was baptized at St. Edward's Catholic Church...it was a wonderful time with Father Breen. She is the love of our life and we are having a blast especially when she spends the night.

Not sure what to share with you other than life is good.

End of the Summer!

I can not believe it is already the end of the summer!!! We leave on Thursday for a trip to Seattle and then hop the Norweigan Star for our Alaska Cruise. We just love Noweigan Cruise Line! Casual, casual, casual...jeans all the way. I dressed up too many years while working...jeans are my new uniform. Thank heaven for wonderful house and pet sitters! I'm so ready for cooler climes! Even if they are rainy.

We're leaving in just a bit to pick up Savannah for an overnight with Mimi and Grandad. She is such a treat. Libby did say they she slept all night the last few nights so it will be fun to see what she does for us. It has been such a blessing to be able to see her so much this summer. Now that Lib is back to work, we still are averaging once or twice a week. If this dratted house would sell we could be closer and then it wouldn't be so hard.

I am thinking about changing the scope of my blog as Ready for Retirement www.readyretirement.net has about lived it's life...I'm full blown in retirement. So I'm thinking about how to provide tips for survival within retirement. What do you think? All these other people are making tons of money on blogs...not me! I'm going to "study" on that for a while as my granny would say!

Woody is still under the weather but not contagious so hopefully we'll head off to Alaska healthy. We'll send pictures!!

Wonderful fun times with granddaughter!

I just love having one of my grandchildren close enough I can see her every week! It would be fabulous if all of my grands were so close. The best part of retirement may be playing with the grands...but I am starting to get a bit discombobulated again! That seems to be my favorite word the last few months.

My friend Jane and I were talking last week about our lives...we both decided that we missed the work world but weren't sure if we wanted to go back or were just at another crossroads in our retirement journey. Not sure what all this means...for me, it may just be that our consulting this summer has been slow...if it picks up again, I'll probably be fine! I am still writing and editing, but that's really not the same. I miss the challenge of work, but not work if that makes any sense.

Saturday night Lou and Cindy and Woody and I went to Roller Derby...yes...drag out your old memories...that Roller Derby!! Apparently Nashville has a Roller Girls All Star team that competes flat track! Last night we played Ft. Wayne and won! As we were leaving the game (?), we drove by the weekend art gallery crawl downtown...hmmm...art gallery vs. roller derby...no contest for the crazy retired ones.

Can you believe our daughter turns 34 on the 16th? Let's see, my sister is 29 which makes me 43 since I'm 14 years older than Dana. How can a 43 year old have a 34 year old...the math is beginning to get complicated and it's all Dana's fault!

Still hot...house still on market with plans to move to Del Webb...although it is cooler in Destin this summer than here....if it weren't for Miss S, I might be moving to Destin instead of Mt. Juliet! But there is hope...football started today which must mean that cool weather is coming soon! and we're going to Alaska since I can't stand the heat anymore! Talk to you soon!

July is too darn hot!!

In case you haven't noticed, I've not been good about keeping things up to date on our blog. With a little work, a lot of play, facebook, and other stuff...I've just been so busy.

This month we've celebrated Eddie's 50th birthday in Jackson with a surprise funeral for his youth hosted by the drama queen, Dana! We had a blast seeing lots of old friends and my guidance counselor from high school who started my healthcare career...Miss Frances Crossen. When I was a senior at Jackson High School, my mom and dad wanted me to stay home, go to Union and marry a nice boy from Jackson...this was 1967 you know. I went in to Miss C's office and asked her where could I go without any money in case my parents wouldn't pay? While I had a tennis scholarship, it didn't cover everything and it was at a frou frou private school...couldn't even afford the clothes! So Miss C came up with Baptist School of Nursing, now Baptist College for the Health Sciences. That started me down the road to where I am today! So thanks Miss C and it was great to see you. On the way home from Jackson we took a 150 mile detour to Harrah's in Metropolis, IL for lunch...well and to gamble a bit!

Then off to NC to see the grands. We had an absolute ball this trip! Seeing Riley and Will was divine. We did split up the kids a bit with the boys going to the NASCAR museum and go kart racing and the girls going shopping and then spending extra time at the barn doing a photo shoot for Miss Riley and Jennifer! Then the grands took their old grandparents to see our first REAL 3-D movie, Despicable Me. It was fabulous. The fun really started when we got sort of lost on the way home! I-40 west from Asheville is finally open but down to one lane resulting in hours of delays...so we scooted off I-40 and took a short cut through Cherokee, NC. Oh, did I say we had lunch at Harrah's...and did a little gambling of course. Still lost but it took longer! On the way out of Cherokee, we bypassed Gatlinburg and then went to Pigeon Forge where the adventure begins. Following maps, no we don't have a GPS, we meandered around for a while until eventually getting home about 9:30PM after leaving NC at 8:30A Eastern time! Told you it took a while longer to lose in the casino!

Tonight it's off to Donna's for our July birthday dinner! Our dinner club celebrates 4 birthdays a year at least! Sometimes we even celebrate the boys. As I sit here watching the Food Network, I'm planning my appetizer to take tonight...Cajun Crab dip from Publix with wheat thins...by request! Why do I watch the Food Network?

So July has been fun...hot, but fun! From yesterday it sounds like I'll be working more in August.

This is not working for me!

This is absolutely why I've been neglecting you! Woody and I have had the most wonderful time with our new baby Savannah Elizabeth! If we aren't playing with her, we're thinking about her and missing her! Consequently, we're not updating the blog or we're over on facebook. This is Savannah's first pool party...she's 8 weeks old and already in the pool...the screaming is because we told her she had to get out and eat and take a nap. That sounds so familiar with all our kids. Her daddy and granddaddy had a good time passing her around. Libby and I also had our time, but if you think I'm going to put a picture of either of us in a bathing suit...you are really out of your mind.

My friend Janet said when Libby had a baby that I would just go ga ga...she was so right. Between Riley and Savannah my life is complete...the boys are wonderful too, but two little girls are too much to believe. I can shop and do pedicures and have lots of fun stuff.

We have decided to put our house on the market and try to sell it to move closer to Libby and Led, and oh of course, Savannah! We've found just the thing at the Del Webb property at Providence. I don't have a clue how long it will take to sell this wonderful home we have now, but the area we want to move in to probably won't be available til next summer anyway.

I'm working some for Marsha and The Oncology Group this week and next. It's always fun but this time we're not working together. I'm going to miss having her with me. It's been a long time since I've had to travel alone. I think I remember how!

Hope you're having a wonderful summer..it's already moving way too fast for us. We're still trying to find somewhere to go on vacation! Any suggestions? We thought about Michigan or Las Vegas or another cruise. About the time we think we have it figured out, something moves on the calendar and we have to start over.

I'm so sorry!

I have just been so busy with my baby Savannah that I have not been able to keep up with our blog! We just love being with her...she's been to the mall and out to lunch with us several times already. She is going to love to shop...particularly Dilliard's...wonder where she gets that (Libby and Mimi)? Our Libby is a wonderful mom and Led is a great dad. I'm really surprised that Lib is so maternal..a bit casual in her approach to motherhood...just like me. She turned out ok so I guess Savannah will too! Her aunt Estelle gave her the bunny, and we had a wonderful Mother's Day brunch!

I'm sure many of you have experienced or know of the horrific floods we had in Tennessee two weeks ago. These are just two of our shots..one as we tried to head down Main Street and one of what was a very vibrant volleyball court and park where lots of people played. Hopefully we'll soon be back to normal.

Consulting has been slow lately, but the medical writing and editing has kept me hopping. I'm really enjoying writing for LiveStrong Health http://www.livestrong.com/health/! It's a challenge to change from writing and editing for medical journals to writing for the public on the Web! This being semi-retired and working part time is wonderful...lots of free time, no pressure unless self imposed and getting to pick and choose what you do! I'm still selling photos on line and occasionally at Buffalo Trading Company in West Yellowstone, MT! If I had to go back to a full time job, I think I'd scream. Let's hope the market recovers so I never have to go back to "real" work! But just think...next March I get to draw social security! Can you believe I'm so old?

We are still movie junkies...saw Letters to Juliet this weekend. I don't care what the critics say..it's a wonderful, feel good movie. The scenery is wonderful and having been to Italy, we loved seeing some of the same sights that we saw when we traveled there. Last week we saw The Losers...again, the critics panned it and we loved it.

I'm just before giving up on facebook...it's getting boring but it still allows me to keep up with lots of friends, acquaintances and people I have no idea who they are! What are you thinking about the time you spend there? Is it worth it?

Hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll try to be a bit better at keeping this up to date...it's about time to start traveling again, but we're struggling about where to go. Any ideas?

Welcome Baby Savannah!

Where to begin? What an exciting week with the arrival of baby Savannah Elizabeth on Monday, April 12th at 4:43 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 20 inches long! What a tiny little thing. She has a full head of black hair and dark blue eyes at the moment. As we all know, eyes and hair color at birth are not necessarily what goes forward. Granddad and Mimi stayed at the hospital during the day and then came home and stayed with her til Friday afternoon. We send Dad out to work to pay for future shopping...she will definitely be a fashionista. All said she is absolutely beautiful and I'm not the least bit prejudiced!

Since the past week has been monopolized by Savannah, there isn't much more to chat about unless I go on and on about every smile (gas of course), diaper change, feeding...well, you get the idea. My world was all wrapped up in her last week. There are tons of pictures on facebook! I'll write more later.

What a Wonderful Easter!

We had a wonderful weekend with family to celebrate Easter. At a time when strife is rampant across the world, isn't it wonderful that you can still get together, play putt-putt and silly games and feel such a sense of peace and calm and love? Libby is very due, Riley is very smart, Jennifer is wonderful to put up with my son, and Led is very wonderful to put up with my daughter! Oh...and Woody isn't so bad either! We did over indulge...way too much food! I actually cooked two nights in a row which may be a record since the kids left home!

The Easter bunny hopped right through our home and it was such fun...holidays are always more fun with little ones. I can't wait til Savannah gets here on or before (if you think Libby's right) April 17th! She will be the first grandchild to live close enough to see often. Marilyn and I will have to share time with baby sitting! Her first grandchild and my first close one!

Just watched Andy Roddick win at the Sony in Miami. Made me miss tennis but I don't think the knees would hold out longer than a few games. It's rough getting old. Speaking of old...it may be nap time as we had to get up early to see if the Easter bunny came! More later dudes and dudettes!