What to do? what to do?

It's been an interesting first few days............

Today we had to say goodbye to our garden shed.   Because it's not made of wood, it's against the covenants of our HOA (along with at least 5-6 others) and even though it's been in our yard for seven years, the current board has threatened us with legal action unless we take it down.  My brother and a friend of his took it down and it's will be used over at my brother's friends house.  The really sad part....there's a wooden shed that sits 10 feet from ours that is in such disrepair it looks awful but because it's wood nothing it done about it....so not only to I get to stand at my kitchen sink and now look out on a empty concrete pad, I get to look at the piece of crap shed that is my neighbors.

 

 

 

I'm going to try and make lemonade out of lemons regarding what's left behind once the shed was removed and I'll share it with you later. 

 

My brother also used his big Ford 250 Extended Cab to yank out a Juniper that I had planted 10 years ago right after we moved in.  I had been trimming it over the years into a big ball, but the ball is getting too big and our cars are brushing into it when we come and go.  Here's a picture of it from a year or so ago and it was at least another three inches in diameter bigger this year.

The shrub had all but taken over the dianthus that is planted there, so I'm hoping once I finish doing what I'm going to be doing there (I'll share later), the dianthus will come back.

Coming up on my first full week as a woman of leisure and trying to decide if I'm going to tackle anything on my "To-Do" list.......there is a particular hutch downstairs in our basement that I can't wait to get started on, but I know there are a few things that need done first.

September is going to be the month of the Purge.   Say it with me......purge.

• First up....a garage sale.  I wasn't going to have one because I don't really have much to get rid of anymore but I was still hanging on to a couple totes of old Longaberger, some home décor I was tired of and some perfectly good linens, so when my good friend Diane suggested we do it together, I was game.  My friend Diane (co-worker friend who retired two years) had a bunch of stuff she wanted to get rid of, but her home is out in the country and she wouldn't get the traffic that we get here in my development, so she and her husband are bringing their stuff over next weekend and on Friday, September 12th and Saturday, September 13th, we are going to try and unload her stuff and the rest of mine.   It will be fun to sit around and gab with her while making a little cash and the sale MUST BE OVER no later than 1:00 or 2:00 at the very latest because the BIG game is on at 2:30pm on the 13th.    The Iowa Hawkeyes host the Iowa State Cyclones for the Cy-Hawk Trophy.  Diane and I are both Hawkeye fans as is her husband, so we're going to close up shop and watch the game together since my husband won't even be in town as he'll be in Kansas City for one of his geek weekends.

Once that sale is over, then we are moving on to reorganizing the garage now that the garden shed has come down and we have to make room for gardening tools and such in our garage.  We have the room, it just needs to be re-organized because we're now storing a 1992 Mustang in our 4th stall in the garage (but that's a whole another story).

Here are some of the other purging that will be going on the month of September -

• Our pantry......one word....yuck.   We definitely need to use up some food in there, purge what is no longer good and find a new way to organize it.   There are a few problem areas in there that I have some ideas on how to fix.
• My clothes.  I don't want to get rid of everything just in case life takes me into an opportunity where I might need some office apparel, but I can definitely purge what I have...some I'll consign, most I'll donate to a women's consignment store that gives it's proceeds to a local women's shelter.
• My jewelry.  I have a boat load of costume jewelry and a bunch of it I don't wear very often.  It needs to be gone through and I have a place in mind to take it to consign.

and last but not least a freezer purge.   We have a small chest freezer out in our garage in addition to the bottom freezer we have on our LG refrigerator in the kitchen that's perfect for freezer storage for the size of family we have.  WE NEED TO USE UP WHAT WE HAVE IN THERE before purchasing anything else (unless it's on super duper sale that is too good to pass up).

I'm pretty organized in the freezer department as I keep a written inventory of what we have.  I found the template online but you could easily make your own personalized for how you would use it.

My problem is not using what we have, so I've challenged myself to use up what we have the month of September so our grocery bill should reflect that challenge also.  I'll be very curious how long we can eat on what is already in both of our freezers and I'll be sharing recipes of what I make.  I'm really hoping that my time off will see us trying new healthy recipes that I'll now have time to put together rather than cooking out of convenience like we do most of the time.

Thrown in to all that this month is a concert by one of my favorite bands next weekend that we have 20th row dead center seats (never mind the ticket cost).

I also have my Wednesday night business class, the 37th Harkin Steak Fry, in which spouse and I will be seeing President Clinton and Hillary Clinton at Senator Harkin's last steak fry (more on that later), a much anticipated week long visit from my long time friend Kim and my retirement/birthday party that is bound to be a blast (more on that later),

So, that is my month of September and it looks like I'll have lots to share with you over the next month so please swing by.....I'd love your input.

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

It's a very surreal feeling to wake up the morning of your new life..........

No more 5:20am alarm clocks, no more morning commute, no more of what I've done for 27 years.

Wow.

So, what did I do?   I woke up the first time around the time I would have got up, but I went back to sleep and woke up around 8:15.....I turned the television on and watched a bit of CBS This Morning while my body caught up with my mind waking up.

It's a beautiful day and the only thing on the agenda for the day is some yard work and then I'm heading over to my dear friend Dianne's massage therapy studio Different Stoke Massages to take her to lunch and then she's going to give me a massage........heaven!

And later tonight, I think the spouse and I will be finally opening this Chocolate wine we bought last fall at the Wine Expo we attended.

Hanging on........

Right this minute I am one working day away from retiring from my job of 27 years.  I won't have to drive that familiar "auto pilot" drive every day and enter a building that I've worked in for the past 20 years, up the elevators to the 3rd floor.  I can't say that I won't miss some of my co-workers because I will...how could I not?  I've worked with these people for 27 years and I hope that we will be able to continue our friendships, but I will not miss working there.

My feelings are all over the place right now.........for the first time in 27 years I do not have a job and prior to that I had only been unemployed a total of a few weeks throughout my life.  That, is scary.  Period.  BUT, the possibilities are exciting and that takes the scariness away a bit.

Not only am I ending one thing, but tomorrow night, I'll be starting another.  I'll be attending my first class as a college student!  My fall semester class "Start Up Small Business" at our local community college is on Wednesday nights until December.  I'm excited to have this challenge.  I'm also going to be starting an online interior design certificate course in October that runs for 12 months.

I've been organizing myself the last few months with lists, goals, ideas and to-do things in my planner and I can't wait to start tackling that stuff.

I have a feeling I'm going to ask myself "How in the world did I ever work?"

7.5 days and counting

 

In just 7.5 short days, I will be retiring from my job of 27 years.  27 years of doing the same things, with the same people, in virtually the same building.  I'm bored, burnt out and it's been made pretty clear to me that I'm not a valued employee anymore and the future of the U.S. Courts budget wise isn't looking good at all, so I'm getting out while the getting is good.   It was my decision,  and it was based on a host of things and every bone in my body is telling it's the right decision. 

It's been a bittersweet journey with good times and bad times, but I'm not going to focus on what has been but rather on the road ahead of me.   It's been a long time in my life where I have been excited for what the future holds for me and my family, in fact, I think it's been a little over 18 years since the birth of our son and the excitement that change in our lives brought.

I'm re-working my blog as I'm going to start blogging more now that I have the time and I think there is an audience out there of younger retirees who are starting to navigate the next phase of their life and even if you aren't a retiree or even if you're older than I,  I hope you stick with me and let me share my journey with you.  I'll be sharing lot of different things from home projects, recycling projects, recipes, travel, to everyday ideas on saving money, decorating on a budget and crafting.

Bear with me as I figure out the new design and look of my blog as it will probably experiment with the tools I have available and need to figure out how to use to my best advantage.

I'm going to set a goal for posting to my blog at least three times a week and we'll see how that goes with my new schedule.

Thanks for hanging out with me!