Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Florida Family Vacations 1971


1971 Patsy Ft. Lauderdale Florida


100 Degrees Cape Canaveral Florida

Patsy

Freda and the sea

Freda hits the beach Ft. Lauderdale FL 1971

1971 Freda

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

May 2016 in Peoria

We're having so much fun. It's great to be in a position to enjoy Amanda and Todd especially. I can't wait for Joey to visit and see the new home.

We keep busy with water aerobics several mornings a week. It really nice!

People here are so open and friendly, it is an amazing change from Maryland.

I think we really missed having any social life for the last 11 years. It's awesome to be here now. 😀😎🌴

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

First 100+ degree day for 2016

Hi!

It's May 4th, Amanda & Todd's 4th wedding Anniversary 🎉

It is also the first day in 2016 in the Phoenix area that the temperature is over 100 degrees. It portends an interesting summer for me. 😅

Ever so slowly, we are getting more straightened up in the house and settled into our new home. It is really awesome to live here, and particularly great to be free of the demands of our jobs. I'm so grateful.

This is our living room, showing the new "Smart TV" after the install. This was quite an effort. The first install effort was a colossal FAIL, with Ed sending the TV back to the store. But after a couple more trips to the store, and another $500 worth of compatible components, and another Geek Squad visit- Viola!

We are still struggling with exactly how it works. But we have it mostly figured out.

These are my favorite new chairs from La-Z-Boy. Hera approves.

I like the curved lamp shown on the right, good reading lamp and a fresh look for us.

Pretty fabric. I wish my photography skills were better!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Is there an art to tidying up?

Having everything you own packed up, stored, then shipped to you over thousands of miles is unsettling.

The new home is beautiful!

And then...all your old crap is carried into the house.

OMG! So many boxes, so much stuff. It is difficult for me to sort this stuff out.

Overwhelming.

Some things I can't find. Some things are broken. Some things are crushed.

Some things are OK.

Some things are flat out junk (why did we keep them in the first place?)

And some things make me cry. Others make me want to scream.

I've read the popular book,

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Maria Kondo.

I think most of us want a relatively clean, healthy, well organized place to live. For lots of reasons, this is not simple.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Life at the Hilton

We moved out of our home on Jan 5, 2016.

We checked into a hotel in Rockville that would accept cats.

Movers and packers came Jan 6. It took two days.

Handled having the the condo painted, new flooring installed, new HVAC unit.

Worked with the real estate agent to set up sale and stage.

Started driving Monday Jan. 17.

Phoenix, AZ

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Life in the Hotel

Well, this part of our retirement planning has not gone exactly as planned. Not horribly off the rails, but maybe not exactly what I had planned.

Turns out, we feel very lucky, our Maryland property sold very quickly, so by postponing the closing on our new home just a week, we can use that money to sweeten our mortgage deal quite a bit. That is a really nice break for us.

Now we are trying to understand how closing a works, how does money go from point A To Point B, quickly.

It's a bit overwhelming.

There are a lot of important details to be put in place. We are happy, but pretty stressed.

I know Ed hadn't had any time to adjust to being retired. He is sleeping a whole lot. If we aren't actively doing something he sleeps.