WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JULY 2025

Lisa - I just saw that. Glad Kels and family have warning and time to head for higher ground. Sending many good thoughts for their safety!

I also saw preliminary "watches" for the some parts of the west coast of the US… Barbie and Barbara - hoping you aren't impacted.

Lanette

Siri making a silly face..

Lisa- glad Kelsey and family can get to higher ground..

I did a Walmart order to ve delivered Tommorow, but alas it came tonight

instead..oh well..I did buy sugar free popsicles so im having one to cool down,just getting stuff in the fridge and freezer I was breaking a sweat.

Hotter than the shades of hades today.

My brother was riding his bike and some ditz ran into him and took off,he is bumped and bruised and the bike is ok the handle bars got turned around.but was able to fix them..Ol Allie ordered him a bike helmet and rearview mirrors for the bike

Hello Everyone;

I have mixed feelings about retiring early. If a job is killing you, it is time to go. Then figure out your passion and enjoy doing it. If my DH weren't hell-bent on moving to Chicago, I would stay at my job for another 8-10 years. Leaving UMMC may be a good thing because they do not appreciate the hard work I do. I wonder if they think we old timers are now stupid or something. Then they are insulted when a parent is disappointed that I do not have their child. They know that I not only take care of their child, but I love them too. I read to them and set a bedtime schedule. The young nurses just leave their lights on and a loud TV on. Even if they are not my patient, I clean them up, put on PJs, cut off the lights, and play lullabies after I read to them. My baby, who has eczema, was scratching, so I put on his steroid cream and Eucerin to prevent further flares. I know the young nurse skipped giving his ointment. So, after I retire in Mississippi, I will work full time in Chicago, in the NICU. So now I will work on getting my CEUs and get certified in Pediatric nursing and Neonatal nursing. I do believe that being a lifelong learner is excellent for the brain.

As for saving money, I cut down my bill by having the battery-operated candles for Rose when I am working, so she will not be in the dark. While DH is not working, I paused Rose's Sundays for Dogs subscription and any others. I may need to stop buying stuff for the babies😥 and get what I need only. I do not go out often. I only go out when hubby is in town. I prefer books to TV, yet I am into HGTV. Someone was upset with me because I didn't want to see Beyoncé. Tickets for her concert are $400.00. I would rather go on a trip. I am not that much of a fan, either.
There are some songs I like for workouts. I hate to be in a large crowd. I would rather buy stuff for my patients than go to a concert. Last time I went to a concert, we were in our early twenties and we saw Maddona. I saw Elton John at the Hollywood Bowl. I paid $40.00 at the most back then. Now, going to clubs with sweaty people or concerts is not my thing. My bestie Linette went to a concert in Las Vegas, and there was a shooter who killed and injured many people. The weird thing was, when I heard it on the news, I thought, "I hope Linette wasn't there." I called her and she was. She had to go to therapy to help her with PTSD. Then I hear of people getting trampled. No thanks, I will stay home.

As for food, I buy things that are easy for me to pack and low in calories. I choose Healthy Choice meals for work and pack safe snacks to keep at work too. My son spent the bulk of his check on the cafeteria at the hospital. Not me, I pack my lunch. The price of the food at work was going up, and the quality was going down. I keep grilled chicken on hand, fruits, and veggies too.

Margarette, looking at receipts is important. I thought my grocery bill was high, and I went through it and found that I was charged $250.00 for 1/2 pound of teriyaki chicken. I promptly went back to Kroger and showed them the meat and the charge on the receipt. I got the refund and told them I didn't want the meat anymore. Never purchased it again.

There are things that I choose to splurge on and others I don't. I stopped getting a mani/pedi because they wanted to put gel on my nails, which was against hospital policy and cost more money. My nails were becoming brittle and expensive. Now I get my nails done if I have time or money. Otherwise, I do it myself. Dh and I are talking about keeping up the yard, and I feel it is a must for Rose's safety from snakes.

Last point about retiring, my dad said that he will continue working, because his doctor said that all he will do is sit around and die sooner. My dad died one year after retirement. All he did was sit in his chair and watch TV. He had less socialization and less physical activity, such as walking. I notice that on my days off, I need time to recoup. I sleep, read, and stay away from people. On Tuesday, I worked out and thought that was fun, then got together with my friends that I hadn't seen in months. This morning, I am supposed to meet friends for breakfast. I looked at their menu and thought that I would prefer my own prepped food, especially after the reviews. I would rather stay at home.

Pip, I love Ethyl! If they give you Luna, will you take her too?

Flea, it is time for your DH to retire before that place kills him. He can find something fun to do if he must.

Lisa, you never cease to amaze me with your talent.

Rebecca, your stories are funny about the bugs. You are so like me. I didn't want to spend the night at my friend's house cause I saw a bug. So I am trying to understand what they plan to do with your youngest DS? Lastly, since my Jeep shuts off at the light or in traffic, I save on gas. Fuel points help at Kroger. I spend $20 or less on a full tank of gas.

Sorry for the long rant. I just know that both my dad and I love to be at home. Good early morning, everyone. I am going to bed now. It is 1:47 am. It took me a few hours to catch up.

XO,

Mo in Mississippi

Good Monday now Tuesday! Now Wednesday…I should post this…

Lisa-I am glad I wasn't drinking when I read your comment. 😉 I have often used carrying items as an example of how much weight to lose.

I am thankful for all of the sharing of the retirement experiences. I am looking forward to it. If not fully at least less hours.

Work is crazy busy. I just need to catch up! I relaxed with massage last night. Afterwards picked up meds and to the grocery. I had no milk,bread,eggs,cereal, fruits, or veggies! After putting stuffs away, I prepped fruits and veggies into serving containers. So 2 cups of berries per container (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, and sweet cherries pitted). The cherries made a mess so of course had to clean kitchen. 4 cups of raw veggies per container (carrots,bell peppers both green and orange, cucumber slices, celery sticks, and radishes). I hard boiled some eggs and peeled. Cut up colby jack, pepper jack, and Swiss cheeses into cubes. 2 oz containers each. Made creamer for DH. Late night, but no excuse to be hungry!

Weight still at 140....I am okay with that considering my eating choices last week. ;) I am not logging foods right now. It is just one more stressor that I can control. So choices and listening to my body are musts.

I have decided that I need another me…i had planned on paperwork tonight but instead had to fix gate at end of driveway. Will wait and see if my fix worked. I believe it will be correct. Then dinner cooked and cleaned up. Was heading to shower when DH decided it was a good time to hang a tv....running into some issues, but trying to remain calm.... So that got delayed due to lack of correct spacers. Showered then bed.

Lisa- Same thing happened to my SIL. He had almost 13 yrs in the Navy. I am glad yours has found something he loves.

Just read about tsunamis. Prayers for everyone's safety.

Yesterday was hungry day! I had hard boiled egg, yogurt cup with pumpkin seeds, berries, cheese, veggies with cilantro dip, popcorners, shrimp, and two famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. I was still starving. Dinner was grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, and a portion of a baked potato. I finally was full! Most people lose appetite when hot outside.....I reckon it is a good thing it was mostly healthy .

Pip- Love your new family member!

Flea-Congratulations on a successful class. Prayers on DH's retirement planning.

You all amaze me! I am blessed to have you in my life. The support and shared experiences are invaluable.

Much love,

Kylia in Ohio with another 90+ day.

Good morning all:

Next to last day at work. They are having a reception for me this pm-not sure how I feel about it, I really didn't want one. I will go and be pleasant. DS and DDIL are coming-don't know if we will be graced with Miss Luna's presence or not-she will liven up the event. Am going in tomorrow to finish what I can and spend a couple of hours with my replacement. I feel confident he will define the position in his way and do a good job. Yesterday afternoon a personnel issue came up which will most likely end up ugly and I passed it on.

Retirement

Met with roofer yesterday-selected shingles and made down payment-will be done within the next month (quite likely sooner). Neighbor has a fence person I will talk to to do that work.

Off to start this day. No doubt will be emotional, but that's ok. I have spent nearly 34 years of my life there - I think it would be very sad if I had no thoughts of missing it.

Take care all,

Ginny in Ohio

Good morning my friends!

Wow a tsunami! Hope everyone is safe.

Lisa lovely tomatoes!

Pip Ethel is so relaxed with her new family! You did a great job getting her tired.

Allie yes stay cool! Are your tremors better yet? Glad your brother wasn't hurt worse. Crazy drivers!

Ginny yes it will be an emotional day but you made a sound decision.

I wonder if I skipped a page somehow? Hmmm.

Dad's back is better. I bought him a birthday cake to pick up today. It's a quarter sheet because plans changed, and now there are only two of us to eat it. We are going to brunch tomorrow then to my aunt's for dinner Friday. But the cake will be too old to bring on Friday. So I am resigned to throwing out most of it. Or maybe it will freeze?

Have a marvelous day! May you all be cool and healthy, happy, safe, and free!

Annie in Delaware

Morning, kids,

Checked on my daughter, and the waves didn't hit near the heights they were worried about. I was able to sleep, though, because by then, I knew she and DSIL and the kids were on higher ground at her office on base. Her home is very definitely in a tsunami zone. But then, most houses on the islands are.

Because I stink on ice with geography, I didn't even think about the fact that everyone exposed to the Pacific would, of course, be under tsunami warnings… hope no one had any issues, thanks for letting us know, Machka!

Heather, it's been so long since I wrote regularly that I had forgotten how nonverbal I can get in the rest of my life. Corey has a hard time with my communication when I'm writing regularly, but luckily he remembered how I used to be when I was writing for the paper and thought it was funny.😅

I appreciate it that he doesn't get too frustrated with me. Basically, he has to wait for my brain to completely shift gears and get my attention focused on him to be able to get me to talk with my mouth instead of my fingers. Writing again is like going home. Hard to leave even for a minute once it's at full flow, and wonderful to get back to it.

Speaking of which, I need to get outside and get water on his garden and my flowers, and then get back inside before it's too hot.

Unfortunately, I woke up with vertigo this morning, felt my eyes roll back in my head the second I opened them, and it's lurking there still… hope it's temporary.

Love y'all,
Lisa in AR

Kylia ~ I admire your grocery shopping and dividing up everything into containers. Hope you will be able to cut down on your work hours and paper work at some point. You are one busy lady.

Lisa ~ So glad to hear that Kelsey and family made it to higher ground safely. Sorry about your SnL’s problem but glad he can re-enlist into the Guards.

MO ~ My sister was a registered nurse for many years until the younger aids, techs, and nurses were given priority over her. She quit and has no regrets. I retired after 31 yrs of teaching and I was not ready to do so but circumstances made it necessary. What’s nice is some of my students have connected with me on Facebook and that was a boost to my ego.

Ginny ~ Enjoy your last day! It sounds like you have planned for your retirement well and I hope you enjoy this new phase of your life.

Lanette ~ My DH is a bit like Barbara’s Joe. He sleeps for 4 or 5 hrs during the day and then goes to bed shortly after dinner in the evening. After that, he is up really early and ready to start a new day. If I want to run an errand I usually go while he is napping. I on the other hand cannot take a nap during the day.

Barbie ~ Hope you get your hot dog. Enjoy!

I am going back to the ortho dr. today to try to get more help for my back. I have been using my cane for a week because the pain is affecting my left leg and I walk like an old woman.

Carol in GA

Pip – Lucy is one lucky pooch. I didn’t for one second doubt that you’d be getting her

Jess got here about 6:30 Mon. and brought most of the things they’re going to use here. Colby did decide on just using their queen size mattress. I need to learn to be more patient and just let things play out.

Speaking of which: can anyone give me ideas on eating? What I do right now is on a day early in the week (usually Tuesday since that works for me) I decide what we’re going to have every day the following week and take out of the freezer the food we need so it can start defrosting. Then the day we’re supposed to have something, I prepare our plates in the morning and just refrigerate them. This way I’m not rushing at the last minute. Now I know J and C like to eat out and if they don’t J wants her food “fresh” not fresh from the freezer. Which to me is silly because most of the food at a restaurant is frozen. But that brings me to the matter of “how to pre-prepare dinner. I do like to batch cook one day and then I don’t have to the rest of the week. But I don’t know if this is even feasible. If someone has been in this position, what did you do? I’m thinking that I’ll talk to J to see how she wants to work outeating. Do we eat together? I know they like to eat later in the day, and there are days (like Tues and Thurs when we have ceramics)that we like to eat earlier. Maybe she should cook M,W, and F and I’ll do Tu, Thur, and Sat. Then Sun may be a “clean up the leftovers” day or we go out or even just order in a pizza

Tracey – I always enjoy looking at old photos and just imagining how things were back then

Margaret – lovely painting

Rita – what an interesting person you met!

Been taking Ganon for walks as much as I can. If it’s too hot(like it was this morning) we just walk about ¼ of the way around the block

Debbie – what a shopper you are!

Lisa – the first time I ever saw a tsunami evacuation sign was when we were in St. Kitts when Jess was in vet school. Freaked me out. Hope your daughter is safe. You feel better

Went to ceramics last night and picked up Elmo. Now I’m working on a shell. It’s pretty easy since it’s all one color, but I do think that a shell would be nice. The next thing I’ll work on is a Tasmanian Devil. I’ve also decided to work some more on the cat welcome sign that I started to do but was waiting for some paint. Honestly, I don’t have a lot of confidence in the gal who is running the ceramics shop. In a sense, I think she’s a bit in over her head as to how to budget things and order more paint.

They welded the mower deck and the mulching kit came yesterday. We’ll probably wait until it get cooler (should be this weekend)and be sure it works before we tell the guy that he doesn’t need to cut the lawn any more.

Vince is at bowling right now and I’m skimming then into the pool I go

Ginny – good luck on retirement

Rita – good news from the kidney doc

Michele NC

Awe Lisa what a rigamaroll, your daughter and poor son inlaw! My husband went thru some political brukakka, a year before he was to retire. He gave one of his sailors a not so favorable evaluation, so she made up some s ex ual harassment charges. Nothing like seeing your husband have to get in his dress uniform for a JAG hearing over and over for awhile. It was awful, but in the end he was found not guilty of any of it, and he was able to get another ship command to round out his 20 years. It was a hard year or so!

Rebecca Whidbey Wa

Rebecca - My geography really does stink. I lived in Oregon, drove up the Washington coast more than once, and never asked you if you were all right, I'm sorry… Glad you're OK! We had someone here posting from Alaska, too, and there's a fair chance Betsy is up there for the summer. My husband reminded me that his hometown of Haines, Alaska, is closer to that earthquake than our daughter is. 🙂 As far as the military goes, it's almost as if they're trying to get out of paying retirement to these guys once they get close to their 20 years… 🤔

Tracey - Scott AFB is just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis and about 6 and a half hours away, straight through the middle of Missouri for us. It will be so nice to have them within a day's drive again. The distance was nearly the same when she lived in Kansas with her ex-husband, Kansas is where Levi was born. I think Jonah deserves a bonus from his Grammie for all that hard work… 🤔😂😎

Flea - Thanks for the explanation of your prison cohorts, I wasn't sure how all that was structured, either.

Corey urged me to drink one of his Zero Gatorades to see if boosting my electrolytes helps with the vertigo. It may have done, it has mostly subsided. Would sure be nice if it's that simple, an easy fix would be welcome.

Staying inside where it's cool, starting on the next project. Did finish my pillow from the same yarn as I made using the crocheted purse - Not good lighting in the living room, but I think I'm just keeping it anyway, I like it. 🙂

Other than that, scribbling away at odd moments.

Love my life,

Lisa in AR