It’s official! We are now both officially full-fledged Retirees! At long last we can now move forward with the next phase of our lives. “Working” is no longer in the way. Whoo-hoo!!!

First on the agenda:  The Party.  Some of our very special friends, who are more like family to us than friends, planned and threw us a terrific party yesterday. Our guests included members of the Kiwanis clubs that we’ve worked most closely with, very special friends from church that we haven’t seen in quite some time, family members, and some other really terrific people that we’ve been fortunate to meet along the way. They also arranged for a fantastic DJ and a professional (and accommodating) photographer. The food was awesome, prepared by some of the guests, with a host of choices for every taste. There are just no words to express how thankful we are to have such wonderful people in our lives. We know, without a doubt, that these friendships and relationships will last a lifetime for they are rooted in our hearts.

There were hours of laughter and socializing. And there were hours of dancing, along with a plethora of photo ops too! Everyone had tons of fun as we celebrated not only the retirement but also the fact that we’ll soon be moving on.

And now that the “working days” are over, we can fully throw our energy into the rest of the downsizing that’s still left to be done. Although we’ve packed up and donated quite a bit, and had most of the seriously outdated electronics carted away, it almost seems that our belongings are reproducing while we sleep or something!  Every time we look around, we find more “stuff”. Perhaps it’s fortunate that our next abode will just not allow us to be collectors of “stuff”.  So, it’s back to the house clearing – room by room.  That’s the mission for the next few weeks.

Stay tuned! We’ll let you know when the yard sale(s) are scheduled! In the meantime, we’ll keep moving forward – getting us closer to living our dream – on the road.