My grand-twins have arrived, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009. Jacob Michael and Claire Elizabeth. Here are the proud parents, BEFORE the delivery.

Jacob Michael, Jake, is 3 lbs, 13 oz, 17" long, and is perfect in every way, just on the small side. He will stay in NICU at least overnight.

Claire Elizabeth, 5 lbs. 2 oz, 19" long, she has some fluid in her lungs and will be in NICU for a day or so until that clears. Not an unusual thing for a C-section.

I got to see and touch both babies in the NICU, and will just have to be satisfied with that for a day or two, til they can get out of there and we can hold them.

Expanding my cooking skills

One of my retirement goals was to expand my cooking skills, with an interest in Mexican cooking using green chilis. I just have a taste for those. So here is my latest green chili chicken quesadilla recipe.
Package of jalepeno/cheese tortillas (Krogers has them)
Bag of mixed Mexican cheese blend or a bag of white Quesadilla cheese.
Can of chopped green chilis (I have not ventured into preparing fresh green chilis, yet!)
Chicken, cooked. I have used boiled chicken that I then shredded, and chopped chicken cooked in a little oil with fajita seasoning. Both were good.
Place a tortilla in a non-stick skillet (no oil or grease of any kind). Sprinkle cheese, chicken, green chilis, more cheese, and top with another tortilla. After a few minutes on med-high, flip the whole thing over and wait til the bottom tortilla browns up. The cheese should now be melted. Put it on a cutting board, and use a pizza wheel to cut into triangles. Serve with guacamole, salsa and sour cream. A real hit with former work colleagues!!

This was a quick lunch today, and I added some black beans to the mix, just sprinkled a few on top of the cheese and chicken and green chilis.Cooking with Bill at his house, the goal is to have the fewest dishes to clean up, as well as tasty burgers and beans from the grill.

I am also working on a fried potato method. The one below involved slicing a potato crosswise, but the slices were really too thin. Next time I'll try more of a wedge cut. I used a black/red pepper mix to season. Next time I'll add the onions and green and red peppers.

Tackling the Garage

Cooler weather last week gave me the incentive to go ahead and clean out the garage, or least clean off the workbench. As with other clean-out jobs, the hard part is the organization; where should the screwdrivers/hammer/pliers, whatever go? And what about all those loose screws/nails/nuts and bolts/pieces of metal? And small packages or boxes of nails, screws, bolts that were for projects since long forgotten? And to top it off, in the past few months I have thrown away a loose screw I found in the Miata, and another loose screw that appeared on the kitchen counter. I had kept those 2 screws for a year or more, thinking I would figure out what they went to. Bad karma, the week after I tossed each one out, I found out what they went to. The Miata screw held up the sun visor, and the mysterious kitchen screw went to the bottom of the vacuum cleaner. (Lorenza probably found it and put it on the kitchen counter assured I would know it went to the vacuum cleaner!) So I am hesitant to toss out random sizes/shapes of perfectly good hardware items, just knowing that as soon as I do, I'll wish I had one. So I had to organize..... Below is the way it looked before I got started...

After a couple of hours of work, I have a clean surface to work on, or start piling up more stuff again.

I put things I use a lot in the drawers for easy access, so I don't have to drag out a tool bag or box and dig through to find a screwdriver or pliers.

Cool Weather Returns to Conroe - Finally!

Wednesday, Sept. 23, and cooler weather is here! So what if there are gray skies, a few spits of rain, the temps are down, a cool breeze is blowing, and I have opened a window. The cats don't know what to make of it, they are used to going through their cat door/window, but not through an open window. They have been going in and out, in and out from the living room to the courtyard, all afternoon. I'm sure they would like to have the window open all the time. The pictures below also showcase my courtyard.

View of courtyard from inside living room. Tipper cat looks in through open window.
Tipper enters house through open window.
Tipper is in, but Mini is still thinking about it.
View from outside of courtyard, looking at courtyard wall and gate, and through to front door of the house. This was taken at night, I set the exposure timer for 2 seconds on my new camera, worked pretty well, I think.

Retirement Musings...

Monday morning after a 3 day weekend trip with Bill to Dallas to see grandson John. (In his new BMW, WOW what a smooth ride, and fast too! He even let me drive...)
Musings:
a) if I wasn't retired, there would not have been a 3-day weekend trip to Dallas (Friday - Sunday)
b) if I wasn't retired, I would be at work on Monday morning
c) since I am retired, I slept in til 8:30, but read in bed til 9:30.
d) since I am retired, I can have these kinds of slow mornings, lazy out of bed, slop around the house with some laundry, breakfast, a little of this and that, treadmill, and JanMa's business work. Or NOT, whatever I want to do, at whatever pace I choose.
e) I frequently get asked, by friends who still work (!), if I miss it. Sorry, no, I don't miss work at all. The job will carry on with eager and energetic folks who have waited for their turn, and who will catapult the job further and in new directions.
f) I was ready, it is my time to catapult myself further into new directions of my own choosing.

For anyone contemplating retirement, if you don't know what you would do if you retired, then DON'T, you are not ready. You will know when it is time.

John Can Jump!

John is so aware and curious about his surroundings, and starting to recognize who he knows and doesn't know. He was a little hesitant about me at first, but Jason and Ashley assured him I was OK, so he accepted me! He is strong, likes to be on his feet, and loves his jumper.
John and JanMa discuss his crawling skills.
Jan and Grandma Sherie at the soccer game.
John wears his Dad's hat.
JanMa gets to feed John.
JanMa and John hanging out at Jason and Ashley's house.

He is strong, likes to be on his feet, and loves his jumper.

Bedroom - Finishing Touches

I added some pictures to my bedroom. I moved the 2 Grandma Wilda original watercolors from the living room to my bedroom. Grandma Wilda is my Mom, and she painted these pictures using Grandma Moses as a guide. I painted the horses and cows in the pictures, I was 11 years old and into drawing horses. Also below, on the right hand side of the picture, you can see the new lamp I got to put on the dresser.
Different angle to view the pictures.
Better view of lamp on dresser, note window to courtyard reflected in mirror.




Minnie the cat has a new nap spot, in the pillow pile on the new bed!

Retired Teachers Association

Today I went to my first Montgomery County Retired Teachers Association meeting (http://local.trta.org/profile_main.cfm?ID=114). I saw old friends and met new ones.
WOW, what an organized and professional group! They have programs scheduled for each monthly meeting for the 2009-10 school year session, and they follow standard organizational meeting format, with minutes, old business, new business, treasurer and committee chair reports. They are an enthusiastic and politically savvy group, and involvement with these folks should keep the brain cells stimulated. NEVER discount the power and capabilities of the senior set. Many of them apply all the skills they acquired over years of work to retirement life, volunteerism, professional and hobby organizations, charitable work, and so on. What a powerful force! If communities have needs and don't tap into the senior set, they are missing out on a tremendous resource.

Meanwhile, my retirement has been focused on personal needs, like relaxing. Folks I haven't seen for awhile tell me how relaxed I look. I think super-casual is the real truth.

Being a Homebody...

It is OK to stay home. On Monday, I didn't leave the house at all, never even opened the garage door. While singing along to the ipod speakers in the bedroom, I sealed the new tile grout in the bathroom (ouch, several hours on my knees with a small brush). Bill had the foresight to insist I get kneepads, those were a knee-saver. I moved stuff back into my closets, which required more decisions about what to keep, what to toss, what to find a new home for. Many trips up and down the stairs to put things in new places. During a few breaks from that, I finished the jigsaw puzzle and read a book (not the whole book, but enough to really get into it). At the end of the day, the house was reasonably back in order, I had found muscles in the backs of my thighs I didn't know where there (from the kneeling), and really felt positive about what had been accomplished.

The day at home was followed by 2 days of errands, JanMa's Digital Memories work, and socializing with other folks. A nice balance to a day at home.

Bedroom video

Here is a video of my new master suite sanctuary. I love it.

Lost Memories Found

One neat thing resulted in the "Cleaning Out" of drawers, closets, etc. I came across a stack of old writing journals. Some were filled, others empty, but I enjoyed a few hours of reading words I had written nearly 20 years ago, when I first started teaching writing to 4th and 5th graders. I guess I had a poetry phase, and some was quite corny, but below is a sample. It was a difficult time in my life....

Woman with Children
(c) Jan Robin

In my thirty-seventh year I never expected to be
an ordinary woman.
My life filled with carpools, baseball games, demands for dinner
and clean clothes.

In my youth I thought and felt Great Things.
Now the daily efforts of coping occupy my mind
with nothing left for Passion.

My sons are my life, the purpose I was born for.
(Mother never told me that)
But they will leave and take away Purpose.

I'm afraid of the void to be filled with emptiness.


NOTE: The void never happened, the last 20 years have been filled with wonder and awe, excitement and challenge, and now there is RETIREMENT and GRANDCHILDREN. But it is worthwhile to be reminded of the times and places from whence we came.

The Cleaning Out

If one doesn't move every 10 years or so, one should get new carpet or new furniture, something to force the closets/drawers/hutches/bookcases/under beds to be cleaned out. I am getting new tile in the bathroom, new carpet in the bedroom, and new bedroom furniture. Although I am paying money for tile/carpet/furniture delivery/installation/set-up, those guys have the easy job. The harder job is the effort of moving everything out of the closets/drawers/bookcases into another room, then back again into clean closets and new drawers. But the hardest job of all is the agony and anguish of "getting rid" of things, dearest treasures that were buried in the bottoms/backs of those drawers and closets.

These long forgotten treasures have not seen the light of day in years, but the delight in finding them again changes quickly to distress and finally dismay at the realization that I don't need or can't wear that treasure that is outdated, doesn't fit, worn out, broken, whatever. And although some enterprising 12 year old in China or India might need/want/be able to wear or fix, that isn't going to happen. So some items go into the Donation Dumpster by Kroger's, others just go into the dumpster. Some items, like a gold bracelet that the giver swore was 18c gold (yet at the "we buy jewelry" place, that piece tested out to not be gold at all!!) can go into a box for "future garage sale". And some items, like old furniture, get posted on the CISD virtual yard sale.

And finally, one item, my old computer that I no longer use, went to the 15 yr old son of my housekeeper, Lorenza. With her broken English and my shattered Spanish, she had asked me if I could help her get him a used computer for his birthday, he needed to be able to do his projects at home. They came over the next day, he looked at the computer and said it would do what he needed (it had Open Office, after all!!), and he was delighted to carry it out to the car with his Mom and little brother carrying the monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers. I hope it works for him as well as it has worked for me these past 5 years.

The pile of stuff from closets and drawers.

More stuff.

What I did for 3 days while the tile guy was here scraping up the old ugly vinyl and laying tile, and the carpet guys, and waiting for furniture delivery. Tipper keeps me company.

The Master Suite Transformation

OK, you saw the ugly ancient vinyl on the bathroom floor, now see the new "I'm at the beach" tile. The bathroom looks bigger, and the tub doesn't seem so high to step into anymore.


Bill enjoys the window seating arrangment, so does Tipper the cat, note new headboard.
Evening view, minus Bill. My bedroom is now a calm and relaxing place for me, I still need to add a few accessories, I am depending on my expert accessorizing friends to help out with ideas.

The new dresser and mirror.

Retirement Fashion Changes

Retirement changes your fashion lifestyle. Not going to work means get rid of work clothes, wear comfy duds around the house. I have loved this change and as mentioned in an earlier post, I got rid of a bunch of "work" clothes. Wearing comfy clothes and not wearing certain items (like pantyhose and other lingerie items....) around the house can lead to other changes, like foregoing make-up. First I quit wearing liquid makeup and eye makeup. Then I switched from lipstick to chapstick. Now I have to remember to even use moisturizer How fast is the downhill slide, once it gets started!

While this is great around the house, one does not always want to look like a WalMart woman, even when going to WalMart. So I still always brush my teeth, take a shower, put on a little face powder and lipstick, and make sure I'm wearing appropriate clothes whenever I leave the house. I keep a reminder on the door out to the garage.

More of the TO DO list

I worked on the TO DO list today while tile guy laid tile in the bathroom. I touched up the paint behind the toilet, which had not been painted in 32 years at least, I'm sure. Tile guy and I decided to put in new baseboards in the bathroom, so that required a trip to Home Depot. I took a sample of the new baseboards I am gradually putting in around the house, and got 3 of the 16' lengths, already primed. But since 16' will NOT fit in the trunk of a Pontiac Bonneville, I had to cut them. I had watched Bill do it once before, on the Home Depot work bench with hand saw set up in the molding aisle. So I acted like I knew what I was doing, and got set up to cut those suckers in half. I was: a) sort of miffed that I'm not skinny and cute enough to attract attention from a contractor picking up stuff who might have offered to do it for me; and: b) sort of glad none of the young Home Depot guys thought I was old enough to be their mother/grandmother and needed any help. So I did it myself! Wish I had a picture of that!

At home I painted them, but the paint was old and needed stirring. Bill is a genius sometimes. He had made me a stir stick, out of a coat hanger, that I could attach to a drill and mix up the paint. It worked great, both on the very old interior paint I used in the bathroom and the baseboard paint. And oh, in case you are overly impressed with my resources, I had to borrow his drill. Picture below is NOT his drill, he has a Man-drill, I have a battery powered screw driver drill.

Once the painting was done, I turned my attention to another item on THE LIST, a touch lamp that no longer worked. I replaced the little black box that makes it work, which required wire cutters and wire strippers, AKA needle-nose pliers, and some wire nuts, and the directions to make sure the right wires got connected together. IT WORKS!!! I am quite impressed with myself today.

paint stirrer tool made from coat hanger, just tighten into a drill chuck and it works great!
Painted baseboards drying , note the clever use of plastic chairs as sawhorses.
Preparing to remove old touch lamp connector box and installing new one.

Tile surprises

The tile installation started today! But all jobs are not easy, and once the carpet was pulled up, 30-yr old vinyl was exposed. YUK, it was UGLY! So instead of having tile on the floor this evening, I now have clean concrete. It took the tile guy all afternoon to get up the old vinyl. But he will get the tile down tomorrow, and grouted on Friday, and my bathroom floor will remind me of the beach, a south Texas beach or Florida beach, not Galveston beach.

The TO DO list

The most minute and grandiose things can appear on the TO DO list. Small and niggling things, like raise the curtain rod 1" at one end so it will be level. I never noticed it wasn't straight until I moved my bed, now I look directly at that window from the bed and it is obviously crooked. It is a small thing, but makes me weary just to think about fixing it. So I asked Bill when he was here for dinner, and it took him about 10 minutes. (Earlier I helped him get his yahoo settings on his outlook express so he could use his new email address, so we all have our own strengths and weaknesses.) Grandiose things on the TO DO list include coordinating the new tile, carpet installation and furniture delivery. That will be fun, and I can do that!! Eliminating carpenter ants from a tree in my front yard is also on the list, it is a small, irritating task, but one that can result in catastrophic results if I don't take care of it, like they will eat my house up. So retirement gives one time to deal with the TO DO list, but it also has a way of generating more items for same list...

Bill works on Polly, the pool sweep, she has a broken wheel. I have to go get parts today, on my TO DO list.
Labor Day grilling, a slick way to get Bill to come up, work hard, jump in the pool then get to eat.
My Honda generator, I'm quite proud of it, so is Honda judging by the price I paid, but it did start right up, first time. Running the generator is on the TO DO list, in case there is a hurricane. It has been sitting since IKE, and needs to be run. The refrigerator/freezer is running on generator today, until it runs out of gas. Then another fill up, add some special fuel mojo Bill gets from a Man Store, and it can sit another year. Notice the little dolly I bought to set it on, so I can roll it around.
Also on the TO DO list, clean off my workbench in the garage. It is a niggling thing for me, since I don't do much out there, but when Bill works on something at my house, and wants a simple tool, I should be able to find it, he has given me enough tools to keep here so he can use them. So a major task, but not much fun, so I am putting it off til cooler weather.
FUN TO DO list item, coordinate tile/carpet and furniture. Tile, I wanted to feel like I was at the beach, so tile is very light, textured.
Carpet is patterned, reminds me of carpet from the '60's, but apparently it has come back as the latest thing. This is not the color, the color will be light. Also, apparently, no one makes multi-colored berber like I have now, that is 15 years old, installed after the flood of '94, when schools were closed for several days.
My new bedroom furniture, picture is from on-line store catalog. Very traditional, but I like it and I have never had matching bedroom furniture since I was a kid.

On the Homefront...

Even in the busy world of retirement, there are some days I am at home all day, and start noticing things I want to change. During the working years, I spent little time in my bedroom, up early, and I could get ready for work, catch the morning news and check email all from my bedroom. After 2 months of retirement, I don't want to catch the morning news and check email early in the morning. I want to wallow around in the bed, read, stretch, yawn, and leisurely get up and get about the day. But my bedroom was not a restful place. So I have moved out some work-type furniture and computer to JanMa's office upstairs. Then I rearranged furniture so now I have more room, and can move in an easy chair and lamp. I did keep the TV in the bedroom. See the graphics from floorplanner.com below, click on Ground Floor and switch from old master bedroom to master bedroom to see the old and new arrangment. Click on 3D to manipulate it in 3D mode.
BUT, after moving the bed and seeing what 15 year old carpet really does look like, I need new carpet, and replace the old carpet in the bathroom with tile. So that will happening in the next few weeks (I have already picked out carpet and tile) and real pictures will be forthcoming.

Flying Practice - to Brenham

Bill and I took off this morning about 9:30 for some flying practice for me. I flew in the left seat (the PILOT'S seat) for the second time. It took a bit to get used to it, since I always sit in the right seat and do my flying from that side, but he said it would be easier from the left seat, and as he is generally right in things having to do with airplanes, it was easier. The instruments were right in front of me, I could reach the electric trim tab (don't even ask, I can barely understand the mechanics of it) and the fuel tank switch. We flew west and north, over Huntsville and Lake Livingston while I practiced going faster, going slower, changing altitudes, and trimming as necessary. Then we headed for Brenham for lunch. The Brenham airport has the neatest '50's style diner right in the FBO, The Southern Flyer Diner. http://www.brenhammunicipalairport.com/index_files/page0003.htm
Quick and bumpy flight back to Hooks, then I picked up Max at Milam. Max and I spent about an hour diving for golf balls in the pool, he is much faster than me underwater, and can sink lower quicker. But I can float better than him, and we all know what THAT means. BTW, I am still LOVIN' retirement.

Archer instrument panel.
Piper Archer parked at Brenham airport.
Bill sitting outside at Southern Flyer Diner, Brenham airport.

Southern Flyer Diner emphasizes '50's style atmosphere, complete with the waitresses in poodle skirts.