Building The Love Shack

I promised to give you an update on the family. The best way to do that is to do it one by one. But let’s first start with the large group.

The family birthday party in November was the largest one we had. This year we had Earl’s sons and daughters-in-law’s join us. My daughter Sheena was also able to join us. There were sixteen of us this year.

Christmas was a little quieter this year and a smaller group was present. We did small dinners with the others and made time with each of them. For Christmas, from us, the girls got gifts for the up-and-coming trip in February. And of course, everyone got spoiled as usual. One thing you don’t know about Husband and me is we love to play Santa.

New Year’s was the quietest one we had in years. A couple of the family had a Respiratory Infection and another had Covid. We decided that instead of sharing the illness, everyone stayed home this year. None of us are as young as we used to be and don’t recover quite as fast as we use to.

Now let’s do each of the family members. I’m going to do the main group first.

Ellie and Earl: Life is busy at the farm. It’s always busy at the farm. The end of Summer brings breeding time and Spring brings lots of babies. This Spring will bring new calves, donkeys, alpacas, and more puppies. But this year Spring brings a special delivery. A new grandson will be added to their lives. You know we are all looking forward to the baby shower.

They have found a babysitter for their animals and I am hoping they have started packing for our up and coming trip. I am personally looking forward to seeing Ellie in all the new clothes she bought for this trip. It will be interesting to see her in not working clothes and watch her sit still by a pool.

Jodi: Life has certainly taken a change. Last summer she found her true passion. She found a job working in a Zoo. Over the Winter she continued to do visits there and found an additional job working in a pet shop as an Animal Caregiver. She has now started a new position with the Pet Store as an Associate Manager. She is excited about her career and certainly found her passion. You can see her happiness as it reflects in her whole physical being. Her smile is brighter and she has lost a great deal of weight. We are excited for and proud of Jodi. She deserves this happiness. A celebratory dinner is planned for tomorrow.

Sherri: Sherri is a busy lady. She continues to work long hours as a Personal Support Person for Adults with Disabilities. She has a new addition to her life, Charlie. A Golden Retriever she rescued. On her off days she is busy playing Grama to the other love of her life, her granddaughter. In my last contact with her, she was actively trying to find a red dress for Valentine’s Day Dinner at the resort.

Bonnie: Bonnie is enjoying her retirement and has taken on a new project. Me! She has been my biggest support in my life-changing way of thinking. She is teaching me to say no and enjoy life more. She has also been watching my health and keeps getting me books to read. She may be retired but you can never really retire a Nurse.

Sean and Karen: Exciting news in that department. Karen received a promotion and is enjoying her job in management and is doing very well at it. Sean continues to work on his Degree in Logistics while running his trucking business. He has also kept me busy looking for his new house for the Spring. Together they are doing great and continue to be my biggest support.

Vania; Vania has been quite the little traveler. First, it was a trip to Portugal, then one to San Fransisco, and then one to Mexico. One does not know how she has time to work her many Nursing Jobs with all her travel. I expect she is now started packing for her next trip, the one to Mexico with us.

Husband: Husband is always busy. He is also working his three jobs (yes we like to be busy). He continues his job hanging out of mobile crane buckets a hundred feet in the air and if that isn’t enough he continues to do the Home Inspections and then there is his Construction Business. Oh yes, and let’s not forget working around the house. He is also busy organizing the Spring project, the “Porta Back Yarda”. We have post-hole diggers, pool installers, gas fitters for the pool heater coming, and the permits people coming to approve the encloser(fence) for the new pool.

It has already been almost ten years since his heart incident and when we get back from Mexico we are having his first battery change in the pacemaker. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long already. Since he will be forced to sit still (haha) he will be writing his master’s license then, so, schoolwork is also added to his busy life.

The rest of the group: We continue to see the other family members. There have been more dinner parties and visits with them. My girlfriends from my Nursing work and their husbands have become an important part of our lives. Another night out with them is planned for today. And pool parties will be soon in our future as “the family” loves these people and want to see them more.

The boys are planning for a busy golf season and the girls are planning hot tub parties and margaritas.

Let’s not forget Romeo and Juliette: They are both doing well. They have both lost weight. Husband has had them out trail walking. He is getting them ready for when they start traveling with us when we purchase the RV. They are enjoying the socialization with other dogs they meet along the trails. In the Spring we are planning to introduce Charlie to them on the walking trails, as he is planning to be traveling with us.

They have now graduated to having three toy boxes. One for the upstairs, one for the downstairs, and a new one for the yard for all the new pool toys they got for Christmas.

As I mentioned before Juliette, has taken full ownership of her chair from the cottage and Romeo has taken over one of the couches in the family room. They also love having my niece, the teenager I mentioned before. As if they didn’t get enough attention before, they now have someone else who plays with them all the time.

They only have one issue. They can’t seem to understand why they are not allowed in the hot tub. The pool is coming, they will have lots of room to swim soon, but no puppies in the hot tub.

As for Me: I continue to be one of the most blessed people as I have them all. Each one supports me in my decision and my adventures. My new job has opened up another world for me. I have met and made friends with some interesting and wonderful people.

My niece coming back into my life with that lovely teenager has given me much excitement. I think we have another artist and writer in the family. I am looking forward to spending time by the pool with her mastering our gifts.

Now to answer another question I have received many times in the past months… Retirement?

Haha… Husband and I have talked a great deal about that subject. One of the things we learned by having the Love Shack was that we definitely did not want the retirement life that we watched when we were there. We watched the retires sit around drinking beer and puttering around with nothing to do but watch the other neighbors sit around and watch each other…

That thought brings this answer… Oh god just shoot us now!

At the most, we plan to retire to the two businesses we each own ( that makes four businesses) and that won’t be happening for a while. We like being busy. I personally love the team I work with in Nursing and it will be hard to not see them as often as I do.

Husband is working toward extending his Construction and Home Inspection Business and will be good with not working out in the cold, rain, and up in the air with the wind. But he too is not ready for the complete change yet.

When retirement comes our version is to probably close up our business’s in the Winter and head down to the Sunny South for part of it and take a month to travel across the USA and Canada in the Summer to visit places we want to see. For us, that is enough of reinterment.

Ok, I caught you up on the family, the puppies, and the birdhouse and now I left out one thing… The plants… When we sold the cottage it was warm outside so I couldn’t leave the plants behind.

As it turned out we had a usually warm Fall in Southern Ontario. So come December the outside planters were still alive and doing well. My heart couldn’t leave them outside after they had done so well. So you guessed it. I brought them in.

I now have a mini jungle growing in the house. At this rate, there will be no need to buy plants in the Spring, I will just be moving them back out. Unfortunately, they did bring a few friends with them. Spiders!

The good news is I am only finding a few here and there and they are not those god-awful things I used to find hanging on the cottage.

Well, that’s the update I promise you. As you can see, each and all are doing well. And as always we are still together and going strong.

Thank you again for asking and reading our blog.