Happy Retirement, Mom!

Life's Too Short...Retire!

 That's the message on the mug we got for my mom this past week (or, the message that appears once you fill the mug with hot liquid.)  Oh, the great strides in mug technology. How far we've come from the days when the most clever thing you saw on a mug was the saying "Someone from Albuquerque Loves Me" or "My Parents Went to De Smet, and all I got was this mug" or a logo of Valleyfair with personalized names in black typeface along the top.  When we went on vacation, my younger sister would get mad that tourist traps always made mugs, keychains, combo comb/mirrors with "Courtney" and "Megan" on them, but never "Abbie". Darn you, Abbys with a "y", you caused my sis to miss out on the pleasure of having a Mickey Mouse ruler with her own name printed on it.

But back to the mug...once you add hot coffee and the saying appears, you realize, it's true! Life IS to short! That's one of the reasons my mom has decided to retire after a long successful career in education. She has spent 30+ years as a Speech-Language Pathologist and Early Literacy Interventionist and is hanging up her (formal) teaching hat this year. I'm sure she'll continue learning and teaching in her own special way. I'm counting on her making sure Ryan pronounces his S's correctly, or she'll send him to Speech like she did me! I had justht had a sthmall problem sthaying my s's. 

Retiring will give her much more flexibility in spending time with family such as going to visit my sister 4 hours a way or having her come during the week when my BIL is traveling for work. My mom has already been a huge blessing taking care of Ryan 2 days a week this year and we're so lucky to have her want to continue watching Ryan part time. He loves grandma time and I love bringing him there! She'll also be able to travel more now that my parents won't have to balance the school calendar along with the planting/harvest calendar.

I made a poster for her and my sister hung it up in the lounge with the cake, flowers (and the mug...don't forget the mug, besides being an example of science at work, it also served a more mundane but crucial function. It held the forks). She liked the "speech jokes" on the poster. My favorite was the pirate saying "I'm working on my ARRRRRRR".

Hip! Hip! Hooray! for Bette!