It's August 13th, I have started to receive the paperwork to process my retirement. I took one look at it and put it back in the envelope. It's been a rough week, last week. On August 7th, we had to have your sweet little dog, Angel, put to sleep. She was almost 16 years old and she was suffering. The Vet, Dr. Berry, said there wasn't any more that he could do for her. Even though we knew it was time it sure was painful and still is painful. I miss her terribly.
We also found out on August 8th the rules for transplants have changed and it looks like it might take longer to get Eldon's transplant. We move forward though and keep our chin up.
I have talked with my husband and he's still on board for me to retire the end of this year. He agrees that I need to get enrolled for a photography class and start preparations for this as a potential profession. I am so grateful that he remains on board the "Retirement Train". I feel so much relief and I know that life will be just fine. There is life after State Employment.
We are having a Boutique on September 7th that I want to invite everyone to, I am working to raise money for Eldon's health care and I want to get an idea on the possibility of opening a Boutique in the future. The time is 9AM-2PM, address is 11000 South on 40th West. Hope y'all can come.
Talk to you soon.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Friday, August 2, 2013
The Retirement Process
The retirement process can be very time consuming and frustrating. I wonder why it's so difficult.
So I have begun the process of talking with the Utah Retirement System. I have also contacted our state HR people and the insurance people. They all sound so excited when you tell them about your plans to retire then they lower the boom on you for what you are going to lose. It's the insurance that's the hardest. Eldon will check to see if he can add me to his insurance policy and how much it will cost. I am checking into AMAC, the Association for Muture Adult Citizens. It's an option other than AARP. I have over 400 hours of sick and annual leave so I get some monies there that can help with medical insurance or needs. That's my only concern is the insurance, it might be dicey for a bit. However, I will not let that discourage me from taking the plunge into retirement.
I asked y'all in the post before this one to suggest some jobs that I could do, because we all know that I can't just sit at home. One person suggested being a school crossing guard, having that huge sign, swatting bad kids or swinging it at a rude driver could be fun. Someone even suggested I check out my hobbies to see if that could be profitable for me. Another suggestion was to work as camp hosts, since we both like camping. We could combine camping and traveling together. All the suggestions sound pretty good to me
Here's some ideas let me know what you think:
-Photographer, I just love to take pictures. Scenery, people, pets, it doesn't matter. Salt Lake Community College is offering a 6 week course about how to properly use your camera, how to set up shots and be a better photographer. I think I could do that. Would it be profitable immediately? Naw, but I do intend to continue working for some time.
-Meeting/Party Planner, again Salt Lake Community College offers a 12 month course on this potential profession. I love to plan parties and if you came to our Fund Raiser in June it was quite a blast. I could have my own business and then when I complain about management I would only be complaining about me. LOL!
-I could get my teaching certificate renewed, lots of work but I do enjoy teaching. I would teach for maybe another 8-10 years.
-I could be a foster parent. I have been through the training before and it's not hard but it sure isn't that lucrative financially. I love kids and I feel bad when kids don't have a place to call home, especially where it would safe for them.
-I could work at a hospital or a medical office. I would love to be a PBX Operator..."Doctor Hunky, please, report to the nurses lounge." Dang, I am cracking myself up.
-I could really get working on my home based businesses, Thrive Life and ShirleyJ, they are great products and I think I can talk to peope about the need to eat. Oooops, there's another funny one. (aren't you just loving reading this crazy ranting of mine?)
-I could be a tour guide, I could take people around Salt Lake City or Utah. Maybe I could be the hostess on the LeBus to Wendover. Bazinga! No, really I could.
-I could do my own reality show. Seriously, they have Honey Boo Boo on TV. Not to mention the Swamp Guy who chases after rodents. How about those guys who go around seeking "Big Foot". Or those whiney spoiled women who spend thousands of dollars on a bridal gown. Some suggestions here, what kind of reality show?
So what do you think my friends? Your opinion is important, not the final decision, but certainly important. I will keep you up on how things go and what's happening.
So I have begun the process of talking with the Utah Retirement System. I have also contacted our state HR people and the insurance people. They all sound so excited when you tell them about your plans to retire then they lower the boom on you for what you are going to lose. It's the insurance that's the hardest. Eldon will check to see if he can add me to his insurance policy and how much it will cost. I am checking into AMAC, the Association for Muture Adult Citizens. It's an option other than AARP. I have over 400 hours of sick and annual leave so I get some monies there that can help with medical insurance or needs. That's my only concern is the insurance, it might be dicey for a bit. However, I will not let that discourage me from taking the plunge into retirement.
I asked y'all in the post before this one to suggest some jobs that I could do, because we all know that I can't just sit at home. One person suggested being a school crossing guard, having that huge sign, swatting bad kids or swinging it at a rude driver could be fun. Someone even suggested I check out my hobbies to see if that could be profitable for me. Another suggestion was to work as camp hosts, since we both like camping. We could combine camping and traveling together. All the suggestions sound pretty good to me
Here's some ideas let me know what you think:
-Photographer, I just love to take pictures. Scenery, people, pets, it doesn't matter. Salt Lake Community College is offering a 6 week course about how to properly use your camera, how to set up shots and be a better photographer. I think I could do that. Would it be profitable immediately? Naw, but I do intend to continue working for some time.
-Meeting/Party Planner, again Salt Lake Community College offers a 12 month course on this potential profession. I love to plan parties and if you came to our Fund Raiser in June it was quite a blast. I could have my own business and then when I complain about management I would only be complaining about me. LOL!
-I could get my teaching certificate renewed, lots of work but I do enjoy teaching. I would teach for maybe another 8-10 years.
-I could be a foster parent. I have been through the training before and it's not hard but it sure isn't that lucrative financially. I love kids and I feel bad when kids don't have a place to call home, especially where it would safe for them.
-I could work at a hospital or a medical office. I would love to be a PBX Operator..."Doctor Hunky, please, report to the nurses lounge." Dang, I am cracking myself up.
-I could really get working on my home based businesses, Thrive Life and ShirleyJ, they are great products and I think I can talk to peope about the need to eat. Oooops, there's another funny one. (aren't you just loving reading this crazy ranting of mine?)
-I could be a tour guide, I could take people around Salt Lake City or Utah. Maybe I could be the hostess on the LeBus to Wendover. Bazinga! No, really I could.
-I could do my own reality show. Seriously, they have Honey Boo Boo on TV. Not to mention the Swamp Guy who chases after rodents. How about those guys who go around seeking "Big Foot". Or those whiney spoiled women who spend thousands of dollars on a bridal gown. Some suggestions here, what kind of reality show?
So what do you think my friends? Your opinion is important, not the final decision, but certainly important. I will keep you up on how things go and what's happening.
Monday, July 29, 2013
July 29th
Can one really truly retire? According to Webster's Dictionary to retire means to leave one's job and cease to work.
I once heard a Jewish Rabbi on the radio say people should not retire. Rabbi Daniel Lapin says there is no word for retirement in the Bible. He says when people retire their health deteriotes and they are telling God they are done serving people. Then who needs you? Can you imagine not serving others?
When I was a teenager I wanted a job. I wanted my own money so I could spend it the way I wanted to spend it. My parents said my job was for me to go to school and get an education. They said I could baby-sit on the weekends. I could work during the two week Christma break and during the summer but during the school year I was to work at getting an education. I guess if you look at it that way, then I have been working since I was 5. So do I think I can truly retire? Can I leave my job and cease to work? Definitely I can walk away from my current job. Since I have made the decision to retire the pressure is lifting. However, can I really cease to work? I think I could take a month or so off but then I would get right back to it. Working!
So what will I do? What do you think I should do? I think my next post will start on jobs I just might like to do or be good at. Stay tuned, give me your input.
Have a great end of July!
I once heard a Jewish Rabbi on the radio say people should not retire. Rabbi Daniel Lapin says there is no word for retirement in the Bible. He says when people retire their health deteriotes and they are telling God they are done serving people. Then who needs you? Can you imagine not serving others?
When I was a teenager I wanted a job. I wanted my own money so I could spend it the way I wanted to spend it. My parents said my job was for me to go to school and get an education. They said I could baby-sit on the weekends. I could work during the two week Christma break and during the summer but during the school year I was to work at getting an education. I guess if you look at it that way, then I have been working since I was 5. So do I think I can truly retire? Can I leave my job and cease to work? Definitely I can walk away from my current job. Since I have made the decision to retire the pressure is lifting. However, can I really cease to work? I think I could take a month or so off but then I would get right back to it. Working!
So what will I do? What do you think I should do? I think my next post will start on jobs I just might like to do or be good at. Stay tuned, give me your input.
Have a great end of July!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
The Beginning
July 25th: I have decided to start blogging about my retirement. I want to remember my thoughts, ideas and plans. Then I can see as time goes by if I kept the thoughts, ideas and plans. I want to help me, or journal, my path to retirement and my life after retirement.
I can't believe that I am seriously contemplating retiring. When I was a freshman in college, 1980, I wrote a paper in an Freshman English class where I said I would probably have to work until I dropped dead on the job. I was single then and thought I would spend the rest of my mortal time here on earth as a single woman. Working until I dropped dead seemed my only option.
In 2002, I as lucky enough to find a wonderful thatI wanted to share my life with. I thought I would be able to scale back my working hour. I did to a point. I was working a full-time and part-time job and Eldon, my soon to be husband, wanted me to stop working part-time. Not only was I doing that but I was volunteering at our local LDS Temple. Sooo, I stopped the part time job about a month before we got married and I stopped the temple work about six monts after we got married.
I can't believe how incredibly difficult it was being married. I know I had this fairy-tale story in my head but I didn't think it would be so polar opposite. There were problems with my husband's four children and his second wife's children were making it difficult to be happy. Unfortunately for me, I have a poor coping skill, it's called "over eating". I learnt that from years of having an alcoholic father and an emotionlly withdrawn mother. Still not a valid excuse, I am responsible for my choices.
Two years into my marriage I was ready for a divorce.I felt I didn't deserve to have to live this way. I was now 52 years old and I planned on being a mother and grandmother, not a step-mother or stepgrandmother. It was a huge adjustment for me. Life certainly wasn't going the way I had planned.
Along about that time came menopause. I am sure if God had told us about menopause not one woman would have vounteered to come to this earth and endure this human experience. Between that, my marriag and the stress of my job. I wasn't sure how much longer I could all of this or even manage one of these stressors. We had a new bureau director come in and she turned everything upside-down, backwards and inside-out.
Well, I endured the menopause. What other option was there? It's a fact of life for wome into the 50's. My marriage endured the children, the menopaus and my weight gain. We will be married 11 years in November. The job, however, continued to go downhill. It became more than I could or wanted to deal with.
My first plan was to retire the end of 2012. My husband and I both would turn 60 the end of that year. We would be married for 10 years and I would have 22 years in with the State of Utah employment. It was January 25th of 2012 that my sweet husband was diagnosed with End-Stage Liver Disease and he had a Hepatcellular Carcinoma in the left lobe of his liver. My world was turned upside down. He had endured all kinds of testing and procedures. As of today we are waiting for a new liver. To see that adventure you can go to EldonAuger.blogspot.com it certainly hasn't been anything either of us ever expected.
December 2012 came and there was no celebration of our anniversary, our birthdays or my retirement. Just a bunch of worries and concerns.
On December 12th, 2012, at the clinic visit the transplant team was certain that Eldon would have his transplant before the next clinic visit, June 11th, 2013. Well, here we are still waiting. I talked with Eldon about retiring after his transplant. When we thought it might happen in May, I started to plan for a July retirement. May, of course, has come and gone without the new liver and I, well, I am still working full time at a job that is sucking the life right out of me, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. To write all that has happened with this job would take another blog. For this job, I am required to work through people's homes and with my arthritis it takes alot of me. The brow-beating that goes on here at work is awful, the atmosphere here in the office is worse than being at a funeral. People don't interact with each other very much and it's just the opposite of what it was before the current supervisor came in and changed the office culture.
Now, my plan is to retire no later than the end of this year with or without the liver transplant. I know I will need to work somewhere else, however, with careful planning I just may be able to work less hours, less stressful environment and still come out ahead. How do I plan to do that? You will have to read my next post. When will that be? Within the next week.
Have a great one. I will be back before the week is out with more blogging, or complaining or planning. Whatever!
I can't believe that I am seriously contemplating retiring. When I was a freshman in college, 1980, I wrote a paper in an Freshman English class where I said I would probably have to work until I dropped dead on the job. I was single then and thought I would spend the rest of my mortal time here on earth as a single woman. Working until I dropped dead seemed my only option.
In 2002, I as lucky enough to find a wonderful thatI wanted to share my life with. I thought I would be able to scale back my working hour. I did to a point. I was working a full-time and part-time job and Eldon, my soon to be husband, wanted me to stop working part-time. Not only was I doing that but I was volunteering at our local LDS Temple. Sooo, I stopped the part time job about a month before we got married and I stopped the temple work about six monts after we got married.
I can't believe how incredibly difficult it was being married. I know I had this fairy-tale story in my head but I didn't think it would be so polar opposite. There were problems with my husband's four children and his second wife's children were making it difficult to be happy. Unfortunately for me, I have a poor coping skill, it's called "over eating". I learnt that from years of having an alcoholic father and an emotionlly withdrawn mother. Still not a valid excuse, I am responsible for my choices.
Two years into my marriage I was ready for a divorce.I felt I didn't deserve to have to live this way. I was now 52 years old and I planned on being a mother and grandmother, not a step-mother or stepgrandmother. It was a huge adjustment for me. Life certainly wasn't going the way I had planned.
Along about that time came menopause. I am sure if God had told us about menopause not one woman would have vounteered to come to this earth and endure this human experience. Between that, my marriag and the stress of my job. I wasn't sure how much longer I could all of this or even manage one of these stressors. We had a new bureau director come in and she turned everything upside-down, backwards and inside-out.
Well, I endured the menopause. What other option was there? It's a fact of life for wome into the 50's. My marriage endured the children, the menopaus and my weight gain. We will be married 11 years in November. The job, however, continued to go downhill. It became more than I could or wanted to deal with.
My first plan was to retire the end of 2012. My husband and I both would turn 60 the end of that year. We would be married for 10 years and I would have 22 years in with the State of Utah employment. It was January 25th of 2012 that my sweet husband was diagnosed with End-Stage Liver Disease and he had a Hepatcellular Carcinoma in the left lobe of his liver. My world was turned upside down. He had endured all kinds of testing and procedures. As of today we are waiting for a new liver. To see that adventure you can go to EldonAuger.blogspot.com it certainly hasn't been anything either of us ever expected.
December 2012 came and there was no celebration of our anniversary, our birthdays or my retirement. Just a bunch of worries and concerns.
On December 12th, 2012, at the clinic visit the transplant team was certain that Eldon would have his transplant before the next clinic visit, June 11th, 2013. Well, here we are still waiting. I talked with Eldon about retiring after his transplant. When we thought it might happen in May, I started to plan for a July retirement. May, of course, has come and gone without the new liver and I, well, I am still working full time at a job that is sucking the life right out of me, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. To write all that has happened with this job would take another blog. For this job, I am required to work through people's homes and with my arthritis it takes alot of me. The brow-beating that goes on here at work is awful, the atmosphere here in the office is worse than being at a funeral. People don't interact with each other very much and it's just the opposite of what it was before the current supervisor came in and changed the office culture.
Now, my plan is to retire no later than the end of this year with or without the liver transplant. I know I will need to work somewhere else, however, with careful planning I just may be able to work less hours, less stressful environment and still come out ahead. How do I plan to do that? You will have to read my next post. When will that be? Within the next week.
Have a great one. I will be back before the week is out with more blogging, or complaining or planning. Whatever!
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