We recently sat down and took a look ahead to 2015. The last 12 months have included:
- Selling our house
- Retiring
- Moving to a new state and all the things that go with moving from getting used to a new house to finding new doctors and other professionals like electricians and plumbers
- Having family visit
- Helping family members move
- Volunteer activities
- Travel and many other fun things
So, do the next 12 months look like we will be sitting around watching the grass grow or the waves roll in? While we will make sure that we have beach days, we have a lot of other things on our minds. These include:
- Travel
- We are going to the Orlando area in February. This is for fun, but also part of our time share look. We have been to several timeshare stays and presentations over the years, but are edging closer to buying into the program. If anyone has pro or con stories for us, we would love to hear them. The people we know who own timeshares, all love them.
- Nashville to visit with some friends of Jan's. We met up with them a few years back and had a good time. Nashville is about halfway between the Chicago area and Wilmington.
- Marianne's graduation and move. She is graduating from the Masters program at ECU in the spring and most likely moving, so we will be proudly watching her graduate and the helping her relocate to a new career.
- A midwest trip to see Diane (she doesn't know yet) as well as family in Minnesota and Illinois. (they don't know either)
- We also want to go to Roanoke VA and would like to go to Washington DC among other places.
- Day trips
- Family and friends visits. Our door is always open. Part of why we chose this area was the fun things to do. We are close to the beach here and only an hour or so away from Myrtle Beach. The Outer Banks are only a few hours away. We would love to have you.
- Home remodels and yard landscaping will always be part of the plan.
- Volunteer activities are fun and a good way to learn the area and meet some cool people. We have worked with the NC Coastal Federation and the local historical and preservation groups and will continue to do so.
- Lifelong learning opportunities abound. The local colleges offer a good number of programs. However, I have so far found the library here has some great opportunities from book clubs to topical discussion groups to a wide variety of on line classes.
- HOA, I was recently elected President of our HOA. I am still working on understanding the role. Jan will be working to get some HOA social activities going. For Halloween, several neighbors gathered to have a common candy area (and some adult beverages) and it was a lot of fun.
And those are the highlights and the fun things. I am sure some will seem like work, but we will mix the work and play to a good combination. We are enjoying retirement and being able to set our schedule as we want.
