The Retired Couple And Their Dog.

I lived the retired life for a week! John gave up his precious Skymiles to send me as a peace offering to Georgia for the week of Thanksgiving because he backed out of his flight and Thanksgiving plans with my parents. I am pretty spoiled by my brothers. So I found out that I had a ticket and then left 12 hours later from Salt Lake. Thank goodness I have awesome friends who took me and picked me up from the airport. It was great surprising my Mom and Dad though! I've always wanted to surprise somebody by showing up and it was well worth their happy surprised faces to see their favorite child home! For a week! And I get to go home in 3 weeks! S.P.O.I.L.E.D.

Anyways, I immediately began noticing that things were different than when I originally left for college and left them as empty nesters.

I moved to Georgia with Mom and Dad, I spent 4 years with just me and them at the dinner table, Church, movies, FHE, scripture study, prayer. I am SO glad I convinced them to let me keep Macey my Junior year. It was so fun to be there for her puppy puppy years and then leave her to still be a stinker-pot (as Mom calls her) for my parents to adjust to life without me. And Macey has just waltzed right in to be a huge part of my parents routine. It's really quite adorable. And now--going on 3 years of me being away--I can tell that the parents have finally gotten into the routine of being around each other ALL THE TIME and doing their retired such activities/new hobbies:

-Morning walks (sometimes together) with Macey

-Macey's restlessness til Dad plays this game where he throws treats down either way of the hallway for her to go and fetch Help in the kitchen. Then her daily mid-morning nap on various rugs/parents room. Lunch time stroll through the house to see what's up and if she can see any bunny rabbits in the front yard from the windows to bark at, afternoon in the backyard soaking up the sunshine, coming in to be let out of the house without her leash to get the mail with Mom--pretty exciting for her, then off to beg for attention and play, and follows the parents around at dinner, and then off to lay in the bedroom soft carpet for evening naps.

-Mom cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner

-Dad drives the kids to school (he's a bus driver! LOVE IT.)

-Mom reads, sews, plays the piano, cleans, Blogs (that's new)

-Dad still maintains his many hobbies which have expanded with the use of the internet and time. (hunting, maintaining his dutch ovens, guns, food storage, a form of blogging with others who believe its the end of the world (AVOW), listen to talk radio FAITHFULLY at 12 noon with every radio in the house blaring, and every Monday he's gone as a County volunteer firefighter!!! And going to the County Political Meetings and lunch meeting every Wednesday.

-Mom loves her TV Shows, which I miss watching with her in the evenings, and Dad still goes to bed quite early.

Of course when I'm home we change a few things due to us rubbing off on each other. But life slowed down A WHOLE LOT, when I was home. It felt so familiar. Funny how much life changes within a few short years but when you step back into the old lifestyle it all comes back deja vu with familiarity sensors going wild. But that's for another post.