From Secretary to Queen for a Day

Tuesday, October 29, I was honored with a Retirement Luncheon at my place of employment.  At first I nixed the idea of having anything "in my honor" because I've just been a secretary for as long as I can remember, but my young co-workers and boss insisted and finally I gave in.  I've got to admit that I'm so glad I did.

A delicious meal of Fried Mullet, Cheese Grits, and Baked Beans was served along with an incredible, irresistable table of desserts.  There were people there from all departments along with a group from the former prison I worked at before coming back to my present location.  There were a couple who came out of retirement to attend and some came who I worked with when I first started.  I was overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and appreciation extended to me.  And as if that wasn't enough, there were gifts and a plaque.  I will never forget that day or the wonderful people I have worked with through the years.  They were like family and I loved them all.

Pictured here are Richard (retired assistant warden), me, Mary Ellen (retired warden), Walt (now a warden), and Steve (currently a captain).  We all worked together at one time.  I called it "Camelot" because everything was so perfect when we worked together.

Pictured are Shawn (another warden's secretary from Lake Butler), Me, and Mary Ellen.  Shawn and her husband Ben (colonel) drove several hours to surprise me.  Shawn worked with me for about a year and was such a dear friend.  She has the sweetest family and I have missed them so much.
Mary Ellen was a wonderful boss.  Instead of a gift just on Secretary's Day, she declared that it was "Secretary's Week" and had a gift/card/lunch out every day of the week.  She also insisted that I take several weeks off when Amelia was born to enjoy being a grandmother.

This is a picture of my current warden, James, presenting me with a plaque and other gifts.  The black officer in the "trooper" hat is one that I'm especially fond of.  He stands for good things and works hard to make a difference.  The young man in the green shirt, Scott, (currently an assistant warden) is one of the young men that I started out with and I'm very proud of him.  He had just made sergeant when I started.

Getting presents is always fun.

Of course I can't begin to tell you who all these people are, but I am so fortunate to have known them and worked with them.  The most important one is right next to me (Bubba).  He kept the things at home (cooking, cleaning, etc.)  for the past seven years so that I had the energy and enthusiasm I needed at work and could enjoy any time I had off without having to worry about housework.

My wish would be for everyone to enjoy their jobs as much as I did mine.  This was a wonderful occasion and I'm very grateful for the experience.  I wish them all much happiness in the years ahead.

"Rocks in My Ears"

Before I retired, Darryl called me one day to ask if we would consider keeping Amelia in November so that he could take Amy to New York City for her 40th birthday.  This is one of the reasons I wanted to retire.  It was nice to be able to say yes without consulting the calendar and figuring out who could sub for me at work.  So on November 6 we headed out for Baton Rouge.  

We arrived at their home around 3:00 Wednesday afternoon.  Darryl was working at home when he received a call from Amelia's school telling him that she was telling them that she had rocks in her ears.  They reported that she was not in any pain and Darryl asked if we would pick her up.  When we got there, I went in to get her and found that she was already back on the playground.  When I located her she was laughing and playing with some other children on the slide.  She continued to say that she had rocks in her ears but "don't worry, they don't hurt."  She didn't really mention this any more, but that night Darryl really checked her ears with a bright light and didn't see anything.

The first item on our agenda was joining Amelia for lunch at her school.  The lunches are catered by Picadilly and Amelia said, "They're really good, but I don't eat them."  Oh well, she carried her lunch and we ate the school lunch which was actually pretty good for a school lunch.  She was so excited to have us visit.  We met her teacher who was very nice and she asked about the rocks in Amelia's ears.  We told her that she appeared to be fine but said that she "couldn't remember" how she got the rocks in her ears.  The teacher said, "Oh, that means she did it."

When she got out of school on Thursday, we went to Chuck-E-Cheese which is what Amelia always says that she wants to do when we visit.  She came home with a new library book, "The Night Before Thanksgiving".  We read it at bedtime.  It was a story about children rescuing the turkeys from the farmer's axe by stuffing them under their shirts and taking them home.  I think we can give up any hope of Amelia eating turkey and dressing for Thanksgiving.  She was definitely sympathetic to the turkeys in the story.  We read it every night we were there.

By Saturday Bubba was getting a little restless so he decided to help Darryl out by raking some leaves.  Amelia was going with me to the grocery store until she spied Bubba working in the yard.  Then she announced that she wanted to stay home and help Paw-Paw and that she did.

Later Amelia wanted to "play" soccer so she and Bubba ran around in the yard kicking the ball.  She asked me if I wanted to play, but told me I would need to have on tennis shoes.  I told her that I didn't have any tennis shoes and she asked, "Because you're too old, Nana?"  I quickly explained to her that I had tennis shoes at home and I didn't think I was too old yet to wear tennis shoes.  She loved playing in the back yard.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I think we all enjoyed being outside.

That evening Amelia asked me to make her an Indian costume.  I remembered that she had made one in preschool the year before and I thought I might could copy that idea so I took a brown Cracker Barrel sack and went to work.  First I cut the headband and feathers out of the bag.  Amelia decorated them.  She wanted her Indian name to be "Horse Riding Lady".  Then I cut the vest out of the sack.  She decorated that and we put fringe on the bottom.  Lastly she threaded yarn through some pasta pieces for her necklace.

The next day was more of the same with a lot of time spent outside.  Amelia dressed herself that morning and located her bow and arrow so she was back to being an Indian again.

That morning I was inspired by Amy's new cookbook on Louisiana cooking to try making red beans and rice.  I had tried this one time before but it was way too spicy and we threw it out.  This recipe was more basic and I was sure it was going to be delicious.

I simmered my concoction all day long, but when we sat down to eat it was just okay -- not worth the trouble.  (Bubba suffered all night from eating it.)  Maybe we just aren't the cajun type of people.

Amelia's birthday is on November 12 so we decided to go ahead and give her the Legos set we had gotten her for one of her birthday presents and Bubba could help her put it together.

Look at all these pieces.  Didn't the box say it was for ages 6 - 12?  Anyway after determining that he had to follow the instructions, Bubba went to work and Amelia stayed by his side for the whole three hours it took to assemble this horse farm.

She was very pleased with the finished product.  She says that "horsies" are her favorite animals.

Amy and Darryl came in late Sunday night and Amelia was very happy to see them when she woke up Monday morning.  That evening we planned a "family" birthday party so we could celebrate with her before returning home.  Of course, she picked Chuck-E-Cheese again and her mom had a small birthday cake for the celebration.  

The next morning which was actually her birthday, we had hot doughnuts for breakfast.  She was excited about going to school because she was going to get a birthday visor, a pencil, and some stickers from her teacher.  Amy was taking cupcakes to school for her class and it was going to be a big day.

This is our sweet six year old.  It's hard to believe how fast she is growing up.  She has added so much joy to our lives.  I love it when she throws her arms around me and says, "Nana, I just love you so much."  Rest assured the feeling is mutual.

Note:  On Thursday evening while Amelia and I were watching tv, she reached up to her ear and pulled out a little rock.  After that I kept asking her if she could feel any more rocks in her ears.  Finally she said, "Can we just take a break from talking about that?"  So I will.

St. Andrews State Park

I'm going to post later about my Retirement Luncheon.  It took place on Tuesday, October 28.  The next day we loaded up and headed for St. Andrews State Park at Panama City Beach.  This was our first time at this park although many people have told us that it is a great campground.  We decided to try it and reserved site #147 without knowing anything about the layout of the park or what to expect.  We don't really care for the T.H. Stone State Park at Cape San Blas because the sites are too wooded and none of them even have a view of the water.  We were expecting pretty much the same at St. Andrews but were very pleasantly surprised.  Although when making the reservation, we saw nothing to indicate that we would even be in the vicinity of the water, this was the view in back of our trailer.

As we explored the park, we made note of several sites that would be nice to return to that are on the water.  I really enjoy a view of the water when camping.  

We rode over to the area known as the jetties.  This is a place that I went to when I was growing up to go swimming.  You don't have to worry about an undertow when swimming here.

The weather was beautiful Wednesday and Thursday.  On Thursday, we went around to a fishing pier located in the park.  This is the first time I've fished like this in many years and although we weren't doing that great, it was fun just being out and enjoying the beautiful weather.

On Friday, it rained and we just spent time reading and watching tv.  Bubba grilled steaks for supper and they were so good.  We also ate out a couple of times.

Every morning and evening, there were special visitors to the camp sites. 

This was a good time of the year to visit Panama City Beach.  The traffic was light and the weather was cool.  We will definitely return here.  Hopefully, Joe and Judy can make it next time.