Becoming a Middle Aged Woman

About nine years ago, my life changed as my kids moved out and moved on. I was an empty nester as they call it. My wonderful husband Ed and I were finally alone. No more car pool, PTA meetings, homework, science projects, soccer practice, dance classes, or sleepovers.It all stopped. What was I to do?

Brian went off to North Texas, then tranferred to TCC where he earned an associates degree. We are still pushing him to finish and get a degree which he hasn't done yet. He works at a warehouse for Burlington Northern and drives the Zamboni for the Dallas Stars. He is a big hockey fan. He has recently moved back in with us and looking for another place to live.

Emily went to TCC for one semester and hated it. She told us not to waste our money. She took a job as a leasing agent for an apartment complex. She has been with them for 5 years full time and then went part time 3 years ago. About 4 years ago Emily decided to move to Austin with her boyfriend Brent (her high school sweetheart). We loaded them up and moved them to Austin. Life dealt them a tragic momemt as Brent was killed in an auto accident December 10th, 2005. Emily was devastated and so were we. She tried to make a go of it.
She moved in with Audra, moved into an apt by herself, moved to another apt, then finally decided to move home. She since has quit her fulltime job and went to hairschool and now is a struggling hairdresser. She also works part time at the apt complex to help with her bills. She has since met the love of her life Chase. So now we will see what like brings them....much happiness is predicted. Her dog Bella has been with her for five years and is her rock of strengh and comfort.

Ed has retired after 35 years of hard work. He nows enjoy playing golf, hunting, fishing, and keeping house for me. Which gives me more time for me.

So that is how we became empty nesters. So now I need to find something to keep me busy. So I started taking a few cooking classes with Sylvia, girls trip with girls from the office, going to movies, happy hours, and I enrolled in a quilting class. I made my first quilt in 12 weeks. I took a few more classes with my friend Connie. We even went to the Houston quilt show and were amazed at the beautiful work that so many women created. I even joined a quilt group and we met at our teacher's house once a week. Our teacher has been in the army and began running the classes like a drill sergeant. We were having fun as a group, but our tacher was getting a little grumpy and then downright cranky. So I decided to leave the group. It wasn't fun anymore and I didn't like being yelled at when I was paying for the class.

My friend Cari urged me to start scrapbooking. I was hesitate at first, but finally gave in and have enjoyed it ever since. I started off slow and then it really took off. I have been adding to my stash of scrapbooking supplies and now have my own scrapbooking room. We would attend crop nights at our local scrapbooking stores and eventually found a scrapbooking retreat The Covered Bridge Inn in Weatherford, Texas and is run by Pat Farrington. It is a charming inn with great food. We just show up and have fun for the whole weekend. We go twice a year, with this being our 3rd year. We have 20-22 girls in the group and we call ourselves the Gabby Scrappers and we even started a blog. I am the ringleader and plan all our weekends. Since I have been scrapbooking that has led to another hobby of photography. I am fairly new at it and am still learning. My friend Connie takes the most amazing pictures.