My Mom RETIRED!!!

BIG news for our family. My mom finally retired!!! I say "finally" because she is 67 years old and has been working 50+ hour weeks for years now--not an easy thing for ANYONE at ANY age.

My mom has been a nurse in Deming since 1981. She then went back to school to get her Bachelor's and then Master's degree in her 40s (during the 1990s). She has been a Nurse Practioner since 1997 in the little town. She was and is very well-known and respected in town. My siblings and I always joked about "who's turn it was to take mom to Wal-Mart." We HATED going with her anywhere because people LITERALLY FLOCKED to her wherever we went! Not exaggerating at all! We could be eating lunch somewhere and someone would walk right over and ask her to look at some skin sore/tell her about some body ache/have her analyze some weird rash/or write a prescription for them. She took phone calls ALL of the time at any hour of the day from patients. One time she even took a patient's dog home while he went to prison for a few weeks--again, NOT joking. So like I said, she was and is well-loved and respected--and rightfully so.

It's kinda sad the REAL reason behind her retirement. It had NOTHING to do with the patients or being over-worked--she LOVED this part. The company she works for is going "paperless" which means...COMPUTERS!!! Not a big deal to most, but to a 67 year old lady who doesn't even use a computer to check her bank account, this was TOO much. She decided that she didn't need that much stress in her life.

The company held a big "Retirement Party" for my mom this past Thursday. So all 4 siblings decided to surprise my mom by showing up:) A party on a Thursday afternoon???? Who the heck can make that??? (Next time retire on a Friday okay mom?:) So on a rainy Thursday, I drove in from AZ, my sister drove in from Las Cruces, NM, my older brother flew in from Monterey, CA, and my younger brother flew in from Huntersville, NC. And this is what happened: (I cry every time I watch this!)

Did you hear my younger brother say, "I'm here for my colonoscopy!"? HILARIOUS!!! It was so worth all of the extra effort made for all of us to be there. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

So cute and unsuspecting...

LOVE THIS!!!

Mom & her boys--yes, this TINY woman gave birth to these ginormous boys:)

All of us--see my dad in the back???

So a big congrats to my mom.  We love her tons and tons.  We always like to ask my parents, "When are you guys going to go on a mission?"  Well....my dad has his master's in agriculture, my mom is a nurse practioner so we all joke about them heading right to AFRICA!!!!  My mom is not sure that she can do a 3rd-World country but I think she would be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!