A time for everything...

Today was my last day of work, I'm officially retired! I've worked as a nurse for many years; I worked for 10 years at a hospital on the ortho neuro floor, I then worked at a skilled nursing facility as a charge nurse for about 20 years, many of those years were part time and working nights as I had young kids at home. After my kids were grown, I worked at the same facility as a unit manager for another 10 years.  I loved my work there, but with increasing short staffing I was always on call and working too much. For the last 3 years I've worked in an office that works with geriatric patients, some living at home and others in facilities we oversaw.  This let me still work with the older patients I so enjoyed, but I got regular hours and no on call!  
But Bob retired, and the rheumatoid arthritis I deal with made me think it was time for me to retire too.
My office gave me a really nice send off today.

I'm the first one in the office in the morning and this is how I found my desk when I got there.

They brought in lots of food...

More food, and a sign that says retired, not expired...

Here's some of my coworkers; doctors, nurses and a social worker. We couldn't get everyone for the picture because some were still working.
I was touched that several people who've retired came in, and 3 doctors drove in from facilities they were working in, which just shows what special people I've been able to work with!
God has greatly blessed me all these years, giving me a job I enjoyed, the strength to do it and the joy of making friends with co-workers, patients and their families!

And now I'm going to take a blog break for a few weeks!  We are off on a fun adventure, including attending a special wedding!
I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

We had a potluck at church last week and I tried a new recipe for it.  I had seen this recipe for banana pudding and thought it was a good one to try.  It's filled with creamy pudding, whipped cream, bananas and some crunchy vanilla wafers.  And it was so good! I had lots of people tell me they loved it, including a few who are transplanted Southerners who said it matched up to their Southern tastebuds.  :)
The photo below doesn't have the crumbled wafers on top, as I added them at church.

Banana Pudding

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
2 cups cold milk
5 ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
15 ounce box mini Nila Wafers
6 ripe bananas, sliced

In a large bowl, beat together the condensed milk and the 2 cups cold milk until well mixed.  Add in instant vanilla pudding and beat until smooth.  Place in refrigerator while you whip the cream.  (Mixture will thicken.)
Beat heavy cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.  Then add half of cream to pudding mixture and beat until well blended and fluffy.
In large trifle bowl, place a layer of Nila Wafers, followed by 2 sliced bananas.  Spread 1/3 of pudding mix over top, then 1/3 of remaining whipped cream.  Repeat layers. Crumble a few Nila Wafers on top.
Cover and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.