Nurse Joan is now ALL OURS...

"Have a retirement party!" they said.  "It'll be fun!" they said.  So G'ma Joan spent her first two weeks of retirement cleaning the house. 😂 This sweet lady graduated from Sacred Heart School of Nursing back in 1972 and has been working with patients ever since.  First she did hospital work, but when she had kids she went to part-time clinic work.  While we were growing up, she worked at a Pediatrics office--bringing home strep throat swabs for her own sick kids, and knowing all the kids in the Palouse on a first name basis--and then when we were in our teens, she switched over to the OB/GYN clinic, and worked there long enough to give Katie and I (and Kelly!) solid advice during our pregnancies.  She is calm under pressure, and regardless of what Dad says, she's very compassionate toward people and their health issues.  We think it's a combination of a God-given gift and years of service.  But now, after 44 years of nursing, she's decided to find other hobbies for her time.  We're predicting these will be spending time with her THREE G's:  grandkids, gardening, and GREG.  (God, be with her. 😂)

 

My kids didn't know that nurses used to wear CAPES.  This is real-life superhero clothing, people.

And of course, throwing a party includes a list of honey-do's...so the morning of the party, Jeff and Papa and Micah helped put up the treasure that Papa found...

 Slow farmer crossing? We had lots of chuckles over this.

 And Daddy brought his hammock to try out under the deck...

Twinsies!  Lolo looks not too sure of this "swing" in this picture...but I'm pretty sure each grandkid had their share of time in the hammock.  (Sorry about the beam indents, Mom and Dad...we'll find some trees next time!)

I had to text this picture to Cousin Erin--G'ma Caroline had certain recipes that she passed along to us...this one we all use:  Costco potato salad, and when you slice hard-boiled eggs and sprinkle it with  paprika, it looks like homemade!  Erin approved of our presentation.

 So many of Mom's friends and family members came to the party.  It was such a fun day.  Here's Jerry and Shey showing up with Mom's walker, flowers, and wine.