A little over two years ago, we paid tribute to and celebrated with my dad for his retirement after 36 years of working for Ansul, Inc. Then in January of this year, my mom hit and then surpassed her 40th anniversary of working for Hotflame Gas Company in the small town of Carney, Michigan, where I grew up. For quite some time she has been talking about retirement for herself, but it quickly became a running joke in the family of whether or not it would actually ever happen. Like my father working for Ansul, my mother working for Hotflame was the only thing that I ever knew. For many (even myself growing up), my dad's job likely seemed somewhat glamorous as it allowed him to see the world and gave him endless stories to tell. If I'm honest, my mom's job on the other hand seemed much less so as it brought her to the exact same place every single day for over 40 years and offered less appealing extras such as being "on call" and frequently being yelled at over the phone by people who had run out of gas (usually of their own accord). It wasn't until I became a mom myself and could look back at her time at Hotflame that I was able to fully appreciate her career there.
The truth of the matter is that Hotflame was not just another desk job for my mother. Instead, it was a job that was 5 minutes from our home and across the street of our K-12 school that both my brother and I attended. THAT (in addition to working with both friends and family on a daily basis) was the luxurious perk that her job offered. You see, Hotflame did not take her to far off places, but it did allow her to work from 8-4pm on a daily basis with almost no extra time needed for commuting. It allowed her to go to almost all of my sporting events, band/choir concerts and awards ceremonies. It allowed her to wave at me at lunch time from across the street as I played for recess. It allowed her to bring Tylenol to me at school when I had terrible headaches (which happened often), to pick us up from school quickly when we were not feeling well and to bring us something that we'd forgotten when needed. It allowed her to literally race the 2 miles to be at my side after my brother had run from the bus to my grandmother's home and called her to say that I was choking on a candy on the bus (I can still see the image of her car whipping around the corner at Nascar speed to be at my side). It allowed her to bring my brother and I to school and for us to walk to her afterwards when we had no desire to ride the bus to and from home. It allowed her a break to come home for lunch every day when, in addition to catching up on some soap operas, she would also often get dinner started so that as soon as my dad was home from work we could all eat together as a family. It allowed her to be home with my brother and I while my dad's job took him to far off places. For all of that and so much more I am forever grateful.
You see, now as I work my own job which has its downfalls but also allows a fair amount of flexibility for our family I understand the unseen benefits that some jobs can hold and I quickly see how lucky my whole family was for my mom to have the job that she had and for the 40+ years of service that she put in there. So while my dad's job blessed our family in many ways, I think that no one can argue that my mom's job was possibly even more of a blessing to help our family thrive.
And so, on October 2, after months of debate when mom would officially retire she headed into the office for the last time as a Hotflame employee. There, they gave her what I am told was a very nice celebratory breakfast and then she spent the day tying up loose ends and gathering her belongings. Afterwards she had 3 more days (her first three days of retirement) to prepare for our arrival and a weekend of celebratory fun to come...
As mentioned in my previous post on Friday afternoon of Mom's retirement week our family and my brother's family all headed up North for the weekend to celebrate with her and although we didn't have very much time together as a family on Friday night before bed we definitely made up for it with a day of fun activities on Saturday...
First, we shared a few lazy hours in the morning just visiting, relaxing and letting all of the boys play.
 |
| I gave my mom the retirements gifts I'd made for her. |
 |
| Avery fell in love with this scooter. |
 |
| Gabriel was desperate for a Gator ride! |
 |
| The boys had a blast playing in the yard and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful Fall colors! |
As the morning progressed, we made a game plan and then all loaded into our vehicles to head to a nearby farm for some more fun outdoors with hay bales, a petting zoo, a corn maze, a hay ride and more!
 |
| Klingenmaier boys playing on the hay bales. |
 |
| Jump! |
 |
| Where did Avery's body go?! |
 |
| Who needs a sand box when you can have a corn box? |
 |
| Avery feeding the goats. |
 |
| We are thinking of getting on of these at home! ;P |
 |
| The corn maze was (thankfully) fairly simple and just had 6 colored posts that we needed to find. It took a little work but we found them all! |
 |
| After the corn maze, we let the boys play on the hay bales, slide and giant chairs for a bit again. |
 |
| Me and my daddy! <3 |
 |
| 3 Strong Klingenmaier Boys. |
 |
| The boys also got to go on a "train" ride and conveniently there were exactly enough seats for all six of them! |
 |
| The big guys (Micah, Caleb & Asher) seemed a little bored with the ride, but the littler guys (Hudson, Avery & Gabe) loved it. |
Video: "Train" Ride
 |
| Photobombed by Caleb. |
 |
| My little cow. |
 |
| Moo!! |
 |
| Klingenmaier Family Picture. |
 |
| Migrin Family Picture |
 |
| Grandma & Papa with the 6 Pack. |
 |
| Crazy little minions! |
 |
| Finally, after playing on everything else, we went for a hayride through the farm fields and woods and then got to pick out some pumpkins. The day was gorgeous, the fall colors were brilliant and it was really my favorite part of the adventure. The boys were most excited by the mud puddles that we drove through! :) |
 |
| Grandma & Hudson |
 |
| Grandma & Asher |
 |
| <3 |
 |
| So Heavy! |
 |
| Me & My Pumpkin! |
 |
| The Whole Klingenmaier Gang! <3 |
 |
| (Avery is pretending to sleep) |
 |
| Papa & Micah <3 |
 |
| Before leaving the farm the boys all enjoyed lunch and a little more play time. |
Finally, after a great morning of family fun it was time to head back to Mom and Dad's house to prepare for the retirement party ahead. We set the boys up with a movie and then the adults got to work setting up and decorating. Then, it was time to PARTY with mom's closest friends and family!
 |
| The Woman of the Hour |
 |
| No Klingenmaier party is complete without a generous dessert table and this table did not disappoint! |
 |
| The cake. |
 |
| Can you believe that these are cupcakes?! Most people had no idea until we told them and no one dared to take one and ruin the bouquet. |
 |
| We kept the decorations really simple with a few balloons inside and some lanterns, signs and balloons outside in the garage. |
The party itself was very low-key and (hopefully) exactly what Mom wanted. Originally, she swore up and down that she did NOT want any sort of party. However she only made Dad promise that he wouldn't throw her a party. She never made Aaron or I make that promise and so a couple of weeks prior to this I told her it was happening, like it or not. At first she seemed a little annoyed but once I convinced her that it would be extremely informal with no speeches or roasting involved she was completely on board.
 |
| Grumpy face. He's mad that I made him share the scooter with Asher. |
 |
| Tough Choices. |
 |
| For the food, my cousin catered the event and other friends and family helped out with various salads, etc. |
After a few hours of fun celebrating Mom and visiting with friends and family the party winded down and it was time get the kids (and ourselves) in bed.
The next day we all headed to church together (during which the boys drew a LOT of pictures) and then it was time to pack up our stuff and head back home, closing out another great family weekend!
 |
| I never knew until this weekend that Avery can write his name all by himself! |
 |
| Avery's 'Rocket Ship' |
 |
| Avery's Bunny' <3 |
 |
| Avery's 'Octopus' & bunny? |
 |
| Before we could leave, Asher REALLY wanted to build something with Papa in his shop so they worked together quickly to build a small chair for Asher's Pikachu buddy. |
 |
| Pikachu thrilled with his new chair! :P |
No comments:
Post a Comment