I know for a fact that you can do it, because I did the same thing. I went back to school in my 40's and I was so scared I wouldn't be able to hack it, but I found out that I was more focused and dedicated than I was when I was younger. I'm not a nurse, but I did go into the medical field, so I had to take Anatomy and boy was that hard, but I did it and I'm so glad I did. Good luck with your new adventure. Laurie

"Not an issue for me because we have had separate bedrooms for the last 20 years - love it (my parents always did too). He snores and goes to bed at 9, I go to bed at 11ish and read a book or dec mag till 2 or 3. He likes the room cold and I like it slightly toasty, well, you get the picture." This made me laugh--and I resemble that remark! My poor husband slept on my left for years, until our kids got to be teenagers. In all that time neither of us slept all that well; as with Lynne he is on farmer time, going to bed by 9 and up by 5:30 am while I go to bed later and wake up later. We are comfortable at different temperatures. I need ABSOLUTE quiet to get to sleep so even his breathing kept me up. He goes to sleep easily but any little noise-like my breathing-woke him. And so on. The last straw was the kids turning into vampires as they became teens. They not only stay up till all hours, they are up and down the hall, on their phones, using their computers and tvs...and in our ranch house the bedrooms are separated by literally a couple of feet. A year or so ago he decamped to the day bed in our florida room which is at the farthest and most quiet end of the house. It has been bliss for all. He goes to sleep early, the kids do their thing and I've been able to discover the joy of reading in bed in the evening. We both sleep so much better and at the risk of TMI...now that our kids are old enough and independent enough to be out most weekend evenings, our private life together is better than ever :). Ahem. A long winded answer and a detour but truly, living like royalty with separate bedchambers has been nothing but good in our house! Ann

My story is a little different. We moved away from our grown children. I went back to college in my mid 40's. However when I graduated there were no local jobs in my field. After giving it a year, I took a job a 4 hour drive away. After renting an apartment and maintaining our home for 6 months, we decided to relocate permanently to the new community. At that time we had 1 grandson who was 2 years old. We now have 8 grandchildren. Do we miss them? Yes. Do we visit often? Yes. Are we close to them? Yes, I feel we are. One grandson keeps telling us he is going to come live with us when he goes to college (he's only 10 now) A granddaughter has decided that she and I are penpals and writes me a letter every week. And I had better write back or I get a call wondering if I have mailed a letter back yet. (she is 9). Just last week my son emailed a video of our 2 youngest singing happy birthday to "nana". No, we aren't able to attend most school activities or ball games or spring concerts, but as I work full time, I might not be able to do that even if I lived closer. We have talked about moving "back home" after we retire, but that decision has not been made yet. After all, we would then have time to visit whenever we pleased. Do I wish we lived closer like we used to? Many times. But life does not always give us easy choices. For now, we know that our decision was the right one for that time. Not sure yet what the future holds. When and if you do have grandchildren, make the time you spend with them "quality" time. Just this spring we gave 2 of our grandsons 3 choices for their birthday presents. One choice involved spending a day with us having a picnic and going fishing. The other 2 choices were more "fun" type things like amusement park, etc. Both boys picked a day spent quietly with us going fishing and a picnic. When we asked a different grandson one year what he wanted most for Christmas, he said "time with grandpa and nana". So we took him for a long weekend of special one-on-one quality time with us. The best suggestion I can give is to take it a day/week/month at a time. Find hobbies you used to enjoy or develop new ones. Find things that both you and your DH enjoy doing together.

She spent two years in counseling and I stopped when we lost our insurance... she had been snowballing the therapist. She would tell him how wonderful things are between me and her when she was, in reality, ignoring me and treating me like I am non existent. I've been concerned because her mom lies pathologically. She went into my husband's work one day and ran past his window. He called her to ask why she didn't stop to drop off her daughter's backpack like they had discussed and she claimed she was home, three hours away. He told her he saw her run and jump into her truck and drive away with her boyfriend in the rental vehicle (my husband works at the dealership that fixed her truck) and she told him that it wasn't her, it was her 70+ year old mother that is almost a foot shorter than her. Three other people saw her and she still denies it was her. Whatever! No reason to lie about it.. who cares if it was her or not, but why lie? Last month, they went to court to get an order so BM's mom can pick up SD from school instead of BM. Later that day, DH gets a call from BM's mother telling him that it's a good thing the court gave her permission because it will save her a lot of money as she filed a case against him in her county and he was going to be served that very night but she went ahead and called off the process server. Well, an online check of the county court case index shows there are no cases filed against DH in her county, our county or BM's county. In the day and age of computers and online databases, her lie is so easy to prove. Again, why lie? Why even call DH to tell him he isn't going to be served on a case that doesn't exist? If he isn't going to be served, who cares? What difference does it make if a case was filed or not? But they seem to NEED to lie... I guess if nothing else, it gave her a reason to call DH. I just don't get it. When I first read the post saying that a lying disorder is hereditary, I laughed and didn't think so. But, reflecting on BM's mom lying over stupid things, nothing really... and BM lying over things that don't matter, maybe it's true. maybe SD can't help it because it's in her genes. If so, then what good is a counselor going to do? She's at least a 3rd generation liar and my understanding of therapy.. you can only help someone that WANTS to be helped. She apparently wants to be like her mom and grandma. I still don't think it hurts to have her write out why she thinks she did it and what she can do to make it better (amends), even if it isn't logical. I am not going to send the letter to anyone and there really isn't any discipline or consequence that could be imposed, I agree she probably doesn't understand why she does it and it probably is either a compulsion or modeled behavior that she doesn't know why she does it. But, I really don't think it will hurt her (and it's not a punishment) to self reflect and try to grasp onto some sore of thought as to why she...