Sue and Jeff Cousins
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About Us

We have been married 34 years and have raised three children. Our daughters our married and live in Chicago and Honolulu. Our son Drew died in 2003 while recovering from knee surgury.

Sue was born in Arkansas and grew up in Bloomington Illinois. Her parents and two brothers have passed away but she has sisters in Bloomington and Mesa Arizona and a brother in Wala Wala Washington.

Jeff lived in Maine until age 16 when his family moved to Sterling Illinois. His parents spend their winters in Florida and summers in Vermont. His brother lives in Vermont and sister in Michigan.

We met in Champaign Illinois where Sue taught in a community college dental program and Jeff had his first flying job. We were married there in 1971 and spent the next 30 years in Illinois raising our children while Jeff owned one and then managed a second aviation company. The opportunity to move to the Seattle area came two years after we became "empty nesters".

The move to the Northwest provided a real change in our personal interaction with a more structured work week and no children living at home. We have been together more in these past few years than anytime in the past 30.

Changing Lifestyles

Our life together for the past 34 years has been full of many challenges, great joy, and deep sorrow but no experience to match the depth of change we are embarking on now.

We are planning on retirement by the end of the year and leaving the beautiful Northwest where we have enjoyed the past 5 years after moving here from the Midwest. Because one of our daughters lives in the Chicago suburbs and the other in Honolulu we have decided that as much as we enjoy the Puget Sound area it is not where we plan on settling down. In fact we have not decided upon a place to plant roots again and that lends itself to the discussion that has been ongoing for the past several years about full-timing.

Jeff's parents tried full-timing in a '34 foot motorhome back in 1984 long before it became the widespread lifestyle of today and found that after a year they were ready for a "nest" to call a base. While the conveniences of RV's, cell phones, email, and the Internet make it easier to stay in contact with friends and family today their experience has made us cautious in our planning. We have given the girls a great deal of our "stuff" and will store personal effects.

We purchased the Tradewinds a year ago and have added cabinetry and other personal touches so we are ready to go in that department. We will start off using Verizon's data network and WiFi for Internet access and decide on Satellite Internet down the road. Health insurance, banking, bill paying and medical records are lined up and later this year we will move our residency to South Dakota. Our home had two full price plus offers in 10 days and is scheduled to close in August.

Jeff will work until a replacement is found but no success yet. The company was given a year's notice last winter so there has been plenty of time to find a new president. It will be a busy summer and fall in any event, we are planning a month long vacation and business trip to Illinois and Maine for two family reunions and have another month of traveling scheduled in November - way too many miles to call retirement! A new grand baby is due in Illinois in early December so the year will be over before we know it!

We seem to be prepared for the move so now we need to get ready emotionally for the change.


 

Our E-mail
jeffsue@cuzztravels.4t.com