Welcome to my first blog in retirement
and newly transplanted to Minnesota! I retired on February 2, 2023 from Johnson
& Quin, a direct mail printer and mailer in Niles, Illinois north of
Chicago. I spent the bulk of my career in sales and marketing at J&Q – 38 years
8 months and a handful of days! Yep, that’s a LONG time! At some point along
the way it was just easier to stay than to leave. The company is medium sized, about 100
employees these days, but it competes with the big direct mail producers like IWCO
and Japs Olson here in Minnesota.
I have been in marketing and sales roles most of those years, as well as directing the account management/customer service department for a few years. I’m used to writing copy for blogs, emails, white papers, and more so it seemed like a good idea to keep my writing skills sharp by blogging about my life as I adjust to retirement and living in Minnesota.
My husband, Steve, and I moved from Gurnee, Illinois in the far northern suburbs of Chicago to Minnesota on August 26, just a couple days after our first grandchild was born here. Good timing, huh? We’ll miss the good stuff in Illinois – wonderful family, friends, neighbors, and our community at Joy! Lutheran Church. We won’t miss the high property taxes, traffic, etc.
Why Minnesota? When our two daughters were growing up, we never imagined that they would both end up in Minnesota, but that’s what happened. Daughter #1 Jaime decided to go to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to study Kinesiology. Daughter #2 Alyssa followed her there three years later and they both stayed. Jaime is married to Mike and they welcomed, Xander, our grandson in August. Of course, he’s the cutest little boy ever!
We landed in Dundas Minnesota, a little town of just under 2,000 with a small-town main street with a couple bar/restaurants and a wonderful bakery that is only open a couple days a week. Dundas is located next to Northfield, a town of over 20,000 people and two small colleges, St Olaf and Carleton. We have the basics, a Target, Menards, Aldi and Cub about 5 minutes from our house. Not the same as Gurnee where we lived in Illinois, but a smaller town has a lot of advantages. Northfield is one of those Hallmark towns with a beautiful historic main street, cool old houses and an annual fall festival commemorating Jesse James and his gang robbing the Northfield Bank. We built a house in Dundas, and have lots of projects to keep us busy for quite awhile.
Soon we leave on a five-week trip south with good friends, Fred and Vicki. They have lived in Northfield for 30+ years, and we’ve known them since college. They and their two daughters joined our family on many summer vacations. Now we live only 5 minutes from them! We are lucky that we’ve remained the best of friends with a group of people from college - Iowa State University - and try to see them throughout the year.
You know a bit about me now. There are a lot of topics I may touch on, but the next ones will likely be our travels and the sites we are planning to see in the next few weeks. Welcome to my blog and thanks for reading!
Kay
