The biggest news of the week has been "Back to School" for two out of the three families.  Emma and Elijah started in Ogallala on Wednesday and Sophie and Rory started Thursday, while Gabi and Corbin won't begin until Wednesday of this week. 

 

Everyone reports being happy with teachers, classes and classmates.

Earlier this week, Carrie and Corbin returned from their trip to California where they had some great times.  Monday was spent at Knottsberry Farm and Tuesday at Newport Beach!

 

Not much news for the weekend.  Brad and I took a long drive on Friday to an estate sale of an elderly deceased patient at my office.  Shocked to see how far out in the middle of nowhere that she lived (alone) into her 90's!  Saturday he and I went to a movie (the first time, other than kids movies since his surgery) and saw "We are the Millers".  We ran into Pat and Larry James and sat with them and enjoyed lots of laughter!  Just the thing we needed!

Saturday night, Heather and Matt came to join Amie and Curt in an early celebration of Amie's birthday this coming weekend.  We kept the kids while they went to dinner and made French Dips for the kids....a request from Rory.  For a kid who never used to eat, he sure is making up for lost time!  He ate 3 sandwiches!  Then afterwards, we took them to Coldstone for ice cream.

 So happy that Heather is finally feeling good and is  almost showing.  She says she has a tummy, but it's tough seeing that baby bump yet!
Sunday was spent doing the usual stuff, as well
as a trip to Eaton to see the progress of the
Frost home.  It's coming along and exciting to
see and imagine a little easier how the completed
home will look. 
Of course, Gabi and Corbin (or the "two knuckleheads" as they are referred to by their parents) couldn't wait to show us their rooms where their toy room/TV room will be.  Not  the most comforting space, with no railings yet.  We spent the majority of our tour yelling at the them to be careful!

Just a 12' drop to the lower level....why are we worried?

View out of 2nd story

overlooking master bedroom deck

kitchen

We gathered for our Sunday dinner with a crock pot full (literally) of BBQ beef, corn on the cob and spicy coleslaw, followed by brownies and ice cream.  Yep, the Simmons family are all about healthy eating!

 

Picture this....

 Last Monday morning might have given me reason for suspect .  This was the first thing I saw after the storm last week.  Not a big thing, but the postage machine and fax machine under a pile of wet ceiling tiles wasn't the best start! ( Later that day, I picked up the fax machine and dumped about a half a cup of water out of it.)

But then, as the week progressed we know that my silly little ceiling fiasco was NOTHING in comparison to what transpired Friday in Manitou.  Mud, mud, and more mud everywhere peppered with cars, trees, chairs and everything else that could roll down the muddy river.

the restaurant where we enjoyed wine and tapas (see patio with the yellow tape)

 What a disaster!  Thankfully, everyone survived and the whole town pitched in to start the cleanup.  The news reports that there could be more of the same with rain in the forecast this week again.  Keeping all of our fingers crossed and grateful that Pam's place was still intact.   Thursday night we celebrated Brad's birthday with dinner at a new fish restaurant, Lucky Fin.  I'm thinking maybe Gabi enjoyed it more than anyone, loving the mussels and clams. 
Afterwards, we had frozen yogurt with all of those "healthy choice" toppings!

Friday, Brad and I headed to Central City to celebrate his birthday.  Not much to say about THAT, other than we could've saved our money and stayed home!  Friday also brought the departure to California of  Carrie and Corbin, following Spencer's return home on Tuesday.  Maybe the "Bickersons" will have some good times after their "separation"!  Corbin was very excited to go and play with Trent and to spend ALONE time with Mommy.  Carrie registered the kids for school before leaving that morning and was able to stop by the building site of their new home.  Wow!  It's really going fast!

 Friday night, Amie and the kids spent the night in Denver, with Amie ready to run a half marathon in the mountains.  She was happy with her time of just under two hours!

Saturday night, we were invited to a 60th birthday party for Anne Masterson.  Since the theme was "Aloha, etc.", Brad and I decided to lighten things up, showing up in our much loved ? costumes from several Halloweens ago.

We had a great time and visited with lots of party-goers!  They had an amazing spread of sliced beef and shredded pork, salads, cake and ice cream and of course wine and beer.
Sunday, Amie took Sophie and Grayson to the water park where they about froze going down water slides...summer is definitely on it's way out!  Brad spent the majority of the day on a ladder (yikes) again scraping the paint off of our "lifetime guaranteed" vinyl trim on the eaves.  (Surprisingly, we were never able to locate the contractor or his product line)

Meanwhile, our Ogallala peeps were enjoyed the lake again, learning to paddle board from Kelly's son, Skyler.  They had a great time and Meredith reports that Elijah would make a great surfer!  The kids were in a Banner parade on Sunday, and late last night I got pictures!  Yay!  It makes it just a teeny bit easier having them gone when we can see them in photos.

 

And speaking of alone time, Spencer and Gabi had some real quality time while Carrie and Corbin were gone.  They had a "date" Saturday night to see a movie and then Spencer took her horseback riding in Estes yesterday AND took pictures!

Gabi had us all guess the name of her horse with the clue- "it's the same name as the most famous Bronco player"- and was amazed that everyone guessed correctly!  Later, our somewhat reduced clan, gathered for Sunday dinner, a chicken, broccoli and rice crock pot meal and some delicious apple pie that Spencer picked up on the way home from Estes.  I guess we all needed a little "comfort food", because there wasn't a crumb left!

Mid-week thoughts....yeah, ok, another one

I think I am having a  little pity party today.  I hate  that I am feeling self-absorbed, but frankly, for some reason,  I am apprehensive about MY future.  You might say, "Duh, no kidding", but the reality of being ME isn't so swell.  I was reflecting today about saying to Brad about 20 years ago, "Hey, just so you know, if YOU ever get Alzheimer's like your Dad, I'm not sticking around to be a caretaker like your Mom is doing. I'm not giving up MY life to take care of you, so you should be advised...."  Now, here I am, August 7, 2013. How ironic!  I am the caretaker for not ONE, but TWO people.  Here's a sampling of my dinner conversation:
Gramma, "You worked a long day today, didn't you Brad?  Well, Happy Birthday!"
Brad, "Mom, my birthday isn't til tomorrow"
Gramma, (Loudly) "WHAT?  Isn't this the 8th?" "I get my days mixed up".  "Well, you made it to 63."  "I wish I was that age again.  I've accomplished a lot since I was that age."
Silence.....
Me, "So where did you work today and what did you have for lunch?"  (This is standard dinner conversation). 
Brad, "I worked in Ft Collins (yay! he remembered the name of the town) and we ate at that one place that we really like"
Me, "The Mexican restaurant?".
Brad, "yes".
Gramma, "Maxine called today.  She still isn't feeling well. She needs me to host bridge for her next time.  Margaret called too.  Her husband's son got a lot of storm damage.  Edie called.  She can't pick me up for bridge Friday because her husband is sick from the chemo he got.  The doctor gave him too much. Today he got a smaller dose and is feeling better.  I had 2 calls from people wanting to fix my house after the storm.  I politely told them I didn't have any damage."
Silence....
Brad, "Curt says he is applying for an electrical position at CSU".
Silence..(Me, thinking "Wow, what if that happens?  Where does that leave us?  And, on the other hand, happy that he is thinking about his future and how to make it work alone."
Silence....
I hand Brad a birthday card that the Taylors sent today.  He reads it (painfully slowly) and tears up.  It's a very sweet and sentimental card.
Gramma, "(reading the card) announces, "Oh and look, you got some credit cards with it".  (Tries to, but can't pronounce where the gift cards will be used).
Me, "Carrie and Corbin are going to California Friday".
Brad (distressed) "Why?"
Me.  Explanation about how they had airline tickets to California at Thanksgiving last year, but cancelled because of his brain surgery. "Now do you understand?"
Brad. "No, I don't get it".
Gramma, " I think I know why I'm losing so much weight.  When Dad was alive, he had sausage and eggs and pumpkin pie every night for dinner.  I got tired of it, so I had sandwiches.  Now I'm eating lots of fruits and vegetables and I never ate those before, so I think that's why I'm losing weight."
Silence....
Gramma, "well, see you in the morning and thanks for the dinner".
Now, I'm on my 3rd glass of wine, Brad is asleep in his chair and Gramma has her TV volume cranked up to the max.
Good times!

August (that means " BIG ASS storms")

So the highlight (or lowlight) of the week would be the storm we had Saturday night.  Like every non-believer, I was leisurely strolling outside taking pictures of the strange cloud formations for quite awhile before the actual storm hit.  I've never had my cellphone "alert" go off before, but I'm glad that it's smarter than I am, in telling me to seek shelter.  Yes, I grabbed my box (you heard me right, yes, BOX) of wine (concerned about glass breakage) and headed downstairs.  Meanwhile, Gramma parked herself on her walker, watching the weather come in from the front door.  She wasn't concerned about no stinkin breaking windows ....We were lucky to get just a smattering of hail, unlike some of our neighbors to the west who had golf ball sized hail and the damage that comes from that.

crazy clouds

Other big news.  Amie and her running group ran Friday in a relay from Ft. Collins to Steamboat, with each one of them running 3 legs of the race.  Amie reports that her leg at 3:00am Saturday morning was the most difficult, running up a pass in the dark.  Sounds like a blast, huh?  I'm very proud of their group, coming in first for the women's team (66 total teams) and placing overall in the top ten! Friday, I met my Mom and Pam and David in Denver to look at the apartment that Mom wants to move to, a bigger and nicer floor plan.  She should be moving  there ( just across the parking lot from where she currently resides) in a month or so.  Good seeing my sibs! And, speaking of moving, we went to Eaton yesterday to assess the damages at the new Frost home.  Thankfully, none. Their house is moving along quickly!

 

By next week,

the kids should be able to see where their bedrooms will be, which is what they're excited about.  Spencer comes back from California today after being gone for a week to spend time with his Mom.  Glad he could get away! 

You know, I always have to poke a little fun at Gramma in these blogs.  So here's the latest. 

 We were sitting down for dinner this week and she hands Brad the newspaper (the Greeley Tribune) with an article circled in black pen and says, "Here, I saved this for you".  Brad reads it and looks at her with that "I don't get it" look, so he hands it back to me to read.  " I didn't want you to miss out on a job" she says in all seriousness. Oh boy....

 

The Taylors had a mini-vacation this weekend, going to Water World on Saturday (Denver) followed by dinner at their favorite place, Maggianos and an overnight at a hotel.  Thankfully, they escaped the crazy weather and it didn't ruin their day.  Emma wore her new sundress for dinner, looking beautiful and grown-up!

When they got back to Ogallala, Meredith texted me to let me know that her friend Kelly (the chicken dressmaker) had given her a very nice sewing machine, so Meredith continues her quilting.  And after the stressful week she had at her job, I'm glad she has it!

Yesterday, we gathered for Sunday dinner, making chicken and beef fajitas and were just getting ready to eat when the doorbell rings and a man and his small son appear. " My son, Joseph, wants to play with your kids. Can you just make sure he gets back home (the house behind ours) when he's done?  We were all shaking our heads in disbelief!  Who does that?  And, before he was able to get the door shut, Corbin says, "Mom, he's weird".  Hmmm, he may be on to something there...So, Joseph stayed while we ate dinner, parking himself on the coffee table.  Bizarre!

Happy Monday, everyone!