Emma's 14th

Good grief, Gertie, what a weekend!  We loved having Meredith and her kids here for the weekend, and were especially happy to be able to celebrate Emma's birthday.  They arrived at our house about the time I got off work Thursday night and were able to stay until yesterday.  It was Emma's one desire to go shopping while in Greeley (with birthday money from all) because apparently the shopping in Ogallala is limited.  I do believe that we were able to shop at nearly every retailer in a 30 mile radius, and even up to their departure yesterday, we were still at it.
Friday morning, I took Meredith with me to my support group "coffee club" to meet the ladies who have now become an important part of my life. It was pretty emotional with Vicki, just having lost her husband two weeks ago, sharing some of her thoughts.  Afterwards, Meredith had a long visit with Gramma (who misses her tremendously) and then started getting ready for her interview (the purpose for her visit) at NCMC, while I took Emma, Elijah and Corbin (who was home sick with strep) to their various destinations.

Emma had made arrangement with her friend Mary to get together for lunch and Corbin had an appointment to see the doctor.

We picked Mary up at the kids' old school (where Elijah was able to see some of his friends as well.  The girls were sure happy to see one another!  I dropped them off at our newly opened Panera while Elijah and I had lunch at Subway.  Then we took Mary back to school and went back to Centerplace to start our shopping extravaganza. Elijah found his only purchase for the weekend at Target, a Minecraft cardboard "head".

We got back just as Meredith finished her 4 hour long interview.  We sure are excited at the prospect of having them back here with us.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Amie had a Norwex (cleaning supplies) party Friday night, so Curt and the kids enjoyed wings from the WingShack at our house, while we learned about new cleaning products.  The boys (Rory and Elijah) were sure excited to see on another.  Elijah commented the next day that "Rory is a man now and finally taller than me".

Saturday morning was Corbin's last basketball game and although we wasn't feeling his best, he still wanted to play (and be there for the medals handed out after the game).  Gramma went with us as well.

 

 Following the game, all of the "girls" Emma (and friends, Tessa and Mary), Meredith, Carrie, Gabi, Amie, Sophie and I went...you guessed it...shopping at Centera.

 

 We began with lunch at Mimi's Cafe, then shopped until we literally dropped!  I took Sophie and Gabi to JoAnn's (hobby, fabric, and crafts) and while I was looking around, I got a page, "Is there a Sue Simmons in the store?  If so, could you meet your adorable granddaughters at the service counter, as they have lost you?"  Moments later, we were reunited! Whew!

After many (grueling....guess I'm not much of a shopper anymore) hours and bags of purchases, we came home to a great meal cooked by Brad while we were away - chicken and steak fajitas, guacamole and all of the fixins'. Corbin got some new Lego figures from the Lego movie and had fun opening and assembling them.

After dinner, while the kids played downstairs, we adults played cards and had a great time with lots of much needed laughter! Then we sang "Happy birthday" to Emma, had some cake and looked at all of her purchases.  (My favorite was a new bra from Victoria Secret!  Meredith almost fainted at THAT purchase!) She modeled  some of her new accessories, hats and jewelry, with some new tops that she found.

 

 We played cards until Grayson, Corbin and Gabi were ready for bed! (Sophie was at a sleepover birthday party).  Elijah spent the night with Rory, and surprisingly they slept!
They departed yesterday after a quick mini-shopping trip to Sprouts, Michaels and Bed, Bath and Beyond.....The roads were bad from Sterling and east to Ogallala and we were happy to hear that they made it back with no problems (other than tearful goodbyes).  Elijah asked Meredith if they could come back next weekend!

The Love Month

It has been great having normal February temperatures this week as opposed to our sub-zero weather all last week.  And, I have enjoyed feeling much better without the constant coughing.  So, things are looking up!
(theoretically, anyway)....
The kids are all out of school for a 4 day weekend - Friday (Valentines Day) and today (Presidents Day).  Color me crazy, but are they out of school an awful lot?  Gabi missed Thursday as well, staying home with strep, so Friday she stayed with me so her parents could work.  We had a fun filled morning (?) of back to back appointments for Brad with the speech therapist and the OT gal.  I'm not sure they are helping Brad with his issues, but they certainly won't make things worse!  Afterwards, we picked Grayson up and he and Gabi spent the afternoon here.  Gabi found a new game on the computer which somehow Grayson was interested in as well.  They were a joy to have!

 
Amie and Sophie had gone to Denver to see Heather and Matt's new baby, Keva (pronounced like Kevin without the "N").

 Sophie informed us that she held the baby longer than anyone that day!  She sure loves her new cousin!
Saturday brought a busy day, starting with nail appointments (Carrie, Gabi and I) and then we drove out to the country east of Eaton to pick up Corbin who was with Spencer and Curt at "the most amazing ever" Farm Auction, where they purchased quite a number of "new in the original package" car parts from the 50's.  (They were still trying to track down info on their purchases yesterday at Sunday dinner...Along with the car parts, they got some gold mechanic tools.)

 We got Corbin to his basketball game just in time where he was thrilled to score his first basket.  (He's a very unselfish player, passing the ball instead of taking a shot whenever he's near the basket.)  He also got his first nosebleed caused from getting hit in the face with a ball!
Brad and I left the ballgame and went to see a movie  (unusual for him to be interested in movies, so I was happy that he wanted to go), "The Monuments Men" with George Clooney.
We finally got around to celebrating Spencer's birthday yesterday.  The kids began by working on a craft project, but when the adults started playing cards, they gave up on that to join the card game.  We played "Shark Boots" (that's the kid name for a game that Sarah taught us to play).

 

Corbin cracked everyone up, wearing my reading glasses

 

In Spencer's honor, I made meatloaf covered in strips of bacon.  Unfortunately, the directions for cooking and my oven didn't quite mesh.  Carrie brought a Coldstone icecream cake to top off the celebration.!  I just missed the shot of Grayson licking his plate clean!

We are all looking forward to Meredith and the kids coming next weekend.  Gramma keeps saying, "We haven't seen them in sooooo long."  We all miss them and can't wait for their visit!  (And, as an added part of their visit, we will celebrate Emma's birthday!)

Ok, cough it up!

Bet you think that title is referring to the bronchitis that has kept me on the "down low" for this entire week.
But, no!  I'm talking about the name for Baby Logan, who finally made it into the world, beautiful and healthy last night. I found it interesting that the "little miss" waited until the Olympic coverage of the womens' snowboarding to make her appearance (seeing how her Mom is a snowboarder).  Hmm, what about the name "Olympia"? Doubt that Heather and Matt thought of THAT one!

Anyway, she is here and Sophie is VERY excited.  Hopefully, by my next post, she will have seen, held (named) and cuddled her new cousin!  Happy that Amie could be there to share her entry into the world!

Not much news this week and the first week ever that I've had no pictures to share.  Let's see, I would've taken a few shots of the piles of Kleenex cluttering the end table or the Musinex wrappers littering the counter. Wait, how about a close-up of my cough syrup?  Yeah, you get my drift.  Staying home from work all week was not so fun and I'm actually looking forward to being back today.

We've had amazingly cold weather all week with the coldest -28 degrees.  That was the day when the sun was shining and the skies were clear.  Gramma announced "what a nice day" we were having, clueless (and gratefully so) as to just how cold it was.  Sarah and Emi got on a plane Tuesday morning, headed back to the 60 degree California weather.  Nice that they were able to celebrate Spencer's birthday while they were here.  Sarah surprised him with a special dinner from California when she arrived- his favorite- In N Out burgers!

These pictures from Carrie cracked me up!  

Poor Cinderella, cleaning the bathroom floors!  (Ok, truth is Carrie was bribing her.  She wanted more rubber bands for her Rainbow loom, and this was the price she paid!). Love a girl who knows how to look fashionable while doing cleaning! And Corbin, creatively portraying Super Scuba Spiderman!

Burrrrr Blur

I often remark about the weekends being a blur and this one was no different, except it was the Burr Blur, with temperatures dipping to subzero and 7" of new snow.  At this post, it is a balmy -5 (with clear skies, though!)
We awoke Friday morning to the first round of snow and Carrie calling in panic because 1) Gabi's school was delayed until 10:00 2) Spencer was scheduled for some medical procedures prior to 10:00.  You get the picture!  They dropped Gabi by on their way to the hospital and I took her to school (quite a lengthy trip with bad roads), followed by an appointment with the attorney (figuring out the legal stuff on Gramma's house), promptly followed by another trip to Eaton to take Spencer home after his second procedure (no pictures!).  He had a "cyst" removed from his forearm during the first one, with the surgeon surprised by the outcome- not a cyst, but a black, marble sized growth. ( Fun weekend for Spencer!)
Friday night was the Father-Daughter dance and Curt took Sophie, who looked beautiful, by the way!

Saturday night was the Sadie Hawkins (girl ask boy) dance

 at Rory's school.  He said he had an "awesome time", with the exception of a lack of snacks at the dance!  What's up with that?
Saturday night, Sarah and Emi arrived from California (coming to our frigid environment from 70 degree weather ) and as usual, she came to the rescue getting the family hair cuts and color.  We had everyone at our house on Sunday for a Super Bowl (not so Super, by the way) party and dinner, where Sarah cut and colored, and the kids played in the snow. (note that I did recycle a WalMart bag on my head while my color set....It looks about as good as Gramma's Bronco hat!)

 

 

 

Action shot!

Inside, there was snacking (lots), swear words toward the football game, Jenga, puzzles, school projects and the general Simmons Family Sunday .

 

And don't cha know, we just HAD to throw a turkey dinner into the mess!