A short post....

Not much news this week, but look out next week!  We leave Wednesday morning BTBC (before the butt crack-of dawn) to go to Oregon for  a surprise trip for Brad's big birthday (coming 8/8).  I still have not told him that we are going, but will wait until Tuesday evening.  It was quite challenging to pack a suitcase yesterday without his knowledge!  The other person who still is in the dark is Gramma.  I thought she should get through her pacemaker check today (she's consumed) before I spring the news on her.
We did get to a couple of ballgames this week, with a double-header coming this evening.  Fortunately, both kids play at the same ballpark with back to back games.

 

 Kudos to Carrie for her weight loss this week, meeting a 50# goal.  So proud of her!
Rory came over Friday and mowed the lawn (an enormous job) and tried out the newly fixed weed eater, which worked like a charm. I was excited to find my hydrangeas in bloom, and two colors even!

 Saturday morning, while backing out of the garage to take Gramma to her hair appointment, I hit the garage door, knocking it off the track and tearing off the bottom rail.  So after dropping Gramma off, I went to Home Depot, got a part for the door, and called Curt, who came to the rescue!  Thanks SO much!

 

 Brad woke up in time to help with the installation.

Saturday night, Amie, Carrie, Kristi and Wendy went to Cheyenne to see Miranda Lambert in concert.  They were impressed with the concert, as well as the fact that they stayed up til 1:00am,,,Now THAT is impressive!

 Yesterday, we gathered for an abbreviated version of Sunday dinner, with just Meredith and Emma, Amie, Sophie and Grayson, Gramma, and Brad and I.

 (Speaking of impressive, I managed to make it through the entire day without doing my hair or makeup....an au natural kinda day, I guess).  Congrats to Amie on her new job starting today (still at the hospital, but no more commuting to Loveland)...hope it goes well!

B-Rad/Gramma update

I've decided to write about Brad and Gramma today, in lieu of having tons of family pictures and lots of family activities.  (Those of you on Facebook, know that most of the peeps went camping over the weekend).  I was looking back at some previous posts and noted that Brad has certainly lost some ground over the past year. As Emma can contest, (on our trip to Ft. Collins Friday to get Gramma her big box of Depends) as we were driving out of town, Brad noticed that the fields were looking good and that the ???? was getting taller.  I asked him, "What is that?" and it literally took from Greeley to Loveland, with prompting, to think of the word, CORN, throwing in "rhubarb" when trying to guess. Tonight I am trying to get a grip! Both he and Gramma are making me NUTZ!!!!!!  Between her lack of hearing, and his lack of language, it's quite a roller coaster......So,over the weekend, he drew a picture (unable to write many words) of some things he needed and asked me to take him to that store.....Hmmm, wonder which one.....Anyway, we went to Home Depot with his little drawings, where I headed off to get the only thing I knew for sure that he needed, (a cartridge for his weed eater), found a clerk to help, then went round and round looking for Brad. Discovered him in the sprinkler parts area,asking an employee to help him find one of the items he had drawn on a scrap of paper....Yikes!  Ends up he finds said item, which BTW, looks nothing like his drawing, and then we look for a 50' cord (you cannot have enough cords), which is still laying on the garage floor in it's original wrapping at this post...All in all, I'm not sure what the rush was as none of the purchases have been used. So, back to tonight....At dinner, Gramma tells Brad that she has an appointment to get her pacemaker checked on Monday and that they used to check it over the phone, but now they can't. I tell Brad, "Ask her why not?" and instead of just asking, he says "Sue wants to know why not?"  She says, "I don't know but I have to have it checked every month now" and I, foolishly ask, "why?" and her reply is, "because I have to have it replaced when it goes out".  I ask, "do you know what happens when it stops working?  Your heart rate will just go back to the way it was before you got a pacemaker"."oh, I don't think so.." she says. She honestly thinks that the day the pacemaker goes out, she goes as well. I give up!
Currently we are trying to wean Brad off of the $180/month medicine onto the $10 a month meds.  The downside is that he has to take both drugs simultaneously until the weaning process is completed.  The result is that he is more tired than usual.  Tired, as in he slept from 10 last night til noon today, then had a nap at 3....Yikes to the second power....
Over the weekend, Gramma got a phone call from a former classmate (although "lots younger"-89) who was just lonely... Good old Shorty Hopkins...from Fleming, Co.,Good to know that his sister passed away 3 years ago... We wondered if they were on Super Senior Match.Com.....
So, can I interrupt with the latest?  Gramma just called me into her room, panic stricken that there was "water gushing out of her cable outlet and the cord was moving around".  I jumped out of my chair to check it out...NADA....but I was able to dust under her TV. No water, no moving cables....OY...Do you wonder that I'm not loony....?
Anyway, back to the evening.....after dinner, and after I'd left the table,  there was a conversation that started with a washing machine evaluation and advanced to Gramma's life, when she lived in
Sheridan Lake (Wyoming...near Cheyenne, she said). " Grandma and Grandpa Weibers had a farm there. My dad didn't take care of us and left us.  We moved to Fleming and lived in several houses, 2 that held grain that we cleaned out, and lived in 5 different houses in Fleming, one of which was an old school house.  We lived in a big barn and just shut the doors during the Dust Bowl days.  Mom taught me to lay paper on the walls.  We lived off the county. They bought our groceries,   Dad left because he didn't like me and didn't like me being around his wife.  My Mom was 10 years older than he was. His family never liked him for the way he treated my Mom and me,  My cousin Marie and I used to play together at Gramma's house and she used to tease me saying, "You don't have a mother".  My Mom said to tell her that I had more mothers than most kids.   I sure got taught a lot of things." And there you have it, a quick summary of her life!
Brad called me today at work to ask "how you get on that thing I play with" (that would be the computer), and he needed a password that had an underscore in it.  Now, try explaining how to accomplish THAT to someone who is impaired.
Hugs from the Simmons Nursing Home!

Whew...So much to be thankful for (and the photos to prove it)

As you know, we Simmons Clan sure know how to spot a party!  Brad and Gramma and I found one in Ft. Morgan  - his Aunt Ouida turned 102!  I'll remember her for the wedding cake that she made for our wedding in 1969.  Brad's folks had to drive to Morgan to get it, put it in the back of their Oldsmobile (no cake boxes for them!), then drive to Denver to deliver the cake.  Only one side of the cake got mashed in....At her party, I heard about how many cakes she'd made over the years and I kept thinking that at 19, I was so annoyed by my crushed wedding cake that I gave little consideration to the work it involved.  Thanks, Aunt Ouida!

We had a wonderful time seeing Gabi perform in "Annie".

 Nancy came out for the event as well as to take Corbin and Gabi back to California with her for a week, where they had an amazing time!

She took them to Knottsberry Farm, Splash City, to see "Mary Poppins" and to an Angel baseball game.  Thanks, Nana!  We know you are still resting up!

 She accompanied them back to Colorado where the Stampede was in full swing!  I want to say "thank you Curt and Spencer, for all of your hard work this year to provide 10 days of entertainment/ meals for your family and friends!  And especially for taking on Dad's share of the workload as well!  It meant the world to me."  Here are some of the Stampede highlights....

Learning to milk a cow

 

 

 

 

The kids and the adults enjoyed the carnival.  Ah, the smell of funnel cakes, the crowds, the "carnies" yelling, "Hey Grandma, you can win a prize for each one...Just ONE dollar to start...." One of my favorites was when Elijah, Corbin, Sophie and Gabi decided to ride this ride, around and around and upside down.....Sophie thought she was going to throw up, so Gabi advised her to turn the other way and swallow....Luckily, she made it off the ride without incident!  Favorite concert?  Had to be the Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap on Sunday night....Even at age 76, Kenny still puts on a great show AND as a bonus, the crowd consists of mostly the over 50 set, so there was no standing by the audience as in so many other concerts.  Several of the peeps also attended a rodeo, including "first timer", Keva, who enjoyed enthusiastically  clapping at the the cowboys and horses.

And now for the grand finale, the 4th!  The day began with a trip to Eaton to get tGabi and Corbin so that the Frosts' could get ready for their big BBQ that night.  We went to the pool for the festivities which the kids had a blast...the watermelon roll, and the ping pong ball race and a water balloon toss.

We then all gathered for the big night and neighborhood block party.  It was a great party with some delicious food (thanks to Dave Fields for bringing his travelling smoker and cooking some fabulous home grown meat!) And thanks to the neighbors for providing a gigantic bounce house/water slide.

 

 Thanks to Spencer for some entertainment watching Carrie try to eat a jalapeno off the grill and then bribing Elijah ($5) to see if he would eat one, too.  Of course, he did!

 Thanks to Elijah for taking 30 minutes to help the younger kids with the task of filling a gazillion water balloons for a 1 minute balloon toss.

 

 Thanks, Amie, for not freaking out while Corbin and Grayson were riding the 3 wheeler sans helmets.

 And a big old thanks to Curt and Spencer for getting fireworks for all of us to enjoy (until the Eaton cops started patrolling the neighborhood). Thanks, too, for taking the boys to the demolition derby on Sunday.  What a fun time they had.

 

 

 And finally, a GINORMOUS thanks to Sarah for making her way to us, getting to Eaton at midnight on the 4th, to do much needed salon appointments for us all and for letting us spend time with your kiddos!