It all began with Ferdy and Newell NOT wanting us to SING for his birthday...

OK so Newell was ok with having a birthday pary (of sorts he thought) at the Legion but he really didn't want anyone to sing for him.  Well, that was like waving a red flag in front of a bunch of crazy women.  Linda had a flashback - let's do CHEERS for him.  So we spent several days coming UP with appropriate cheers and several days practicing.  The problem with the later is we only did it in Kathy's Part Van!  We had pompoms, batons, synchonized marching (to alert the photographer), beer and laughter.   

Ferdy the Frog started out the festivities with a full mug. Linda had great munchies and we bagan to party.

We LOVE the Legion for adding a pool table in the fall.  We have segregated play - boys and girls.  So we played, chanted, cheered and had a stupid good time.

Linda and Mark (another North Dakotan that actually relocated to TorC a few years ago.)

Maynard  visits with the crack team called MaurKat.  (That is opposed to the team of DePhil.  You figure it out!)

Roger C the pool hustler with Lonnie (Mary's hubby) in the background.

Lonnie and Bill watching somebody get beat.

Meanwhile Ferdy the Lush is working on his mug.  It appears to be going down quite nicely.

Maurene and Bill - are leaving the 30th!!! We're going to miss them and I'm SURE they are going to go to NE and have more snow!!

Newell with his presents.

Lonnie studies the expandable spare body parts that Newell received.

Notice that Ferdie is moving right along with emptying his glass.

Two little cheerleaders sitting on the stools.....
Watching the Baby Sista use the crutch!

 Ok Ferdy, Now that you've finished your mug you can go play with the boys..............

Sista Linda, Deb and Maurene are tired from all the marching and cheering and playing pool!!  Woot woot Let's go play cards now!!

Last one there's a rotten egg!

AND Newell will NEVER, EVER, EVER say, "Don't sing to me." again.

Forever Friends..............

I saw a tiny sign the other day that read - "Sisters are forever friends!"  That is so true of the Forever Friends we have made during the last 5+ years.  I remember when Mom went south and came back with so many friends from all over the county.  Her and Chuck tried to visit them during the summers but many were just too far away.  Every winter they went back to Apache Junction and every spring added more friends.  I really didn't get the "Forever Friend" part of that equation.  NOW - I get it!!

Yes I'm holding my hands so I'll be good! (See bottom of page.)

Ken and I retired "early".  I chose to leave the working life to hopefully make Ken more comfortable.  Then we came to EB and began to make more Forever Friends.  Back home in the summer our friends are still friends but they are mostly working and living a different family oriented life. A life we cheerfully join in the summer to make more memories for them as well as us.
Down here it's-well......................how do I say this nicely??????
Well it's ALL ABOUT US!!! We all get it. We are here for more comfort after a lifetime of working through the pain (mental, physical, etc.)  We do what we want; when we want and everyone understands when we "don't want". We give each other the respect of knowing our own bodies, likes, dislikes, wants and needs and taking care of ourselves. i.e. I get up early Ken sleeps late; Linda gets our early while Newell does "his thing" in the RV; Dave has EARLY morning coffee and Deb wakes up slowly, reads her book (she's a polecat when she doesn't get a few minutes to read before she rises.  :)  Love'ya Sista) then faces the day. Wyn QS's (Queen of Sheba) in bed with a book and coffee while Ki sits out with Clay (way after 8 a.m.) and kibitzes. Kathy sleeps late; Doug is up before the chickens.  And on it goes. By about 10a.m.ish we can gather to do whatever or NOT as the mood strikes.
    Over the winter we share about one another's friends, family, gkids, pets and hear each other's pet peeves (which I must admit sooommmeetimmmes we push those buttons JUST a tiny bit), our aches and pains and we give each other space when we need it.  We do our best not to snivel or whine (unless it's for comic effect.  Me??? Deb??? Yup!) as we all have aches, pains and sorrow.  We realize the benefit of LAUGHING!!!  We're going to live a long time from the laughter of the last few years.
Our numbers range from 4-30.  Those that can try to gather at least once in the summer.  The distance is a real problem for many of us.
Monday night some of us gathered for a last meal (and pics) with Carol/Gary.  They are hanging up their Hitchitch Spurs and calling RVing done.  The crying begins.
All of our lives changed last Spring when many hugged Sharon goodbye laughing with promises of going gambling in TX as we work in her dialysis for a weekend. No one realized she wouldn't see them again. That was rough on many of us as we had plans...................... And once again Life slapped us; told us to pull up our Big Boy/Girl pants and move on.
We really begain to realize the "Forever" in Friends!  Sharon will be with us forever in our memories of such a precious "Sista!"   And yes we all treasure Clay and Gypie.  Through it all we extended our Forever Family into the Forever Farnham family.

One of the few pictures of Sharon with short hair.

Sharon loved purple.  I made her a purple sweatshirt jacket.

Smile Clay it'll make them think you're up to something.   .......... And you ARE!!

Part of the gaggle got together in the Black Hills last summer.  We are planning a Nebraska reunion in August.
  Last summer when Ken was not doing well (as opposed to November when he REALLY wasn't doing well) I got calls from the FF wondering if we needed them to come lend moral support if nothing else.  That so warmed my heart.  You see retirees on wheels can do what they want; when they want.........(well kind of).  Just knowing they were there and ready to come gave great comfort.

My sista from another mother/father Deb communing.

                 Wyn/Ki celebrating an anniversary!






Doug/Kathy celebrating an anniversary!  Man it's hard to get one picture of ALL of us.  Hmmmm - Linda needs to work on that........... and we can send one to Carol and she can Photoshop them in.  Alllllrrrriiigggghhhht!  Plan your work, work your plan! as Clay would say.

Yes, my hands got loose and look what happened!!








Finally I can't believe you guys are going to finish the WHOLE thing.



And the crying will continue:
Friday Maurene/Bill blast off to NB or is it NE
Saturday Jan/Ray head out IL
Monday Maynard slides away to MN
The 6th Doug/Kathy head to MN
And it's way to early for ANY of them to go.
But hey, LIFE!

       Every season is different and this has been no exception.  We each get a little creakier (I may HAVE to go to Yoga with Deb - but don't tell HER!!!) or crankier or _______________(fill in the blanks).  The hugs this year are a little longer and a little harder. MAN! I DO love these people!  WAIT, WAIT  THEY ARE NOT People; They are................................................................

FOREVER FRIENDS!!

OK so here's the deal:  Of the 1,000's of pictures I have a don't have any of the following couples:  Roger/Carol 

Roger/Charlene

Jan/Ray

Martha/Bob

Wyoming George

Dick/Donna

Mary/Paul and and and and.....................

So be warned I'll be armed and VERY, very dangerous in the fall........................

Spring Breakup is starting this week :(

(Sigh) It's March AGAIN.....it comes too early.  However times marches quickly and spring breakup is upon us.  In the logging world spring breakup is comes when the frost begins to leave the ground causing the roads to become extremely muddy and the equipment begins to sink offroad - that's when everyone is shut down for a few weeks until the ground tightens.  It is a messy time.  Well in Retirementland spring breakup is messy also.  We are all conscious of "tomorrow" which may not come. 

Thus we play extra hard and store the memories.  Yes here is Deb.  We are usually spastic partners and Thursday was no different.  We started out quietly (NOT our nature) and couldn't shoot for squat. So we did what we usually do - act out.  

Roger (a new player in the men's group and a pool "whiz") consoles Deb as she once again did butkus.  Finally I said enough is enough and we bought a pitcher.....................

she agrees with the pitcher assessment.  However that didn't do much either so we donned the war paint and began to hit-using every technique we've observed and practiced over the winter.

  Paint - where'd we get paint???? Chaulk makes great paint, especially when applied by Linda.



I'm not sure the NA used paint on their noses......but whatever.  We did do better and won a round or two.  Personally I think Maurene and Kathy were laughing so hard they really went downhill and we won a pity game or two.

THAT was Thursday. Saturday was BB drop #6 and it went well.  Everyone is getting into the swing of the BB way and when we leave in 6 weeks it will be in good hands.
In November I just wasn't up to having our Fried Turkey dinner and there was Thanksgiving and yatayatayata.  We had it Sunday.  I fried two turkeys in the hot air cooker and Newell smoked a turkey and we had a party.  Maurene did gravy and dressing; Ki potatoes, Dave 2 of his pecan pies and Kathy did a large tossed salad.  Everyone else filled in around the edges.  Thirty of us had a dead turkey kind of time!!  I did two I haven't had many 'tovers the last couple of years.  This year I made bone soup for Happy Hour Tuesday.

Ken hasn't been going up to the clubhouse as the chairs just make him hurt worse so I "bullied" him (yeah, right) into sitting on the couch with a pillow behind his head and his feet up when he wasn't eating.  It obviously was a good position as he reclined there dozing and making smart aleck remarks between snores!

The Arizona Wanderers brought back a new cardgame which has kind of taken over Golf.  Up to 7 players can play per table (more is just toooooo slllooowwww) and we generally have two tables changing out the winners after 13 rounds.  It's called Five Crowns - and is almost as mind-less as Golf thus we still get to get into the mutual harassment mode.  The next thing we all new was it was getting dark and time to head home.  We thanked everyone for so graciously helping us get BB started going above and beyond.  Darn!! I do hate SB!

Craft, Darts and Traveling

Maurene/Bill & Newell/Linda spent a couple of months in AZ.  When they came back they brought a new craft.  Buy a pair of size 4-6 jeans and use the various pieces and parts to embellish a sweatshirt.  I didn't get into this one but surveyed very closely so make 1-2 this summer.

Then that afternoon we went to the Moose so we could do a twin activity - pool AND darts.  Carol V went with us.  We like going to the two organizations in the afternoon - there is hardly any smoke and we can be a "quiet and shy" as we want. Here Bill is teaching Carol the basics.

The pose...........

The Throw.........

.....post throw.....

                             the bullseye.........

                                  ,,,,,,,trying NOT to molt......
Carol hit is several times and with all THREE darts twice!  Good job!  Kathy and I, of course, stayed on the pool sidelines and made fun of all of us.  I had to put my phone flashlight into service several times to help find Carol's feathers.



And then it was time to head to Denver for our annual visit to the eye docs, to have a Halfway to My Birthday Party & gather enough hugs and kisses to last until the middle of May.  Ken decided we needed to go a day early so he could rest and be ready for 1.5 days of constant activity.  We took his new GPS.  I forgot we had a window attachment so he held in on his lap - it on left side, Wiley on right.  They have come a long way since 2007 when all we ever heard was RECALCULATING!!  Harvey never got ugly once as we negotiated several stops in Albuquerque.  One stop was at Tucanos - the Brazilian Grill we went to on the lady's retreat in November.  Ken really liked it.
We decided Santa Fe or Las Vegas was enough for one night and called Whit to make the reservations.  Ken missed the part they LV wanted an arm and 4 legs to have Wiley with us.  So when he put the address in and told it to search LV it just kept coming up SF.  I finally had him call back and we ................... turned into Santa Fe for the night.
He slept until about 9:30 and we were on the road about 10.  We lunched in Raton as a little cafe we like (and it's the last good Mexican on the way north).  Got into Denver about 4:30 and settled in.  Dave and Trav needed some ammo so the next morning I programmed the computer and went on my way (stopping at a bead store on the way :)  )  I couldn't find anything for Trav but did get Dave a couple of things.  Back to the room to have a light lunch from the cooler and head to the eye apts.  It's been 29 years since I had Radial Kerototomy (RK) and 6 years from my Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK) surgery.  They do 5 computer diagnostic tests as well as the usual glaucoma ones. I still see 20/20 (on good days) - my eyes do fluctuate more than most (RK) and when I bead I use a pair of 1.25 reading glasses.  Ken's overall eye health is wonderful.  His diabetes (controlled by diet) and cholesterol aren't affecting his eyes.  We paid for them to keep up his vision for his lifetime when he had Lasik.  As long as we have a yearly checkup he's good. 
I took his back to the room so he could rest more and headed back out........this time I realized there is an silent alarm when you speed and it noisy one when there is "congesting ahead 1,3 miles".  Hmmmm - So he KNEW when I pulled up to 80 mph and above - no WONDER he kept saying things like: the speed limit here is 55 or pull it down to 65 you don't want a ticket.  (I got one last year!!!)      
And then the kidlets came.  Great fun!  We really like the hotel we stay at - it's inexpensive, includes breakfast and is a suite.  We pull the mattress onto the floor by our bed for the boys to sleep on and I put our air mattress on our bed and everyone is happy.  Next year I will make a couple of changes but all in all life was good.   The boys no sooner hit the bed than they were all asleep and of course
awake at 6:15 am ready for breakfast. 
Dad was up after breakfast and we loaded into the Durango for the day.  We headed to Bass Pro for ammo for Trav (and more for Dave) - there was so much to see there we made it the "museum and Zoo" for the trip.  Live fish - for the zoo and stuffed animals for the museum.

After the Bass Pro stop we headed to the Wings Over the Rockies airplane museum.  What a cool place.  Planes, planes everywhere.

                                                             This one is what they used in the first Star Wars.

Here is the Blue Canoe.....

It is a very BIG place with lots to see.

.......even pilot your own plane.

Lunch and eye appointments were next for the Llewelyn's.  And no surprise KaCe needs glasses.  He picked some cool ones that have a guitar w/strings on the sides.  They'll be in Rawlins sometime next week and he'll begin his journey.  All of the glasses we were shown were kid friendly and we hope they last the required 12 months before he gets a new pair.  :)

We headed back to the room for eating and swimming. Whit and I brought "stuff" to eat in our coolers so we only ate one meal "out" at Johnny Rockets in the Cherry Creek Mall.  After dinner we headed for the pool where they had a good time in the baby pool and low and behold we found two pool tables.
Back at the room we put the 3 down then we headed to the pool tables leaving Gdad with his feet up "in charge" and watching TV.

As usual I put the cueball or 8 ball in a couple of times but Trav beat me fair and square a couple and we shared a win when the table ate the cueball with each of us having one ball each left on the table.

Whit has found a place in Rawlins where we can go play some this summer.  

The next morning I suggested we loiter at the room until Gdad got up then we part company letting them visit the Gun Show (contacts for more ammo); Huu Hots (for lunch) and friends in Cheyenne that shared a room in the NICU with Aedan.

I decided we'd go to Trinidad for the night so made reservations there.  Dad slept all the way there and then had a long nap and went to bed early.  He woke up at 9:30 and we were once again on the road.  Got to EB about 4:30-5:00.  All in all it was a good time; but next year I'll extend it by two days.  And that, as they say, is that!!