Hi Again from The Wilders.
It has been since May 5th since I have blogged but mainly I have been gathering things to blog about. We left Colby very early on June 7th to head to Wichita for Curt’s doctor appointments. But before I go to that, I want to share our last few days at Colby. We tried to pack in as much as we could and Ella and I hugged and kissed bunches to try to last us awhile. It was very hard to leave my girls, but through tears, hugs, kisses and promises to see them soon we got through it. But I can say it was one of the hardest things I have ever done; holding Ella while she had her arms tight around me and her head on my shoulder, crying hard. She said, “MiMi what am I going to do without you? I miss you already and you aren’t even gone.” Now those of you that are a Grandma, you know how very hard it was to try to stay strong. Then I hugged Tania goodbye and she cried and I cried. It was not pretty at all. I stayed as strong as I could but poor Curt; when we got in the truck, I cried so hard and was actually sobbing. He gently as he always does took my hand and said, “Honey, if you need to come back earlier then planned all we have to do is come back.” I said, “Really?” He said, “Of course honey….we can come back anytime you want.” So that statement did help and I am so blessed to have Curt in my life as his heart is so soft and of course he hates for me to hurt. Now that I have all that said, here are some of our days before June 7th.
I was lucky enough to keep Ella Monday through Thursday while her Daddy and Mama went to work. We had a ritual we always did. I would stay in my pjs and she would come in her jammies at 7:15 am and she would crawl in bed with me and we would do SnapChat 
and giggle and play a couple games on our iPads, then we would take our shower and get ready for the day. I would ask her while we laid in bed, what she wanted for breakfast and it was always, Grandpas scrambled eggs (he makes amazing ones) or pancakes. Well one morning I asked her if she liked waffles and she said, “No, they are hard.” I said, “well mine aren’t hard, mine are Belgium Waffles.” I told her it was the same batter as pancakes. So she said,”Okay, I will try them.” Well, they became one of her favorites. 
One thing, Colby does is when you walk on the walking trails there will be painted rocks along the way. Also there might be a painted rock in the park or somewhere in the city. The person that finds it, picks it up and places it someplace else in the city. The rocks are painted in nice colors and there might be a saying on them. Well, Ella and I decided to paint rocks. So we went to Walmart to get our supplies. She told me her Mom didn’t let her have glitter and after the decorating of the rocks, I truly know why she isn’t able to have glitter but we were at MiMi’s and so I am still vacuuming up glitter. lol lol. Once we got our supplies, we went to the golf course and on the railroad tracks we gathered up about 10 nice small rocks. We went home and begin painting. It was a lot of fun.
On my Birthday, Tania texted me and asked if we were at the trailer because Ella and her wanted to bring me my Birthday present. I told her we were at the trailer. So here they came, and I happened to be making Oatmeal Raisin cookies when they walked in. Of course, Ella asked me what I was making and I told her. I asked her if she liked them and she said she really didn’t know. So I gave her a little bowl of batter without the raisins because she doesn’t like raisins. She loved the oatmeal cookie dough but she didn’t know if she would like the cookies. lol Well Tania and Curt went to Dillons and Ella stayed with MiMi to help make cookies but if I remember correctly we played Slap Jack and she ate cookie dough. lol lol
The night of my Birthday, Brett, Tania and Ella came and picked us up and took us out to eat at City Limits. It was so nice to be with all 3 of them. We really had a great time.
On Saturday, June 6th, the kids asked us over for supper and of course we said yes. But before we had that amazing meal together, Tania, Ella and I went to the swimming pool. It was the day of opening and Ella could hardly wait. So I poured my fat body in a swimsuit (the things I do for Ella) and the girls picked me up.
Well, we went in and Ella said, “MiMi what shall we do first?” I said, “Anything you want to do.” You see I decided before the girls picked me up, I would do whatever Ella wanted me to do, no matter how scary or silly. But before I go into all that, I have to say: Colby has one of the nicest Aquatic Parks ever. They have a side for the younger kids to swim in and a little red slide and stone animals in the water shooting water out of their mouths like fountains. Then they have what they call the Lilly pad. It is big Lilly pads in the water and you have to walk across them without falling and it is not easy. They have another side that is deep water with a low diving board and a very high board. They have a lazy river that you sit on an inner tube and relax while floating. Then there are two slides…one is purple and one is green. The purple one you go down just on your behind. The green one is curly and you have to be on an inner tube to go down it. Now with that said….here comes the story, or should I say embarrassing story. This is the first year Ella gets to wear a purple bracelet which means she can go and swim anywhere she wants too. Each child has to be able to swim across the pool and back and has to be so tall to go off the boards and all the slides. So we walk in and she said, “MiMi, let’s go off the little board.” I said, “Sure let’s go.” Well, that part was pretty easy other than the board had a whole lot of spring to it. But the water was awesome…not to cold and not to warm. Of course, Tania just stuck her toe in, at this point.
So I would say we went off the low board around 5 or 6 times. Then she said, “Hey MiMi lets go down the green slide.” Well, I knew she was afraid to go down the purple slide, so I said,”How about the purple slide?” She declined and I told her I was going to go down the purple slide. So she grabbed an inner tube and we went up the two flights of stairs for the purple and she went to the green. I mean seriously how scary can the slides be, right? I saw her get on her tube and the lifeguard pushed her down the green slide. The other lifeguard said I could go on down. Okay, now there was huge amounts of water shooting out of each side of this purple slide and we were pretty high up…..but still in my 63 year old mind, I was thinking its not a big deal. I sat down on the slide with large amounts of water shooting me in each side of my body and I let go……OMG…I screamed all the way down and when my fat body literally shot out of that tube, I was on my back and I shimmed across that water clear to the steps and let me tell you, I do believe water went through every orfuse of my body.
Now of course, I had to make Ella believe that it was no big deal so she would go down it as well. I jumped up in the water and said, “oh wow that was so much fun….I loved it. Come on, you have to go down with me.” She said she was scared, so I said,”remember when we talked about being scared of things?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “you were scared to go on an airplane and you did it and you loved it. You were scared to ride your bike and you did it and you loved it. You were scared to go off of the boards and you did it and you loved it. You need to try and if you hate it, then you never have to do it again.” She finally said okay. Tania was on the side lounging in a lawnchair laughing at me. Well, when we got out of the water, I prayed that all the water that was running out of my body was pool water from the slide. lol lol We kept talking, walking once again up the two flights of stairs, but she went down and I was so proud of her.
So she loved it, so needless to say we went down that purple slide several times, walking up the 2 flights of stairs each time and that in its self was quite an accomplishment for this fat MiMi, and yes every time I hit the water, I was full of water once again. The last time I went down, I actually stayed upright and it was not as bad that time. haha
Next she said, “MiMi you have to go down the green slide now.” I thought now that will be nice since you get to be on an inner tube. I watched Tania go down it and when she hit the water, she would just float to the stairs.
I thought yes, this will be nice but again we had to climb the 2 flights of stairs carrying the inner tube. Needless to say, Ella beat me up the stairs every time and the whole time saying,”Come on MiMi”. The joy of being 8 years old. But I would smile and say, “I’m coming,”
So it was my turn for the lifeguard to put her leg in front of the tube so a person could sit down on the tube to go down the slide. What happened to the girl (me) that was able to do anything. Okay….I wiggled around trying to get my fat butt in the tube. The little skinny cute lifeguard said, “You need to just turn around and kind of plot down on the tube while I am holding it.” Easy for that skinny young lifeguard to say. Well, I finally did it and she asked me if I was ready. She told me to hold on to the handles. Of course I was ready, wasn’t this suppose to be a nice ride and float to the steps in the tube….that is what Ella and Tania did. WRONG!!!!! That green slide was pitch black and you didn’t have any idea when it was turning or going straight and it was a long ride. I held on for dear life and when I hit that water, there was no easily floating to the steps….my inner tube flipped over and every part of me other than my butt came out of that tube. I wiggled as much as I could to get my butt out of the tube and finally did and came up like it was nothing and Tania was dying laughing. Well, because I am the best MiMi ever (well Ella says I am) I went on that slide several times. I figured out not to put my butt clear down in that inner tube hole. So Tania said, “Let’s go on the lazy river it is really relaxing. So she got a tube, I got a tube and Ella got a tube. We just put our head in the tube and put our arms on the top and let the water push us. Well stupid me, thought it would be more relaxing if I sat on the tube and floated around. So I had the cute skinny lifeguard help me sit in the tube and by that time I was pretty good at it, but not the best. I was floating as the water current pushes you along. Well, I got in an area, that all I did was spin in circles. A young male lifeguard, came over and pushed me back into the current to float and I thought well, that was embarrassing, so I thought the next time around, I would grab the stair rail and step on the steps and get out of the tube and just wait on Ella. Well, actually, I did grab the rail and I couldn’t reach the steps with my feet because once again, my butt was deep in the hole and stuck. I wiggled and wiggled and really was trying to get out when the same male lifeguard said, “Mam are you wanting to get out? I said, “well yes.” So, he helped me get out of the hole and I slinked off to the lounge chair to wait on Ella.
Ella is a water bug just like Tania use to be.
We tried to get her to go off the high board so I went off first. Tania kept saying, “Mom are you sure?” I would say, “Oh sure, why not.” Well, I really figured I wouldn’t be able to move the next day. Now I hate heights but I had to make it look like it was no big deal to Ella. So I did it twice and then Ella decided not to do it. hahaha
We swam and played for almost 3 hours. It really was a blast and all I know Ella and I have a very special bond and we are very close. Oh how I love this little girl and this Old Fat MiMi would do anything in my power for this little girl.
In the afternoons, we would lay in our bed and we would watch old home movies of her mama and of me when I was a little girl. Ella loved doing that. She would say, is that Mama? I would tell her yes. Then she would giggle. When she saw Mike on the video, she said, “MiMi is that Papa? ” I said, “Yes”. She gasped and said, “He has hair and it’s black.” hahahahaha. Well we enjoyed watching those movies and one afternoon, she said, “MiMi can I ask you a question?” I said, ” of course you can honey.” She said, “When you were a little girl, did you have cars or did you have to ride horses everywhere?” hahahahahahah….I said, “No we had cars.” As serious as could be she said, “Did they work good?” hahahahahaha…..now with that said…..I remember asking my mama when I was little if when she was little, did they have forks or did they have to eat with sticks.
So in closing, for the months we were in Colby, Ella and I made tons of memories and had loads of fun. We helped her mama out with doing laundry, cleaning her house and fixing a few meals for her. Ella helped me do all my Moji and Norwex videos, we played Yahtzee, battleship, slap jack, memory, circle solitaire, Mexican train dominoes, made sugar dough, cut it out and painted it for her Mama’s Mother’s Day, painted rocks, walked Sadie, prepared and fried up dandelion blossoms, made cookies and cinnamon rolls, colored, played on the computer and talked all day long. I would not change any of it for anything and it was very difficult to leave but we will be back.
Curt had his doctor appointments in Wichita and they all went well. We are in Ponca City, Oklahoma right now and will leave here on Tuesday, June 16th. We will stop at Mike’s, since the kids will be there and pick up all my mail from Tania, then head to Howard to take Sadie to my sister (it will be hard to leave her but it will be so much better for her there than the RV life and I will get to see her off and on.), go see Mama and then we will head to Lawrence to go see Dr. Chris. We will leave Lawrence, on June 19th, then we will be heading North.
Stay tuned for more adventures.
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