Merrill and Roberta Simon and Family

It is nearly here, the New Year!! A New Year is always full of hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow. We are no different here in the Simon Household. We have had a great year. As with all, it has had its shares of ups and downs. Still we have added two boys that we love, to this family. What could be better than that. Children who are home. Merrill and I have enjoyed 30 years of marriage and we are still in love with each other. Life for the most part is good. I think my biggest hope for the New Year is that some of our adult children find the internal peace that they so desperately seek. I think that more comes with age, but still they look for it. One day, hopefully soon, it will come. Merrill and I long for a day when all of our children who are still living can all get together. We would love a huge family reunion. A dream, yes, but maybe, just maybe a reality one day. Other than that, just the normal things all people want :o) We look forward to staying in touch with each of you....

SO MANY STOCKINGS...22 TO BE EXACT Haylee and Emilee with their Great Grandma Simon Merrill with Samson, a year old Merrill with His Mom, Christmas Day and Her gift from Fern Maverick and MacGyver, First Christmas with us.

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered, LOVE THEM ANYWAY If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives, DO GOOD ANYWAY If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies, SUCCEED ANYWAY The good you do may be forgotten tomorrow, DO GOOD ANYWAY What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight, BUILD ANYWAY People really need help but may attack you if you help them, HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT ANYWAY author Unknown.

Today we have decided to just write down what we are thankful for, each one of us expressing ourselves. So here we go. LisaMarie: I am thankful for Mom and Dad and for my sissy, Mallory and all of my 16 brothers. I am also thankful for my dogs. Joseph: LisaMarie helped him and she feels he is thankful for Mrs. Paul and Mrs. Ranft, those are his teachers at school. He is thankful that he has a great sister :o) and a family that loves him. Jeremy: I am thankful for the family we have and that we get to do a lot as a family and we celebrate together. I am thankful that I am the first one of the kids that is going to graduate from Dayton High School. I am thankful for my friends. Jericho: Jeremy is helping Jericho and he feels that Jericho is thankful that he finally has a forever family that loves him and wanted him. Jeremy added that he really loves Jericho. He feels that Jericho is thankful for the stuffing that we are going to have today. Jesse: I am thankful for my family and I am tha...

What a day that was!!! It was beyond exciting. The only downside is at this moment, I do not have any pictures. We are waiting as many were taken, but none by us. This was ADOPTION DAY for two of our boys....Jericho Jeremiah-Wade and MacGyver Jamison-Lee Simon. Welcome to your forever family boys. You are forever home. Now, I have to say, this was a class act. This was like no other adoption day that we have ever experienced. We want to say a huge thank you to Cile Cogburn and all of Washoe County Social Services for making this a day to always remember. The festivities actually started Friday night. We went to a party/dinner in Reno. The food included wonderful kids food and even better grown-up food. They made the most wonderful cupcakes, big and covered with the best frosting. The children were in hog heaven that is for sure. There was so much for the children to do that we were having to pry them away to eat and then to later leave. They had face painting, balloons, a wonderful mag...

Hi All: As I write, life has a way of passing by and sometime it is just too busy to get things posted. I hate getting behind because our families follow us here and so I feel like I let them down. Lets just play catch up first. LisaMarie went on to become a 9 year old while I was not even watching....well, that is not totally true. Her birthday was in the middle of the week so we opted to have her party on the 11 of October. Thank goodness the presents were wrapped, the cake and ice cream taken care of and everything ready, because that morning I woke up to a horrid feeling in my stomach. Lets just say that before the day turned into the evening, I had a bed at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center and was being watched to decide if I was going to have surgery. As things would go, I had surgery on that Monday and was in the hospital for 11 days. I not only missed her party, but Merrill's birthday also. It was a very sad time for me. The up side of it all was that after my three mon...

As some of you may know, Street Vibrations was just this past weekend in Reno. Many of you may have scene the thousands of bikers everywhere you went. We are talking leather, chrome, tattoos, body piercings, Hells Angels, women showing themselves to the crowds up in Virginia City, the poker run to the Cat Houses....I mean, the biggest, the baddest and some just downright ugly. But would you believe, in your wildest dreams that in all of that mess you would see this..... * * Yeppers, that is Merrill and I and the baby swing we bought in Reno. We rode with it tied to the back of the bike for about half of the day. All over Reno and then up to VC. A Mom and dad have to do what a Mom and dad have to do. Maverick needed a swing as the other one broke. Parents first, Hells Angels wannabes second. LOL Hugs to you, Roberta

MAVERICK Yes, you read that right, we have named him Maverick. He h as been home for nearly six weeks but we had to wait to post his picture. So get ready, because here he is!!!!! And here he is again with his brother MacGyver. Like the heading said, we are so blessed. This journey we have been on is better and better as time goes by. Some days are harder than others, but the rewards so outweigh the trials we face. The joy as we watch the children grow and become who they are meant to be is more than we could ever express. Thank you for sharing in our joy.

Really, this is about preemie's but I really feel that it applies to parents of all special children. :o) I hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I have over the years. ~*~ How Preemie Moms Are Chosen ~*~ By Erma Bombeck Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen? Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger. "Armstrong, Beth, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Forrest, Marjorie, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia. Rutledge, Carrie, twins. Patron Saint...give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie." The angel is curious."Why this one, God? She's so happy.""Exactly," smiles God."Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel." "But does she have...

We lost our precious Jason just 4 years and two weeks after we lost Malachi. His lost was painful but very different. You see, Jason's life was a total miracle. There was really no earthly reason for him to live. He was given three years at most, but Jason proved all the medical doctors wrong. We were told he would pass away in his sleep, but after loosing one child, I knew Jason would not go that way. Funny, God has a perfect plan and that is just the way Jason went. He had suffered his entire life, but his death was pain free. Again, thank you for letting us share his poem. I wrote it after he passed away and I read it at his funeral. Again I believe that God gave me these words so that we could find peace that was beyond understanding. This is our small yet meaningful way of remembering his time here on earth with us. Love to all, Roberta and Merrill Jason,Oh Sweet Jason We didn't see you fly by late that night. You waited till we were all sleeping and you took your eternal ...

Malachi: Just Mommy and Daddy, letting you know we are thinking of you and missing you and yes, my son, still loving you. Happy 11th Birthday in Heaven. All our Love, Mama and Daddy

Before my mama died, 22 years ago, she sent me a card for our 8th anniversary. She wrote in the card for me to remember that we could celebrate the date any day, not just on the special day. This came about because Merrill and I were not together for our 8th Anniversary. He was active duty and Michael and I were in Maryland. As many of you know, we had our 30 anniversary, but we did nothing as I was still totally out of it. So about two weeks ago I started seeing commercials about this place called Joe's Crab Shack. Not sure if you have ever heard of one....I never had. Well, in my pea brain, I figure out that it is in Reno and this is where I want the two of us to go for our anniversary dinner. I love sea food and this place looks like fun. So Merrill says well where is it. I said Reno and he has to make sure...why do men have to think they are so smart? Well, he was right...they are all over, but the closest to us are Las Vegas :o( and Sacramento. Okay, three hours away, I am all...

I just love kids. They can make you laugh, cry and then laugh again all in a matter of minutes. Last night we had the absolute honor of being invited to the wedding of the year. It was fancy, long, beautiful, filled with love of all kinds, foods we have never seen and still do not know what they were, dancing, belly dancing, and rich with tradition. Even though we did not understand it all, one thing was obvious, they were happy we were there, we were treated well, the family and friends were all beautiful people and it was a grand time. I am so happy that we as an entire family were invited to attend. A special thank you to a very handsome young man named Jason who saw to it that all of our needs were met. The wedding was the talk of the evening.....or shall I say late night. We stayed as long as we could keep them upright. We missed the cake cutting, but we danced till we could dance no more. LisaMarie was one happy girl on the dance floor. Now for the fun part....dinner conversation...

HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY!!!! How does one even begin to express the joy that I feel in my heart and soul for being blessed to have been married to the most wonderful man for 30 years? The bottom line, I can't Anything I write here is a feeble attempt to try to convey what is in my heart. My cup truly runneth over. My wishes, that both of my parents were alive to see this day. My daddy came close, my mom not so. They had their doubts about Merrill and in the end they both knew that he was all that I ever really needed and in him I could really have everything I ever dreamed of. How does one really reflect over the past 30 years of life. Life in and of itself is just amazing. We all go through up and downs. We all face day to day challenges that at times we are not sure we will ride it out. Many times we lose the battles, but in the end we really win the war. We have had to say goodbye to so many people that we loved and cherished. Some of those went in a proper time frame, many of tho...

End of the year party LisaMarie and a few of her friends McClain and Joey enjoying their third snowcone..:o) Roberta and Jericho on the teeter totter Haylee and McClain after Kindergarten promotion

I am not too sure that it gets much better than this at this stage of life. I wanted to post this yesterday, but I just ran out of time. Merrill and I received a letter informing us that LisaMarie was in the second grade math Olympics at school. Now this in and of itself is a huge accomplishment. Only the top five students from each class were chosen. So Merrill took off and I got a babysitter for MacGyver. Off we went. Now I am a little sadden to say that we did not really expect much to happen. We felt it an honor that LisaMarie had made it this far. We got there a little early, got a good seat and sat back to enjoy the competition. Oh my, let me tell you we were on the edge of our seats after about three rounds. LisaMarie was faster than we even knew she could be. She was confident, poised and all together in control, not like her parents sitting out in the crowd. Maybe it helps to be the only girl at home with so many boys, you tend to have it more together than most....LOL. Roun...