Ready For Our New Year's Eve Party

I'm all cleaned up nice for our family party tonight.  Craig had to work today so we are leaving later than I would have liked.  We are waiting to meet up with Shannon to pick up Alec and Jaxon.  Michael slept over from snowboarding yesterday.  Ryan has come down with the flu bug so they are not going anywhere tonight.  Shannon says he is really sick.  Craig came home from work feeling like he has a fever coming on  with a bad head ache.  Shannon said this is how Ryan felt in the beginning of his illness.  I sure hope Craig does not start to feel worse.  He took some Tylenol which has helped so far, but not a good sign for him!  Could be coming down ill.  Hope to have a fun night with the grand kids!   We need to be on our way it is already 2:30 pm.  I'm sure we are going to be lucky to be on the road by 3pm which puts us there about 6pm- time for dinner.  Hope the others there don't mind that we bring the Chaudhry boys.  They didn't want to miss out on the party.  I feel bad for Landon.  We would have taken him, but under the circumstances Shannon felt he needs his parents to be there.  Which I totally get it.  I just feel so bad we are having to deal with such uncomfortable circumstances in the family.  I will be so glad when all these emotions have worked out of the family drama scene and somehow get back to normal.  It is just going to take time and may take years, which is hard to say!  It is in the Lord's hands for now.  I just don't know what to do, other than love our children and let them work this out on their own pace.  I pray for forgiveness and that others will forgive too, the hurt feelings going around are very challenging for the entire family circle.  Shannon and Ryan feel very deserted by the family members.  I get that Tasha & Bridger are protecting their children along with other family members.  They all need to be responsible and watch their children. It's Just the Shits!!  So upsetting we have to even worry about this.  Two innocent children Lincoln and Landon.  It just breaks my heart!!

Still Drama With Mother

Mother said she had a surprise for us on Christmas Day!! She arrived late at Tommy's Christmas eve and left Christmas Day to pick up Alan her Internet boyfriend that was flying in from Brazil.  Well he's never arrived he has had her on pins and needles for the last few days going on a week now.  Monday he supposedly arrived to the Dallas airport but taken into the state medical hospital to be checked for Ebola. She has not heard from him yet, as of yesterday.   She actually got mad at the guy, Hallelujah!! Hope she'll just give up this quest and finally move on with her life this is all been such a nightmare to have to deal with never dreamed I would be dealing with  an Internet dating scam with our mother!!  The guy is never going to show up and I just can't seem to reason with Mother about it.

Getting Ready For New Years Eve

Today is New Years Eve and my brother John Wesley- birthday December 31st.  This past year has gone by so fast!!  It has been a hard year emotionally for both Craig and I with our family and a physically challenging year as well.  We are both at our all time high on our weight and not very happy about that!!  I got on the scales today peaking out at 169 lbs.  I have gained 9 pound this past month, since Thanksgiving!!  I have had way to many sweets and egg nog that I love.  The pounds have just poured on this past month.  I have got to get all the sweet stuff out of the house.  This is our New Year goal for sure to lose weight!!  We have got to get at least 5 pounds off in time for our trip to Mexico January 10th.  We only have 10 days to work fast!!  If not I'm going to put on even more weight, which it comes on fast and very hard to get off!!
We are heading to the cabin to celebrate the New Year and my 58th birthday!!  Trisha and her family with the Thomas family arrived at the cabin Monday night so they have all been there for two days.  We were just there for the weekend and had to come home for a few days for Craig to get some work done.  The hot tub broke down and Craig was able to get the part it needed and headed back up to the cabin on Monday.  He didn't stay because he had to finish up on his work by the end of the year.  I had the Chaudhry boys all day Monday and yesterday I needed a day to clean my house and run errands to get ready for our family New Year party!!  Michael slept over again last night so he could go snow boarding again.  He is loving his Snowbird season ski pass.  We have gotten lots of snow since Christmas day.  Winter is finally here!!  I have enjoyed driving him up to the ski lift.  The new winter snow is so pretty. Craig had to go into the office this morning.  I've got to get myself cleaned up for the day and pack up for the cabin for our party tonight.  Sharlena called and said they would not be coming up.  They have too much to do and their cars are broken down so they don't have a car to fit the entire family in right now.  Shannon is in the same situation.  Their van is broke down as well.  Both girls have the about the same year of van and guess they have seen better days.  They are going to have to get it repaired in order to drive the family all in one car.  Shannon has not been feeling well so I don't know if they are coming or not.  I know the boys really want to come for the New Year party tonight.  Stacy and her family has been really sick this past week so I don't know what they are doing either.  The tension is still there and I can see family members are play the cat and mouse game so to speak.  They are avoiding one another!  I just wish they realized how important our family relationships are to one another.  It means a lot to the grandkids to share family time.  The time that is gone forever once past in creating family memories. while they are young is very important.  I'm disappointed that Sharlena is not making it a propriety.  She only has excuses for not coming, which she feels is important, but is missing the big picture!! We will miss having the kids there and the time for the cousins to gather and create memories with one another.  Shannon I'm frustrated!  She is always sick and beaten down.  It is wearing me down.  Somehow I pray for her health to return for the sake of her family.  I know things are tense with her siblings and she does not want to be around them.  I understand all their feelings, but they are missing the big picture of how important we have our family time which is so precious and limited.  We have to make it a priority or it does not happen!!  I know her boys are going to be really sad if they don't come to the cabin.  I offered to let them drive our Denali up.  I even offered Sharlena and she turned me down.  I'm trying to not let it upset me.  I need to be positive and enjoy those that will be there tonight.  We are still going to have a New Year Party! Better than last year, the kids blew that out of the water last year and I'm not going to let that happen again!

My Family History Challenge

This has been a growing year 2013-2014 for me in learning how to do my new blog.  In the process of updating and proofing for printing this year my first blog book, I somehow move an old entry to the end of my  blog and don't know how to move it back in date order. I have grown in this area a lot and have made great progress on my family history work.  I still need to take to the time this winter 2015 to work on it all in detail, again another winter project for me.

Sunday Sabbath

Alec with his best friend Tommy Price They are the same age and Alec is so tall now!!

Craig & I hurried home from the lake to take the Chaudhry boys to church today. It was very snowy up Logan canyon, so it made it slow driving home.  Barely made it on time to Church. Alec & Jaxon lit up when, Tommy & Justin Price walked in to visit from Egypt.  They are here for the Christmas holidays. They really have missed each other. They are best friends while living here. Their dad is stationed in Egypt. i told them they could all come hang out at Grandpa and Grandma Symes home on Monday for the day.  They are really excited!!

Jaxon with his Friend Justin

Christmas Day 2014

Grandma Debbie holding our baby Farrah Towner 2 1/2 months old.  She is such a happy baby girl!!

Stacy hold Yael and Chad opening their Christmas from Grandpa and Grandpa Symes.  We gave them apple TV, a $100.00 gift card to Nordstrom and a $50.00 gift card for dinner at Ruth's Chris.  We gave the boys a darling tool bench with play tools this will be a fun gift for them to play with over the years.

Noriga Family with thier gift From Grandpa and Grandma Symes, season passes to Lagoon for the year!!  They are really excited! This is a fun gift for the entire family!! Aubrey, 10 years old, Cole 13 yrs. old, Sharlena, Dave, Austin 9 yrs. old,& Jacob soon to be 5 yrs old in April.

We had all our children and their families for Christmas Day for a family dinner and exchange gifts.  We had a very nice time, everyone loves their gifts.

Lincoln & Winston with their new tool set we got the same gift for Jude & Yael . All set up and ready to create something.  Gift from Grandpa and Grandma Symes this year for the little boys!  They are going to have lots of fun with this gift.

Jude and Yael with their Christmas Gift on Christmas Day.  Their Daddy has his work cut out for him in the assembly work.  They will love their new play tool set

Burbidge Family, Buck, Boston pouting, Trisha, Saydee and Karlee J. They are really excited to play their new XBox One family game!

Cjhaudhry Family with their season passes to Lagoon this year.  We will have fun going to Lagoon with cousins and spending time with family.  A great family gift for the entire family!!

Natasha & Bridger with their new Blend Tec Blender.  They will love making smoothies!!

Grandpa and Grandma Symes with Jake Noriega with his gift Jake and the Neverland.

Uncle Dave holding baby Farrah and baby Aniston.  Such cute cousins!! We had a very nice Christmas day gathering as family, everyone loved their family gifts this year.
 The family tension in still  there.  This was the first time  I had everyone together since the family blow up last year just after Christmas.  I sat a really nice table for our family dinner with name tags.  Shannon and Ryan did not sit with the rest of the the family.  They felt uncomfortable, which I don't blame them since everyone ganged up on them last year.  This has been a hard road to travel with our Adult Children.  I have felt our family unity was ripped to shreds and it has taken baby steps all year to just be able to get them all in the same room again .  I pray in time hearts will mend and come together.  Keeping our family close is a real challenge with so many personalities to combine.  It was hard with our own girls and now we have the son-in-laws to contend with and respect their thoughts and opinions.  My heart aches for what has happened!!  I prayed, poring my heart out to the Lord  in the Celestrial room of the Draper temple for the Lord to heal this family somehow.  I do not know what to do other than to love our children and pray in time they will find a way to come together as a family.  Forgiving one another is the challenge.
Merry Christmas with a sigh of relief we got through the day!!

Christmas Eve

Took the boys to Scheel to ride the Farris wheel and then went shopping, they had a fun day.

We had the three Chaudhry boys Alec, Jaxon & Landon stay till  at home for three days till Christmas Eve. Shannon dropped them off Monday afternoon. They slept over two nights Alec, Jaxon & Landon had fun hanging out at grandpa & grandma Symes.  They did not want to go home.  They said it is boring at their home and they had fun at home.  I finally finished the baby bumper pads I started in September for baby Farrah, they turned out nice. When the Chaudhry family left Craig took a nap so I could finish up sewing. We then had time to enjoy our Christmas Eve. I got Craig some fun Santa boxers and a Santa hat. I got a petty red sexy night gown to wear.  We had a fun evening together and stayed up late watching a Christmas movie.

  Our baby Farrah she is so darling!! in her cute Christmas Skirt & bow we gave to her for Christmas.

        Landon , Alec, Jaxon at Scheels

 

Craig & Debbie Christmas Eve!! We had a good laugh trying to take a selfie of ourselfves!   🎄

Our 43rd Dating Anniversary- Love Note From Craig

Happy anniversary to the love of my life. 43 years ago Cupids arrow struck my heart, the love I found that has only intensified as we have shared so many precious memories. We have raised 5 beautiful daughters who are the core of our existence. Blessed with 5 wonderful son in laws that we love and appreciate so much. 17 beautiful grandchildren that bring so much joy to our lives.  All this came as a result of two young teenagers falling in love December 21st 1971. Our love was transformed from longing to belonging for which I will be eternally grateful. I love you with all my heart sweetheart.

Love always and forever your husband Craig

Our 43rd Dating Anniversary

Happy 43th year anniversary!! The time has gone by so quickly in so many ways.  These past 43 years have been very rewarding to our family and relationship.  There are so many fond memories!!  I cherish every one of them!!  The memories of buying our first home, it was such a warm feeling to begin creating our own home, to make our home complete was the birth of each of our beautiful daughters.  I felt as if the love was bouncing off the walls with each child born into our home.  They each have bought a special love of their own and each child I can see your special features of expressions and mannerisms which reminded me of you.  It always brings to my heart with warm loving feeling.  These years together have been growing years.  It's exciting to see our growth and the growth of our beautiful girls and now their creating their own families and they have brought us 17 darling grandchildren which we love with all our hearts! We have indeed had our hardships yet I feel our true love toward one another has been tested.  True love shines through despite the weaknesses and mistakes we have made.  I love you with all my heart and soul and will always love you.  43 years ago you stole my heart.  I've loved you ever since.  I love your smile and those tender green eyes.  I love your spunk, your strong-willed spirit. I've always seen such a strong spiritual giant inside this mortal body.  I love the kind, thoughtful and deeply caring person you are, these have truly been beautiful years together.  I pray through our love and kindness towards one another that the next 20 plus years can even be more beautiful and forever binding.  I greatly look forward to our senior years together.  Each day and moments together are to be cherished; once the time is gone past forever, we have the memories to be remembered.  It's all too easy to take this time together for granted.  Each day here on earth is Gods gift.  I’m so thankful for you and all the special things you do for me and our family.  It really makes me feel loved by your acceptance, your notice and thoughtfulness.  This past week has been especially a good time to rekindle the deep love we share and memories I'll never forget.  I cherish deep in my heart, Thank you so very much for a lovely evening together.  I hope you can feel the joy and love in my heart.  I love you Craig Thomas Symes.  I forever depend on your love; it is my strength for living!!  Thank you dear Lord for blessings me with such a dear husband, companion and true friend,   

Forever your loving wife Debbie

Our Special Day

This has been such a nice day to spend with my dear husband.  We have enjoyed celebrating our 43rd dating anniversary.  Craig is very sentimental, he remembers every year! December 21st, 1971 the day we paired off at Disney World as young teens and began our life journey falling in love and staying in love!!  We slept in and enjoyed making love!  Love that is so strong!!  I can't get enough of my dear husband! It is so fun to feel the passion of being in love!!  We have had a fun week spending more time together and enjoying the empty nester's stage.  We do spend more and more time together and I'm loving it!  There has been lots of down time with Craig's eye surgery.  I have enjoyed the time to not feel rushed and just spend time with Craig.  We have not been as involved this year for Christmas.  It has felt nice to just slow down and enjoy our companionship.  Craig took me to Ruth's Diner for brunch up Emigration canyon.  I had never eaten there.  It is the 2nd oldest restaurant in Utah.  It is an old trolley car that Ruth the owner bought and moved up the canyon for a favorite place to eat for many years here in Utah.  It is yummy!!  We love their huge fluffy soft biscuits. I have never eaten any like them before.  We each had a yummy omelet.  Craig got the asparagus omelet and got a Spanish one.  They both were very good!  Fun to go to a new place to eat!  Craig has been there several times over the years for lunch with business associates. I enjoyed sharing this time with him.  It is hard to believe we have raised our family and are now looking at retirement years.
It is cold and raining today.  We may not have a white Christmas this year.  The weather has been so warm for December. Only three more day till Christmas Eve!!  Excited to get together with the family on Christmas Day.  We have had a lot of sickness this month and have not been able to get the family together.  I missed getting together for Thanksgiving this year, being our off year.  So I'm really looking forward to Christmas day with our children and grandchildren.  With all this rain it makes you want to take an afternoon nap, which is what Craig has done since we got home from our brunch.  I made chocolate peppermint cookies to eat later tonight.  I would like to watch a fun Christmas movie and eat caramel pop corn, a fun way to end our special day together!!

My Digital Christmas Scrapbook

 Two weeks ago Sharlena gave me some darling pictures of the kids with Santa I love them.  I have had them placed on the dining room table to admire! It inspired me to look at our family scrapbooks of our family Christmas memories.   I have cherished the years in raising our five daughters.   It has been fun for me to get out our family scrapbooks and look at all the pictures that we have taken of our family in the past 10 years of our early marriage.  I have been scanning all of our pictures and placing them in a Christmas digital scrapbook online at Costco.   It has been a fun project for me and a fun time to reflect about our family and how we have grown over the years. We are so very blessed.   I wanted to get the project done by Christmas and I have finished getting it ready but it will not have time to be printed.  I wished I had gotten the idea earlier in the year but it will be a great present to save and print for the family next year.  I have volume one, the first 10 years of our Family Christmas memories.  Next year I'll work on the second volume.  It is fun to gather up what family pictures I took of each Christmas and to reflect on those years we had all our litte girls at home for Christmas.

 Our Five little girls in their Christmas Dresses 1988- Shannon 8 yrs old, Trisha 7yrs old, Sharlena 10 years old holding Natasha 1 yrs old and our Stacy Lee 4 yrs old

Craig's Work Christmas party

 We attended Craig's work Christmas party tonight.  It was very nice visiting with some of his work associates but felt very awkward.  Craig has not been happy with this new merge and is asking the president of the company to make him an offer in buying him out or Craig is going to buy his business back if he doesn't make a very good offer. Craig has not been happy at all the past two years and probably wishes he had never made this company merge.  It is very challenging for him, I feel bad for him and it was not comfortable attending the Christmas party. Time will tell the final outcome, Craig is seriously thinking about retiring, he just worries about doing it to early!1  His plan was at age 55 and he has now worked until he turns 60 this Summer, I think he will be just fine to retire some time this year.  Hard to believe we are entering the senior years of our lives.  Craig has had a very rewarding working career in the insurance business for over 33 years.

Saydee & Karlee Piano Recital

Our granddaughter's Saydee & Karlee had their first piano recital today at Riverton Music.  They played a duet Silent Night.  Great job!  I gave them our piano this fall.  Hoping to

get a piano player in our family some day.   All our girls had lessons, but quit.  Trisha and Sharlena were the best at playing the piano.  I have loved my piano.  I just never learned to play very well myself.  It has been sitting for years and figure it needed to be used.  Nice to see our granddaughters using it. Hope they will stick at it and one day become an accomplished pianist.  I love these two granddaughters very much.

Going To The Foot Doctor

My left foot has been bothering me for over two years, ever since Craig accidentally drop a metal folding chair on my foot when we were moving stuff from our old cabin.  It has hurt for over the past two years.  It started feeling better and then just the past two months it has flared up again.  I don't recall hurting it, so don't know why it is hurting, so this is why I'm at the doctor today.  I also had a weird infection on my right foot in the spring and it is coming back.  My right foot is itching and burning.   The doctor says I have an inflamed joint this is why it is hurting, He is putting me on an inflammatory medication.  I need to stay off of it as much as I can and wear a good supporting shoe to relieve the pressure off my foot.  He gave me a prescription for my right foot to help the itching.  Getting all my medical things taking care of this year since I have met my insurance deductible this year.  I'm at the lab now waiting for lab work follow up on my hormone levels.  I had an estrogen pellet placed in my left buttock area  5 weeks ago.  I can tell it is helping.  I have a sex drive that I have not had for years, due to my hormone levels being too low.  It is working!!  It feels so fun to be sexually attacked to my dear husband.  We had gotten in a rut and it feels nice to add a spark to our lives! 

Taking Michael To The DMV

I brought Michael to the drivers division for him to take the learners permit.  He passed!!  He can now drive for the next 6  months with a parent.  He needs to get over 40 hours of driving time and pass the drivers education class at school.  He needed his learners permit in order to take the class at school.  Watch out we have a driving teenage grandson in the family!

Lincoln 5th Birthday, December 13th, 2014

Grandma Debbie holding baby Aniston

Tasha hosted a darling birthday party for our Lincoln on Saturday.  Santa came to visit the kids.  It was so darling.  We had a fun afternoon.

Lincoln with his Mommy Natahsa, She planned such a darling birthday party!!

          Our Jaxon on Santa's lap- 11 years old

         Landon Luke visiting with Santa 6 years old

Our Saydee Bug soon to be 12 years old January 27th, 2015

Our Saydee bug visiting Santa

Jaxon visiting with Santa the kids all had a great time at Lincoln's Birthday party!!

Craig's Eye Surgery

 

    My funny Husband at Lincoln's birthday. Craig had his eye surgery last Tuesday.  He was not wanting to take the time off.  It is a very busy time of year for him at work. I spent the day caring for my dear husband.  He wanted me right there with him for three days.  Friday he went to work and put a full day in.  I took pictures of him but he deletes them.  The doctor cut both of his eye lids from extra skin on the eye lids and gave him an eyebrow lift to even the look.  He looks like he has been in a bad fight with two swollen and red puffy eyes.  By Sunday the swelling has come down a lot.  We stayed home from church, he needs one more week of healing.  He has talked to several friends that have had the surgery and very happy with the results.  So hope his is happy that he also had the surgery.  It felt nice to slow down and spend time with each other.

Christmas Decorating

Having fun decorating for Christmas this year!  I was slow getting my Christmas Decoration out this year.  I wasn't in the mood to mess up the house, yet the month is ticking by and I needed to get Christmas out.  It felt nice to have it all done finally.  I spent three days putting things in there special spots! I do love the Christmas spirit.  It has been fun to get out all the fun decoration that I have collect over the years!!

December always flies by to quickly.  I decorated last week.  It always makes a good mess getting it all out.  I wanted to finish Farrah's bumpers pad but I needed to get Christmas out.  We planned an adult party with our adult children on Friday Dec 9th but it ended up having to cancel.  I barely got all the decorating done just in time for the party.  Bridger had to have nose surgery, Sharlena was very sick and Shannon came down sick too!  So our family party didn't happen!  Craig's mother was in town on Friday for a funeral on Saturday she stayed until Monday.  Saturday I spent the day cleaning house from all my decorating mess.  I had glitter all over the house.  It felt really good to have the house nice and clean.

Our Pretty Santa Christmas Tree