Young Women In Excellence

We had a great night at young women in excellence, the girls all did a great job, we celebrated the birthday of the young women’s program , November 28th 148 years ago tonight.  Each girl dressed up for the fashion of their decade where they highlighted events that occur over the years in young women.  I’m really happy with the outcome!! It was a lot of work.   We arrived at the church at 4pm and it was a race against the clock to get all done.  We set up tables in the hall for the girls to display the things they have been working on this past year.   We had ten girls attend tonight.   We ran wrapping paper down the hall wall and placed pictures from Brigham young in 1869 to now highlighting the decades of growth.  We blew up balloons, had an old time birthday theme in color.   We had apple pie, pumpkin and banana cream pies for refreshments,   It all look really nice.  We received lots of compliments for our efforts.  

Sacrament

A return mission speaking: Brother Lincoln.  The greatest gift we can give to our Heavenly Father is to live righteously.   Living righteously blesses all our lives, our community and our families.    It make sa better life for us all.   Thankful this time of year for our many blessings, Honor the Savior this month of December by striving to live the gospel more fully and complete, honor our heritage in the gospel of Jesus Christ, keep our baptism covenant, say a prayer of gratitude for our many blessing, decide today - what  I will do to honor my heritage to the lord.  Thankful for our  Family and our ancestors.  Brother Pegrinee,  talking about the heritage in Bear lake valley .  Our obligation from Heaven to work on our family history.  It was a great sacrament meeting, very up lifting  and inspiring. 

Thanksgiving Day

Grandpa Symes with Annie & Farrah, Grandma Debbie

Stacy and her little kiddie's Yael, Farrah Jude and Grandma Debbie on Thanksgiving day

Chad with his darling kids having a great time

Natasha fixing breakfast

Lincoln Thomas soon to be 8 yrs. old in Dec.

We had a lovely thanksgiving dinner.  It was a challenge getting it all ready with family there and trying to cook the last minute things.  It made me really nervous with all the grandkids running around.  Chaudhry family ended up not coming, several of them came down really sick, and Alec took off they couldn't find him.  Shannon had a stress attack which knocked her down for several days with a terrible migraine head ache.  Alec is giving them stress.  He got arrested a few weeks ago for stealing some donuts from Ridley's.   Shannon does not handle stress well.  And they are being sued from the past sell of their home, two years later still having to deal with this.  It is all stressing her out, so sad to say they did not make it up for Thanksgiving.  Towner family did drive in from California.  it was nice to spend time with them for a few days,  I didn't take very many pictures, busy spending time with the family.

Home Sweet Home

We had a nice five day get away the weather was a little bit warmer in St. George, fun to visit with the family, we saw Craig‘s mom and our new friends the Bowers that have a cabin at Bear Lake too. They live in St. George for the winter, we went over Friday night and played games with them. I ate way too much food. gained about 4 pounds on our trip.   We bought a new elliptical trainer and I worked out on it today I have got to lose some weight I don’t like feeling this heavy in the stomach. We are getting ready for our family Thanksgiving gathering this Thursday everyone is coming to the cabin except the Burbidge family they are in California at a beach house lucky them.

On Our Way To St George

Craig & I are heading to St. George today to visit the Burbidge family.  They are leaving Saturday for California with the Burbidge family for Thanksgiving, so we are going to spend a few days with them before they leave. They are having a hard time with their move.  Buck is not happy at all.  Trisha called last week talking about how unhappy he is.  They have already put their house up for sale and want to come back to the Salt Lake area.   They just moved there in July.  It is a lovely home but they have got to be happy where they live.  Buck can work anywhere.   He misses being closer to his family.  I haven’t liked them so far away too.  It is a 7 hour drive for us.  See how long it takes them to sell.  They want to come back to Salt Lake just after Christmas.  It will be nice to have some warmer weather for a few days.

Very Busy Past Few Days

Our Thanksgiving dinner at the church with the youth was a great success, it all turned out so pretty. I need to get pictures from Rose I didn’t take any pictures I was too busy visiting with everyone and making sure everything run smoothly.  I made my first video on my new PC computer and it showed very well, everyone enjoyed the evening, our food was yummy from the Bear Trapper, they did a great Thanksgiving dinner with all the works.   We decorated so pretty, everyone just loved it, they thought it look like a wedding reception- so pretty.  Yesterday I spent the morning putting things away from the event and Craig and I cleaned up and drove to Logan for the day, I didn’t go to Family History Library this week, I needed to spend time with my hubby.  Yesterday  I was soo tired, we didn’t get home from Logan until about 4:30pm,  I stayed home for the evening and hung out at our place for the night worked on my projects for  Young Women in Excellence coming up, another big event.  It’s going to be so darling highlighting the different decades in the young women program and how it has progressed over the years.  I’m excited gathering at the different clothing items for the girls to wear the night of the event. I had a slow start this morning I wasn’t feeling real spry and low on energy, I laid around this morning for a little bit, I put a small turkey in the oven to bake.  I plan to take leftovers from the dinner to about four single men in the ward.  I had to hurry and get dressed and go visiting teaching today by 1 o’clock, we spent two hours visiting with Sister Yvonne Spencer. I had not been in her home since June so it was nice to spend time visiting with her, she is a talker.  I had to hurry home to say goodbye to my sweet husband, he was leaving at 4 PM today to go to Moab with the young man biking this weekend.  I’m going to be a lone women for about three days,  I have plenty of things I can work on.  I hurried and gathered up the four Thanksgiving plates had about a half an hour to put it all together, with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob and pumpkin pie with whipped cream and salad, so it would be a great meal.   Sister Doris Mellor went with me to help me find the locations of those that needed the food.   We took a plate to brother Miller who is about 85 years old living alone and then brother Larry who is in his older years, just lives down the road for me and brother Anderson has been sick and not been feeling well lately and then another man that just had back surgery in the ward, they were all grateful for a Hot meal.  It took us about an hour to make the rounds, I wanted to go to our ward temple night tonight meeting at the church at 5:30 no one showed up at the church so I just went home.  Brother Menlove and Craig were going on the scouting trip with the bishop, so I don’t really know who attended  the temple outing. I didn’t want to drive to Logan by myself so I serve stayed home for the night, took me an hour to tidy up the kitchen from my cooking messes today.  I had to clean the floors from my dear husband who tracked in dirt on his shoes, I’m really tired...... today has been a very blessed day.  It has been filled with service, giving my time to help others, just crawled in bed from a busy day. Thank you dear Lord for all our many blessings,

My Hard-Working Husband

Craig had been helping Brother Rassmensen re-shingle his roof.  The weather has turned cold and snowy, not the best time to be re-shingling a roof.  Craig is giving service to help him out,  a lot of work for Craig at his age he hurts all over.  Hoping to get it done this week.  No one would knew he is a millionaire helping others, by giving of his time, 

Daughter's Retreat

Fun Pictures that Shannon took at our retreat

Stacy, Shannnon, Great-Grandmother Lavon, Trisha

The sisters 👩🏼👱🏻‍♀️👩🏻👩🏻‍🔧👩🏼‍🔧👩🏻Witches🕸🎃 retreat weekend We all had so much fun lots of laughing what a blast other than I left my phone 📱 in the costco in St George 😩😩 these are few pictures Shannon took at our fun weekend. We all did have a great time.

Working On Family History

In the middle of my young women responsibilities, I’m still striving to work on my family history, it is an ongoing hobby for me.   I have been working on the Hart family line trying to get what info I have gathered off my personal family History program, scanning pictures and obituaries that were given to me by my grandmother and aunt Sissy about the Hart family and submitting some names for temple work.  My PAF program is obsolete so I have been striving to transfer all of that information that I have gathered slowly onto ancestry.com and family search, it is ongoing and huge project for me. I woke up early this morning, so I am working on the Hart family tree.

Getting Ready For Our Gratitude Dinner

Young men and young women are hosting a gratitude dinner this Tuesday.   I spent the evening last night working on scrapbooks, we are all signing for the old bishopric and presidency of the young men and young women to thank them for their time serving the youth and also thanking our leaders for their time given in young men and young women’s, I printed several pictures at Costco and placed them in the books last night, I have five scrapbooks that I worked on & 10 individual pages for our leaders, I need to hand them out in church today to have the youth finish signing their thank you notes, I gathered up about 100 pictures that have been taken this year to compile into a video to show the night of the dinner, it has been a learning curve for me with my new PC computer. I now need to figure out how to download it and show it on a projector that will be a challenge for me today,  Brother Menlove is bringing his projector to church so we can see if we can figure it out before Tuesday evening.  I found Tasha's table clothes from her wedding in the garage.  They were buried in the very back corner on the bottom of our storage,  it was a challenge getting to them, but glad I was able to find them.  I got them washed all 10 of those to get ready for the dinner.   I’m excited to decorate with my fall decorations. I have lots of pretty decorations.  I didn't get any out last year with us moving.  The bear Trapper is making all of our food,we are having turkey and dressing, rolls,vegetables and yummy pumpkin pie, that should be a yummy Thanksgiving dinner.  My first  counselor Cindi Caldwell move this week, I helped her move on Thursday and Friday, she is no longer my first counselor, sad to have her leave,  The bishop did extend a call to Sister Rosalee my Mia Maid adviser as my new first counselor she should be sustained this Sunday in church.  Such a darling girl I’m excited getting to know her better.  I now need to submit two more names a Laurel adviser and a Mia Maid adviser to teach lessons on Sunday.  Being the young women’s president is taking up a lot of my time and it is a big responsibility, but very glad that I’m able to have this opportunity to serve in the Garden City first ward.  I have 14 young women, several of them are not very active so it is going to be my challenge to motivate them and help them to gain testimonies of the gospel, I pray for the insight that I need for each young woman in our ward.

Daylight Savings Time

The time moves back one hour today, so we get an extra hour of rest before attending church, our sacrament meeting doesn’t start till 12:30 and I don’t have any meetings today, which will be nice to have a little rest from the busy schedule. I did wake up at 4 AM in the morning.  We got our first snow last night for year a couple of inches.  And it feels very cold, winter is here!!

November 1st

The month of October was a very busy month, we started out with a lovely and inspiring spiritual general conference, Craig being called to serve in the bishopric,  me performing in Sound of Music play production, Hosting the Nelson for a fun filled weekend riding the Rhino thru the autumn leaves, Busy preparing and planning young women activities, went to the Escape house made pumpkin brownies and we made ghost filled with candy and deliver them, we went to the temple with the youth and the youth stake Halloween dance, Sister Missionaries for dinner, attending church meetings -Bishop council weekly, Bishop youth Council and -Bishop youth discussion meeting, young women presidency meeting, stake young women’s meeting, helping Natasha after her surgery, our witches tea in St. George and ending the month decorating our cabin at the KOA Halloween celebration.  I am really tired today.   In the middle of it all gathering pictures to make a video for our Gratitude dinner we are hosting November 7th.   Not much time to rest, this is our next big event to plan for.  Today I have got to clean up all my Halloween stuff, go tear down the cabin decorations and clean up the messes I made in the process, I have wild hair from my witches costume so I’ve got to take time to color & wash my hair and clean myself up for the day and time to go to my family history Library assignment at 3 PM today so I’m going to have a very busy day, not much time to rest.

Halloween Day

Happy Halloween Oct 2017 at the KOA

Funny Grandpa Symes

Our decorated Cabin at the KOA

Abril, one of my Mia Maids in her costume

Trick-or-treating at the KOA

Iesha one of my Lauarel's

Craig picked me up late Monday afternoon, I had work so hard at Natasha‘s house, I was dead tired. We headed back to the lake I had lots to do to get ready for Halloween day. At Bear Lake they celebrate Halloween by going to the KOA , everyone decorates the cabins there and then the kids trick-or-treat, so the young women were decorating a cabin. I spent the morning and the afternoon gathering things up and then going and decorating our little cabin.  It was a fun filled evening, fun way to celebrate Halloween the community gathers for some yummy food, campfires and visiting the cabins with candy treats to gather.  Craig and I dressed up, no one recognized us at first glance. Fun Halloween Day for Craig & I.

Natasha Still Needs My Help

Winn the Fireman

Winn loved having his grandmother see him in his parade.

On our way back from St. George, Natasha called crying she needed her mom to come help her she, was not recovering as quick as she had thought she would.  Sharlena dropped me off Sunday night to sleep over at Natasha‘s house again.   The weekends are hard when the kids are home, things fall apart fast when Dad is in charge a mess again on Monday,  I worked hard all day doing laundry for Natasha and tidying up her house, she had not had a bath since Wednesday so they got her in the bathtub and got her cleaned up, I know she felt much better after that.  I worked on  her laundry all day and cleaning up, I had a very busy day. Winston had his little Halloween party at his preschool so I got him there at 9 o’clock in the morning and then we had to go back at 11am to watch him and his little Halloween parade, he dressed up as a little fireman. he’s so cute.  We had a very busy day, I raced aganist the clock to get all I could done for Natasha.  I was beat by the end of the day.  Halloween is a busy time of year.  The kids and I got out Halloween decoration and decorated the house.  They love the seasons and excited to get the decoration out.

Our Witches Tea

Stacy & Her Mamma

Dinner Time Menu

Our Witch's Tea Oct 2017

Great-grandmother Lavon

Aubrey Girl & Sharlena

At the Play Thiller-Scary

A New Family Tradition

Beautiful Table Setting

Grandma Debbie with our Granddog Angel, I bought her this tiny witches hat so cute!!

Our Beautiful Witches Stacy & Trisha

Stacy -Welcome to our Witch's Tea

Stacy, Mom, Shannon, we all had a great time!

 Friday afternoon Sharlena & Aubrey picked me up at Natasha’a house.  We were heading to St. George to stay at Trisha’s new house for the weekend.  She was hosting a fun Halloween party for all of us girls and my granddaughter’s.  I had to leave Natasha home, I knew that she wasn’t well enough to go, we pick Shannon up and we were finally on our way by about 9pm after we had dinner, we didn’t arrive to St. George until about 1:30am.   Stacy drove from California and met us there.  Trisha had everything decorated so nice in our guestroom.  She decorated it pretty, they have a lovely new home in St. George, it will be a fun place to go visit in the winter, as well to have a break from the cold weather at Bear Lake.  It was a quick trip, wish we could’ve stayed a day longer, we did have a great time.  We stayed up till about 2:30am in the morning Friday visiting.  I slept in had a nice breakfast went to Café Rio for lunch, came back and worked on their Halloween craft.  We then dressed in our witches clothing attire to get ready for the party.  Trisha invited grandma Lavon to share our evening with us we had a lovely dinner, Trisha is so creative, I loved our better than dead cake and witches stew.   After our dinner we went to see the musical production Thiller at the out door theater in St. George.  It was a really fun production we all had a great time, I didn’t get to bed again till about 2am.  I slept in Sunday morning and Trisha fixed us a lovely breakfast and just visited the day away we didn’t get out of there until about 4 o’clock on Sunday afternoon to head home, on the way home we stopped by Costco to get gas, I had to run in and get pictures that I had printed for my gratitude dinner and Shannon shopped for a  baby Ashtyn, they had some fun clothing there, we were finally on our way got home about 9pm Sunday evening, on the way back Shannon discovered she had lost her phone, it was pretty traumatic for her she was in tears, we did figure out she had left it Costco so Trisha was able to go pick it up and they were going to mail it to her, we are so dependent on their phones that it is very upsetting when our phones break or we lose them.  We had such a fun weekend,, a tradition we would like to start with the girls a fun getaway for us all.

Helping Our Natasha

Our Darling Annie in her new Halloween Costume

Wednesday morning Craig & I drove to Salt Lake to help our Natasha, she is having surgery today, a breast enlargement.  I told her I knew she would need help when she had her surgery, so she scheduled it for a time when I could come help her. I had so much going on with the play production and young women’s that I could not break away until this week, she has been flat in bed all day Thursday and Friday I worked hard cleaning the house and getting things in order for her.  We put out fun Halloween decorations with the kids and went shopping, bought Halloween candy and Annie a little cat costume, she looks so cute.  The recovery time for Natasha was much more challenging for her than she expected.

Young Women Activity

Our Beehives, Mika & Jerika

Jericka Eckerison,  she is a darling girl loved making their ghost

We had a great activity this last week, I spent the day getting ready and gathering things up, we made little ghost with google eyes and stuff them with candy, made 30 of them and deliver them to people in the ward, the girls had fun decorating and making their little ghost, we had a great turnout I was so tired when I got home my back was killing me, I have been Standing on my feet for over six hours.