Sunday, July 1, 2007

Well, here goes the first day of our new "blog." We have never done this before; taking a directive from a friend, I decided to leave a recollection of our life for our children and grandchildren. I wish someone had thought of this 30 years earlier. Oh, the stories I could tell! As time goes on I may add some previous memories if they pop up while I am writing, but for the most part the recollections will start today. I am going to try and add pictures when I am writing. My friend does that and it really makes the stories come to life. However, since I am not very computer literate, I don't know how successful I will be so bear with me. Ha ha You know the picture you see here, well, I spent 30 minutes figuring out how to insert it and this ISN'T the spot I chose, but I intend to leave it here so I don't spend another 30 minutes trying to figure out how to move it. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that our names are William (Bill) George Symons and Therese Marie (Sperry) Symons.

As you know, Grandpa and I are living in Las Vegas, Nevada, now and enjoying it immensely. I miss my children and grandchildren, but I was just "tired" and needed a change. During the school year we spend most of our weekends at the casinos trying to win a little money. Sometimes we don't have much to gamble so we go to a movie or two. Here in 'Vegas' there are lots of ways to entertain yourself without spending too much money. For those of you who read this many years down the road, Las Vegas has a saying that many others are trying to use; it is "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Lots of companies have tried using a spin of this on their commercials, but it was finally ruled in court that they CANNOT use this slogan.

We are living in a "senior" complex. At first I thought that sounded kind of funny because we had not thought of ourselves as "seniors," but now that we are here, we kind of like it. It is pretty quiet, but you have to get used to seeing the paramedics and the ambulance here on an 'almost daily' basis. Some of these people are really "OLD." Kim (oldest of our three children) sat at our kitchen table one day and told her grandmother she sat at the table for five minutes and saw people using walkers, canes, and wheelchairs so she decided Grandpa and I weren't so old compared to those people.

Because I am just now starting this blog, I would like to include pictures of my family as it stands today. That way there will be a pictorial history of my family. This is Kimberly Renee, her husband Gilbernardo (G.B.) Caedo, and their children, from the left: Emily Anne, Gilbernardo Alexander (Alex), and Cassandra (Cassie) Elyse. They are living in Olathe, Kansas.

Our second daughter is Jennifer Dyan Ruckman. She is living in Mulvane, Kansas. She has two stepsons, Mitchell and Camron, living in Missouri. She has three of her own children and they are Morgan Breanne, Jordan Tyler, and Zachary Chase.

Left to right: (back row) Mitchell, Jennifer, Morgan (front row) Camron, Zach, Jordan. I would like to move this picture down, but I can't get it to move. I WAS doing good; after spending 30 minutes on the first picture, I added the next two in five minutes each, but it would only let me move this one once. Aaaaggghh! (Oooh, I just figured it out!)

Our third and final child was another girl, Melissa Dawn Parker. Her husband's name is Jonathan Mathew and she has three girls: Ashleigh Danielle, Hannah Marie, and Elizabeth Rae. They had another daughter born between Ashleigh and Hannah, Madison Taylor, but she didn't survive. They are living in Liberal, Kansas. Here is a photo of her family. We didn't make it to the "Welcome" sign when they were in Vegas, so we will have to put that on our agenda for their next visit. This was taken at Ashleigh's first communion in May, 2007, and we had just worn her to death with picture taking so she isn't too happy in the photo. (understandably so) Well, so much for figuring out the photos -- this isn't where I wanted this photo placed, but it won't move where I want it.

Well, I have to get ready for church now so I am going to post one last picture and be done with it for now. This is a picture of my mother (Therese's mother). Her name is Elizabeth Mildred Sperry Fetsch. I will publish my dad and Bill's parents soon.