Family Happenings

Good-bye Sweet Willaby

2009-09-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Dec.'96 - Sept.'09

Well, it's been a week since we let our Willaby go. We had her for almost 13 years. She was a birthday gift to me from my now husband, Chad. She has been through EVERYTHING with us. She gave us many memories throughout the years. We use to call her Houdini, cause she could get out of her kennel, her tie out anchor, and squeeze under fences! This got her into "trouble" and produced many puppies! Our kids grew up with her and led her to be very protective of them. I guess that's a good thing. we thought it was funny how she jumped like a kangaroo and stood atop her doghouse like a watchdog. It's not the same around here. No one to give pizza crust to anymore. The picture above was taken a week before we let her go. We found out that she had breast cancer and had metastasized into 3 tumors in her body cavity. She had stopped eating and there were no options. We could not allow ourselves to watch her starve to death, so we decided to have her put down. It broke out hearts. She was our "Princess" and my "boo" . We'll miss you dearly Willaby.

Raising Monarchs

2009-08-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

This summer was the summer butterflies! At the end of the school year, Nick's teacher passed on to him a netted butterfly chamber. We put good use to it this summer. We traveled up to Michigan this summer to visit family,like we do every year. During our stay,we went up to the campground to visit the cousins. On our way back down state, we stopped at a Taco Bell and pulled around back to park. Nick was unhappy with the decision and stomped off to go to the nearby Burger King. He was stopped in mid-step when he noticed a Milkweed plant. He was looking intently and then screamed "I found a caterpillar!" We all came to look and it was as small as a cm ! We put it and part of the milkweed in an empty cup with a lid for transport. Later we found a larger container. It was perfect timing...by the time we got ready to go back home from our vacation it had gone into it's "J " position, getting ready for its chrysalis! The next morning we woke to a jade green chrysalis...we had named him Monty, so with in a week's time it was ready to break out...and it did! Oh did I mention we brought Milkweed from the farm and Nick had found 2 more caterpillars!! We witnessed the process 3 times and each caterpillar had a name. Monty, Maxine(it was only after it's a butterfly that you can tell if it's a boy or girl), and lastly, Morgan(f).(Bottom:Monty, Nick w/ red shirt: Maxine and top: Morgan)

Trunk or Treat and Halloween 2008

2008-11-03T12:35:00.000-08:00

My nieces,Hayle and Greta and the "strawberry" is Heidi.
The boys at Trunk or treat at our church.

Vacation to Michigan...

2008-08-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

TORNADO!!!....in Roanoke?

2008-06-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures (not taken by me ,but got it off the Channel 7 News online and wsls 10 ) of a rotating cloud and just a quickly as it touched down it disapated! It's usually unlikely for them to hit our city and it was is a busy area and did little damage. We got pea size hail at our house and it poured rain!!! yeah we get excited about this stuff,cause it never happens in ROANOKE!

Real feathers!

2008-05-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: sad news...one of the baby birds fell out of the nest and died...so goes the cycle of life.

But the birdies are thriving and getting real feathers so they can soon fly off into the sky.
I think at this point they are called fledglings. Nick wants to check on them everyday! He such the animal lover.

Strollin' along the docks...at Smith Mountain Lake...

2008-05-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

We went putt-putt at Bridgewater plaza on the lake. The golf course if elevated over the water and is really fun...Daddy won the game,he so competitive!

here's me actually in a picture! Im the one always taking them! We were waiting on our pizza!

We just enjoyed watching the boats and wave runners skim across the lake. Sorry, no pictures of us in a boat(our Yacht is getting repaired...haha!) and this pic...Daddy should have worn stripes to match us...staying true to his Michigan roots!

I'm HUNGRY!

2008-05-23T11:24:00.001-07:00

If you look real hard you can see the baby opening it's beak for food.From what I hear and read the mama and daddy feed the babies 40 times a day!And they grow fast! I hope the nest holds up, we've gotten windy here the past few days .

Robin's eggs have HATCHED!

2008-05-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

So today, we sat outside to wait for the bus...a beautiful morning by the way. Nick was telling me how he wants to become a bird watcher and a tornado chaser still. He wanted me to check the nest AGAIN and I said the mama bird was sitting in the nest to keep the eggs warm...all of a sudden we saw the mama leave the nest. So I checked real quick and saw fuzzy feathers! I said they hatched! Nick was jumping up and down and so excited! They are so tiny,it must have just happened! We'll try to update on the growth progress:-)

What we discovered one day while waiting for the bus...

2008-05-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

A week or two ago we were waiting for the bus. Nick noticed a Robin flying into the weed/shrub/tree like growing on the corner of the fence. It flew away when I came close...it was building a nest! So EVERYDAY since Nick has insisted on checking the nest for eggs. I told him probably not but maybe there would be eggs in it. The past few days we were running late and didn't check. Today we checked and I couldn't believe it there were 3 blue eggs in the nest! I put Nick on my back so he could see and got so excited and then hoisted Chad on my back so he could see too..."oh that's cool" he said. So I informed them to not to touch it and let the Robin mama do what she does. She didn't pick a very good spot! that area has a bunch of activity with us pulling up in our cars, getting out , opening the door, riding bikes ,and washing cars...hope they survive:-)

Here is where it happens...

2008-04-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

Hey since you catch up with me on my cancer journey , I decided to create a new blog to let you in on whats going with the family, mostly the kids and how they are getting so big! Just today while waiting for the bus they were measuring how tall they came up to my short,small , framed body! Chad is just below my collar bone( right where my port is located) and Nick is about 6 in below that. Poor little Nick had this kid in his class that insists that Nick is 6 (probably teasing him cause the kid just turned 7 and Nick is already 7) I guess small has it's advantages...when picture time came around I was ALWAYS the first in line! Shortest to tallest! I got to hold the board that said the grade level and teacher...ALL the way from K to 6th grade! But never underestimate the power of a shortie! I vividly remember being in a swim race in my preteens and we lined up on the blocks and the majority of the girls had developed early and it seemed like a foot taller and then there was me, short and scrawny. Guess who won the race... ME! So anyway, be sure to check us out.