Posted by Michelle on Aug 18, 2014 in Genealogy, More Family
I have about 200 photos to post, mostly from Hayley’s high school basketball and soccer seasons… or July 4th… or whatever, I’m just way behind in general. But in the past 12 hours, I’ve got two old photos of ladies I love (my mom and my mother in law) and I had to post them because I’m so charmed by them both (you should begin humming The Way We Were by Streisand now and don’t make any jokes because everyone should know I’m obsessed with that movie).
My mom is on the right side, in the light pink top with the darker pink floral skirt before a friend’s wedding in 1973. Thanks to Facebook for this one, the poster was the bride and added, “your mom was always such a wonderful part of EVERYONE’S life. So funny. Actually, her whole family was hilarious and I think all her many friends would agree to that.”

My mother-in-law passed this one on to me last night with this story, “this picture that was sent by the daughter (baby on the left) of lifelong friends of mom and dad. The picture is of the Douthitts and mom and dad with mom holding me and Karen as a toddler. The two on the right are “Pops and Frances”, my dad’s parents. Karen or I had never seen this picture before. Cliff and Inez Douthett met my parents while they both were dating, then married, then had children about the same age. When we were young we used to drive to Texas (where they moved to) for visits. Then Mom and dad and they used to travel together when we kids grew up and moved away. Just interesting history. Cliff and Inez are still living. They had a very long friendship.”
Tags: family, photos
Posted by Michelle on Jul 12, 2014 in Hayley, More Family


Tags: adoption, family, fun
Posted by Michelle on Jul 3, 2014 in Hayley
We are so proud of Hayley being selected as a NC State House Page. She managed the entire application process herself. Turned out Wake County’s selections were already made since there is no set deadline to apply but occasionally there are extra spots that they saved to give to students who have a good application. They told me they especially liked her application because it was clear she did it, not a parent, so they’d try to get her a spot. Well turned out the Speaker of the NC House Thom Tillis had a spot and so he was her sponsor.
She had a fantastic week. It was long and tiring but she got to witness a great week – the centerpiece being house budget with the Governor including education proposal but a lot of other interesting debates on drone usage and charter school discrimination, which got weird. Even a huge Moral Monday protest was going on. Since they were there until 9pm that Monday night, the pages got an interesting view of that too. They went to the Governor’s press conference as well. They ran all sort of errands, met lots of legislators and interacted with other kids from across the state – this week had about 20 House Pages.

http://www.carynews.com/2014/06/30/3975461_notables-july-2.html?rh=1
She only took a couple of photos but not many as she was focusing on working. But boy did they get a pile of nice certificates, press releases and all sort of stuff from the State House. They do a great job with things and we are thrilled she got to experience government in action up close.

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Tags: cool, good deeds, in the news
Posted by Michelle on Jun 14, 2014 in Hayley
Hayley played soccer in the spring but since she ran XC in the fall, she filled in some for the track team when they needed help.
3/4 of the girls 800 relay team

3/4 of the girls 800 relay team plus Grayson

With Catherine

Talking with Coach Reid pre-race



Tags: school, sports
Posted by Michelle on Jun 10, 2014 in Hayley
A friend of Hayley’s had a Quinceanera. It was a lovely event at a local historical house and the kids had fun getting all dressed up.


Tags: friends, fun, school
Posted by Michelle on Jun 9, 2014 in pups & other pets
So our new adorable puppy is named Lilly. She was born on St. Patrick’s Day and came from Bennie’s Dachshunds down in Wilmington – thanks to Ms Donna there for everything! She is a black and cream, long haired, miniature dachshund.
Lilly weighed 3.3 lbs on her first visit but she ended up having a little medical condition we had to get fixed immediately. Luckily our wonderful vet took care of it and the puppy is doing great.





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Posted by Michelle on Jun 9, 2014 in Hayley, pups & other pets
It was a fun day, had lots of fun with flowers and balloons. She had a lot of instructions for food this year which was sort of funny. She wanted me to make her hash browns for breakfast, then get Starbucks on the way to school and then her very favorite slow cooked bbq chicken before cake. (She even talked us into Chili’s the night before so she could get dessert there too). The Renfroes came over with lovely gifts as well.
Of course the highlight was the big gift which was a new black and screen miniature dachshund puppy. I made up a birth announcement for the puppy, rolled it up and attached it to a toy weiner dog. Then we had Annabelle drag the toy with her to Hayley – as crazy as that sounds, it worked perfectly! The pup was a few hours away so we picked up the darling the following Sunday. She’s been begging for another forever so it was a huge hit. Hayley named the pup Lilly.
Lilly


Crazy balloon door

Cake

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Tags: birthday, family, friends, pups & other pets
Posted by Michelle on Jun 9, 2014 in Hayley, Michelle
What a fun spring break we had. Took some of Hayley’s friends out to Winterpast Farm, went on a crazy dessert binge with Grandma Joanne and Grandpa Gordon then to the beach to the beach with our neighbors!
Girls holding two day old bunnies


Beach




STOP FEEDING THEM lol

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Tags: beach, friends, fun, travel
Posted by Michelle on Jun 9, 2014 in Jeff
Even tiramisu needs candles!

Tags: birthday
Posted by Michelle on Jun 9, 2014 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle, More Family
We had a great Easter!
I’ll always make Hayley an Easter basket.

The Hillisons came down for the weekend.

Hello from us…

Tags: family, holiday