Mike, Gidget, and Patrick in front of the Governor's Palace, Williamsburg

Aimee in Williamsburg

November 2008

Thanksgiving 2008 was spent with Mike's mom in South Carolina. Afterwards, we traveled to Virginia to spend some time at Micah and Melissa's home in Surry. While there, we visited Jamestown and Williamsburg.

Though we hurried, Dad's candles started sagging and dripping.,,so we blew quick. I don't know what I'm smiling about...my candle burns at both ends!

35/60 BIRTHDAY!!!

We went to Mother and Dad's house for the evening. This is Morgan hugging their dog. She is used to kids crying over her...not grabbing her neck. ;o)


Mother made a big beautiful cake. She made all the colors for the lettering too...alot of work! She placed 35 candles around the outside for Bridget and I and 6 tall ones in the middle for Dad.

Mother made a delicious supper too...homemade chicken nuggets, potato salad, and garden salad. She had everything served so beautifully. Feeding 23 for a family birthday supper is no small task! We all had to help light the candles so the first one would not be burned down before they were all lit.

Finally Something New!!!

Today is my birthday! I can't believe I'm 35. Mike's gift to me was a new camera. I have had so much fun with it.
We are all doing ok now.
Everyone is getting over a flu-type bug.
Aimee's head is healing from a piano bench accident. (sorry, it was too hard for me to take a picture) Her Aunt B had to come help me glue it. We had a bandage on it for over two weeks. I took her to Doctor Axley yesterday and he pulled the bandage off and said it had healed beautifully. Praise the Lord! It had been a 1 1/4" gash to the eyebrow bone.
Meagan and Morgan now have short haircuts. Bridget calls Meagan, 'Bobby'. Meagan had taken sissors to her own head and then to Morgan's. I cried! The 'old man' still in me showed himself shamefully. I took them both to the salon to get the chop job fixed.
All our pet birds in the house died from teflon poisoning. We had three we had rescued...a morning dove and two blue jays. I have since bought iron cookware. Shannon got two parakeets for her birthday to help fill our 'void'.
Misty. our dog. died while we were gone on vacation and we had a funeral with the children. She has been with us since before we had children. We still have Bumbles though.
Our chickens have started laying eggs. Yea! The children are so excited.
Jeffrey and Virginia are taking their books and doing their homeschool with others in our fellowship. Bridget has been helping there with those who needed help homeschooling.
Patrick can sit up now. He scoots all over on his belly, too. He is such a happy little guy. Aimee has adopted him as her 'pet'. She carries him around, which is quite a chore for her five years.
Mike has taken another active assignment with the army and so will be gone the month of November.
Birthday season is over now for the Hawley family. Jeffrey turned 14 and Virginia turned 12 this month. Shannon turned 10 last month. The next Birthday will be Aimee's February 15.
Well, I had better close for today. We'll see how long before I post this next time. :O/

Hello! My goodness, time goes by so fast. It is already almost September. We are starting school today. The children are very excited.
Patrick is growing so fast. I updated his picture on the blog.
Gidget

Hiya!
Today I added some pets. These are Meagan's turtles. Her Daddy and Mommy each brought one home and she held them awhile before releasing them into the woods. She keeps talking about her turtles though. So here they are 'virtually' so she can visit them and feed them with her mouse. Fun, huh?
I also added a music player with a few of our favorite songs. You have to click on 'radio' to hear them.
Enjoy!
Gidget

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Ok, this is my first time to post on a blog. HI! I hope I will be able to keep this up-to-date.
School is out and we have enjoyed our first day of sleeping in and relaxing. We have several projects we want to tackle this summer, so sleeping in won't always be an option ;o)
I suppose I don't have much more to say for now.
Gidget

Annual Training 2008!

Well, we just got back from spending a fun-filled two weeks at Fort Chaffee! Let me tell you, it's hard work getting a bunch of old vehicles to work right after sitting idle for over two years! They either didn't want to start, or the computers refused to talk, or something else wasn't working right! After several drills trying to get up and running, and a week in the motor pool leading up to it, we finally get into the field and fired off a couple hundred rounds with outstanding accuracy! Aside from a small problem with a new propellant there at the end, it was a smashing success! I spent most of my time sitting in a HMMWV (humvee) watching the gun line, verifying location, establishing firing positions and generally watching things happen (or not happen, as in when the A-10s took over our target area!). Below are a few photos and a couple of video highlights for you. Enjoy!!

1st Platoon firing Low Angle

Yep, that's my platoon sergeant walking back from the gunline. Notice he doesn't even flinch when they fire? I think he's been doing this awhile.

1st Platoon firing High Angle

Only Guns 1 & 3 are firing here. Gun 2 went down with a battery charging issue. It managed to continue firing only after they hooked the CAT up to the front power.

I hope you enjoyed these images! That's all for now, but I'll add stuff as I get it. S!

More Patrick photos and general news

Playing with Daddy

Patrick sleeping

Morgan sitting with Grandpa at Danielle's birthday

While I have been up at Fort Chaffee during my annual training, we got back in from the field on Thursday afternoon, allowing me to get home and head over to Gidget's parents' house for Danielle's birthday party! It was just us and Bridget's family with Audrie and Nathan (Ken's children) who were staying with Grandpa and Grandma. We had a nice party with some absolutely terrific strawberry cake!!

I'll be posting some photos and video from training at Chaffee later. That's about all for now unless I can finally convince Gidget to start posting here ;-)

UPDATE!!

Ok, so I'm about to leave for annual training, but I wanted to get some new photos up for everyone! Last month we went up to Branson for the weekend and had a great time in the new travel trailer. Peter and Bridget went with us and took their tent and we all had a great time at Silver Dollar City. I don't have the photos loaded from that yet, but I have a couple I'll post later. Here are a couple of photos from today... The twins reading before lunch and Patrick sleeping in his swing.

Welcome to the HawleyHome!!

Ok, ok... I finally decided that since we were the *only* ones not up-to-date with a blog, and because we were now taking up space on the HerrRanch, we would finally go ahead and get our own blog. It seems like a good time, too!

Now to see if we can actually keep it "current"... =)