Skip to main content

Treasure Found and Last Chance For Giveaway

Image
By
I use a laptop now, but we used to have a big desktop computer.  One day, just after picking up my daughter from preschool, I smelled something burning.  When I walked into the office, smoke was pouring out of the computer.  I unplugged it and left it alone until the smoke finally cleared.  That night, when Mr. W opened the CPU to see what had happened, he found that all the plastic components had melted.  It seems I had discovered the situation moments before it burst into flames.  I can only imagine what would have happened if we hadn't come straight home from school that day.

More than losing the computer, I was upset about all the files that were lost along with it.  I hadn't thought to save anything on disc (I don't think flash drives were available at the time).  We had countless hours of music files, personal files and, most precious of all, hundreds of family pictures.

Over the weekend, my son was looking through a box of CDs, most of which were unlabeled.  He popped one into his computer and found that it was a photo CD with pictures from 2003 and 2004.  I don't know who made it or when it was made, but it contained all of those pictures I had thought were lost forever.  I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I was.

Here are a few of my favorites (chosen specifically because my friend Lisleman from A Few Clowns Short refers to us as the Witness Protection Family):

A nice picture of Mr. Willoughby and our son
in North Carolina.


From left to right - A friend's son, our son and Mr. Willoughby

From top to bottom - A friend's daughter, our daughter

Our daughter on the computer before it melted.
Our son jumping his dirt bike.


Mr. W and the kids racing a friend on a Go Cart.
Me with the kids and a little glare from my sunglasses.
The kids at an air show.  Some soldiers put camouflage paint
on my son's face.  


Last Chance For Giveaway

You have until 5:00 pm Eastern Time today (June 6, 2011) to enter the Novica Giveaway.  Click here for more information.  If you are having trouble posting your entry, please feel free to email it to me at thisstopwilloughby@yahoo.com.  The winner will be announced this evening.  Good luck!

Willoughby



**I'm still unable to post comments on some of my favorite blogs.  I hope Blogger gets this issue fixed soon.  Holly, Matty, Amy and Liz - I haven't stopped reading your posts, I just can't leave a comment.

Comments

L.B. said…
First, entering the contest. I am a proud longtime follower and will be here til the bitter end :)

I like the Leather Laptop Case. I actually don't use one but I like the idea of one. I guess if I worked in an office or something it would be much better but I'm always on the go with my laptop so a backpack works much better. But if a laptop case worked, I'd definitely go for the leather one here.

Okay, the pictures... Talk about an early (or late?) Christmas present. Seriously. Those are just untold treasures there your son discovered. Unbelievable. I look back at old pictures and always wonder - why didn't I take more pictures or video of the girls then? And to have lost those pictures must have been tough, but now to have recovered them... amazing!
June 6, 2011 at 9:24 AM
Liz in Virginia said…
Don't worry -- I can still feel the Willoughby love!
June 7, 2011 at 9:46 AM
Betty Manousos said…
your kids are sooo cute!!

betty xx
June 9, 2011 at 4:48 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Skip Breakfast And Have An Adventure

By
We're skipping breakfast again.  I know you were expecting Mr. Willoughby to dazzle you with his cooking skills, but he doesn't feel like cooking today.  He wants to go skydiving. Yesterday, a friend sent us a link to an article about a new place to skydive in Michigan.  When I clicked on the link, I was surprised to see a familiar face. We'll get to that in a minute. You may recall that Mr. W started skydiving by taking a tandem jump a few years ago.  With a tandem jump, having a great instructor makes the difference between a fun experience and an amazing experience and Mr. W had Josh Sheppard; one of the best.  Josh is experienced, enthusiastic and passionate about skydiving.  Mr. W had such an amazing experience that he decided to take the AFF course (to learn to jump solo) before they were back on the ground.   So back to that article, the familiar face I saw was Josh.  He and his brother Abe have started a new skydiving business in Owo...
5 comments
Read more

Timeline

By
I made Spaghetti with Tomato Basil Cream Sauce and Chicken Parmesan for dinner last night. It's not a difficult meal to prepare, but it does require the oven and multiple burners on the cooktop so it heats up the kitchen. After dinner, it was still awfully warm inside, so I left all of the dishes right where there were and my husband and I went outside to sit on the back porch and cool off. We had eaten rather late, so it was already dark outside. Our neighborhood was uncharacteristically quiet and the only sounds were that of the crickets chirping and the faint whoosh of cars passing by on Main Street. It was a perfect summer evening, the sort that you dream about in the middle of February. I asked my husband what he thought we might have been doing at that exact moment one year ago. Had we been sitting in the same place enjoying similarly beautiful weather? Had I made the same meal for dinner? What about five years ago? How about 10, 15, and 20 years ago? I know I've taken a ...
13 comments
Read more

Bugging Out

By
Spring is such a wonderful time of year.  The birds have returned and greet each morning with their lovely songs.  The tree branches are covered with green buds ready to burst into life.  The grass has shed it's yellow/brown pallor in favor of a lovely emerald.  The air is warm and breezy.  It's all so lovely except for one thing.  The bugs. Because of our nearly uninhabitable climate during the winter months, we don't see many bugs from late October through early April.  I almost forget how much I hate them until they come back.  And they know I hate them so they taunt me.  Ever since the thermometer hit the 60 degree mark, we've had flies congregating around the back porch.  I can't sit out there and enjoy my morning coffee without having them buzz past me. Now, flies I hate, but spiders I absolutely loathe.  Friday morning I walked into the bathroom to dry my hair and spotted what I thought was a bumble ...
26 comments
Read more