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Treasure Found and Last Chance For Giveaway

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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
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