Monday, May 28, 2012

Ribbit, Ribbit!

Ribbit, Ribbit!

Last night Ivy and I decided to go on a little froggy adventure. I wanted to collect some tadpoles again. We'd done this a few times before but with no success, or if we had found some they...*ahem* didn't stay with us long. I took a small glass jar down to the water's edge and Ivy brought her froggie net. 
First we checked under the bridge. Although, the water coming under the bridge was straight from the ocean. We thought it may be too cold so it was time to move on to another spot.

No froggies here!

 We all walked down the road a bit more. Elias and Ivy thought maybe we could find froggies under this bridge, there were even lilypads! They of course are frog's lil landing spot! Although.. still no luck. Time to move on again.
Nope, no frogs here!
 After walking down over the hill from the bridge a bit more we found the boat dock. This for sure would have to have some frogs! I was standing at the end of the dock when it happened. I fell in. My welly got stuck in one of the slats of the dock and I flipped over and landed in the lake. All I could hear was Ivy and Elias screaming. Ivy had starting to cry 'Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY!" She was terrified. I, however, felt stupid. I was fine and was in fairly shallow water. I climbed up and out of the water and onto the dock. Wringing my shirt out and trying to salvage a bit of decency.

Oh, NO! I fell in! 
 No more standing on the dock for me. We went around to the corner near the dock and I found a bunch of reeds. This was the perfect spot for frogs to lay eggs and a great save haven for little tadpoles. I leaned over.. *carefully* and dipped my jar into the water. I only came up with some dirt, leaves and some broken twigs. Darn it. No luck, again.

Just muddy water. 
 There was one last place we could check, the fishing dock. It was over by the barn. We had seen a frog here once before.. so I had to assume there was more. When we got a bit closer Ivy says to me "Mama I hear gurburt" The frogs were talking.. they WERE there after all. I settled myself in the water and moved some reeds apaart and surprise.. I saw a frog! I hushed Ivy and motioned with my hands for her to come closer with her net. She was nervous she would "moosh" him... but she didn't! She did a great job and she trapped the frog under the net while I quickly dipped my jar into the water.

Look what Ivy caught! 
 While I was scooping the water up Ivy managed to find a little froggie friend and held it in her hands! She was so surprised! She told me he felt slimy and squishy. Naturally, the frog didn't sit long in her hand and jumped away. She was a little bummed.. but we did have a jar to inspect for tadpoles!

Look Mommy! 
 Once we looked closer in the jar would could see a few little specs floating around. If you look too you can see the baby tadpoles we caught! We now have a little family of tadpoles to watch grow into frogs in our classroom!
Look, they are swimming! 

They are hard to see.. but there are tadpoles in there!

 Now what? We had the tadpoles. Ivy had one question. "How do we get them home? We going to spill them" She was right.. I had no idea. we had a long way to walk and the terrain wasn't even. We were only a short distance from my sister Kara's house. We made it to her doorway and asked her for a ride home in the truck. I could hold the jar a bit more steadily in the truck. So, Ivy and I hopped in the back of the truck and Kara drove us home. ( So much fun in the back of the truck! )

Drive safe, Sis! 
   On our way home with our new little friends!
I can see the house! 
We made it home safely as did the tadpoles. Now, they are happily swimming free in a tank in the classroom. We'll watch them slowly grow into frogs! What an amazing process to watch. It's beautiful to watch the cycle of life!

                                                                           Love,
                                                                               Meg

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Friends to Family

                                 Friends to Family 


  "Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile & who love you no matter what." 


     Isn't that the truth? I've seen this quote time and time again. It never ceases to make me smile. There's really quite a bit of truth in that statement. It goes both for Second Life and for Real Life. What does family mean for you? How does someone just 'become family'? Seems like an odd question to ask, most of the time I think it goes unspoken. It's felt in your heart. You'll know it when you feel it. Those moments when you can't stop laughing and have simply forgotten what you're even laughing at, when you need a listening ear yet they already know what's wrong and, when silence is comfortable. I could go on forever - but those for me are some of the things that speak to me. In a place like Second Life we are blessed with the ability to choose our family.
      I have been blessed with an amazing family in Second Life. I'm not sure I could have asked for better people to spend my time with on a daily basis. I have a daughter of whom I have known for nearly a year now. We've spent almost every day together (minus a few RL vacations, etc.) We've grown close over that year and I couldn't be happier where the road took us. Although, things have changed in SL for us many times; one thing hasn't - our bond. If anything, it's become even stronger. I'm so thankful I have her each and everyday. I treasure her as my daughter and my best friend. I'm thankful that even when SL is being a bugger, the internet is down, or the power is out ~ she is only a text or phone call away. You make me one happy Mommy ~ my little Ivy.
       A few weeks ago Ivy and I both received one of the sweetest messages along with a small drawing of us, her, a sun, animals in the clouds and two small check boxes that said "yes" and "no" above it the words "Miss Meg will you be my Aunty? Ivy will you be my cousin? Check "yes" or "no". We both squealed with joy! I of course said yes in a moments notice! She had been in my heart for quite some time and been my heart family for so long. It was such a beautiful moment to have made things 'official'. I was officially an Aunty for the first time! What an honor, I was so happy to have been asked!
I'm an Aunty! 

       Recently, I've been blessed with even more family. I have been honored to have a sister and another niece. I couldn't he happier to have more people in my life who truly mean the world to me. I hope you all know how much I adore you and treasure every day I get to spend with you.  The day after our hurricane storm Ivy and I thought we would surprise our friends Kara, and Giselle. We had been feeling as if they were family for a long time now. We've shared sims toegether since just after Christmas of this year. We've only continued to grow closer and closer. We decided that we would ask them to be family. I wrote Kara a letter, and Ivy drew them a picture. We then lined up some blocks and made it into our names, family and, love. We waited in their house for them to log in and see us..
Will you be ours?
    After a minute of tiny whispers between Kara and Giselle they both said on the count of 3.....YES!  We were all so incredibly happy! I now had a sister and a new niece! Finally what was in our hearts was made official!

Now that we were all family we needed new family portraits! Here are some of our new family photo's.

(Top L to R ) Giselle, Kara, Myself, Ivy and Darla
Myself and my little girl, Ivy
Adored ~ Hadlee Family
Kara & Giselle Adored ~ Meg Hadlee & Ivy Hadlee




                                               Thank you for stepping into our family!

Love, 
Meg

Hurricane Ida

Hurricane Ida

As you saw last night we had a thunderstorm. I had gone into the living room to turn on the TV to check the weather channel. There was some mention that there could be a hurricane. The skies had cleared that night and into the next morning. 
When morning came I figured I should get Ivy outside for some play time before the storm came, if were to really come. We had been playing down by the shore line when it started to sprinkle. We were a bit too far from the house so we ran up to our neighbor Kara's house. By the time we had made into the house the rain had really started to come down. We had mentioned that we wanted to invite them over for dinner and a movie. After gathering up their rain gear and some extra umbrella's we made the trip up to our house on the hill.

Playing by the water before the storm

Hurry! It's raining!
 We were soaking wet when we made it up to the house. We all left our boots by the door, hung up their rain gear and the umbrella's to dry. I mentioned to Kara that she could borrow some of my sweats and that the girls could borrow some of Ivy's clothes to wear while theirs dried off.
Once we were all dried off and cozy by the fireside I had to turn on the weather channel to check on the status of the storm. Kara was upstairs with the girls when I yelled over my shoulder to her " Kara.. it's worse than I thought..." She came down over the stairs with the girls and I pointed to the TV's map showing the pattern of the storm. Ivy asked us how long we were going to watch the 'map show'  We had seen enough, it was time to get the flashlights out. The storm track was showing a pretty heavy cloud of rain, and fast winds. We needed to get a few flashlights out. While Kara and I went digging for flashlights we turned on the pony cartoon's that the girls love so much. Hoping it would keep their attention, as I didn't want to worry them as well.

A hurricane?!
The rain was already building up on the windows and the trees were swaying and bending with the wind. You could hear the howls of the wind as it whipped around the corner of the house. The water around the lighthouse was in a frenzy. The storm was on it's way and in a hurry.



Lightning Strikes


Pony Show!

 Kara and I were looking out the window when it happened. The lights flickered off and on, the lighting struck, the thunder rolled and it went out. We lost the power. We were in the dark. The girls were crying and screeching in the dark. We set them together on the cushions by the TV while we fumbled around for the flashlights we had found. After getting the room lit up a bit we managed to get a few candles lit and tried to figure out our next move. Should we stay downstairs head upstairs away from the windows? Is the attic really safe, or was it too high?

Oh, no. I can't see!
The lightning out by the lighthouse was striking down hard. I started to worry about it hitting a tree, or even the large weather-vane on the house. The storm was almost overhead by now. The wind sounded like a pack of wild coyote's howling in the night, and the rain was quite loud against the windows, they were rattling in their frames with every loud rumble of thunder.
The storm is here.




















I gathered up the girls at the base of the stairs while Kara gathered up some blankets from the sofa to carry with us.  I went into the kitchen just to grab a few snack and when I came back Giselle was gone. I frantically asked the girls where she went. She they said she didn't know. I ran to the front door to see if she had run outside. The door was open... I called for Kara and the girls. They all came running as fast as they could in the dark. We all stood on the porch and yelled for her "Gissy?! Giselle?! Giselle, where are you?!" I without a thought just started to run over the hill in the front yard. I yelled back over my shoulder for all of them to stay there. I knew this hill like the back of my hand. Why would she run outside in a storm? I was terrified. I kept yelling for her as I ran down the rocky steps in my little bunny slippers. "Gissy?! Giselle, honey where are you!?" I could hear some faint crying. I moved my flashlight around trying to find her. There she was, sitting down on the ledge. Her umbrella was nearly turned 'inside out' and she was crying. Quickly pulling her to my chest and wiping her tears away with my already soaking wet sweatshirt. "Gissy, sweetheart, are you okay? What were you doing out here" Over her tears and her frantic little voice she managed to tell me "I just.. I wanted to play in the fog, they are like tiny clouds..an.. an .. and an I slipped alla' way down the hill. I fell on my bum." I picked her up and pressed her to my chest and headed to the house. Yelling to them through the rain, wind and thunder " I have her! We're safe!" trying to wave my flashlight around so they would see us coming back.


We made it back to the porch safely. Kara quickly scooped up her little girl and kissed her cheeks. Giselle kept apologizing and talking about playing in the clouds. The important thing was she was safe, we all were safe. Now, we needed to get back inside and find something to keep the girls calm and *inside* the house.


We thought that maybe being in the attic away from a majority of the windows would be a good idea. We would make some 'tents' out of blankets and set up a little camp for the girls. Ivy was a bit tentative to go up there after our last time being up there.. (when we found the ghost) I assured her that she was gone (however, I had no real idea if she was still here or not. Maybe us being loud and present would keep her at bay for the night.. )

Time to set up camp.

We lit as many candles as we could find, and battery powered night lights. We had a decent amount of light. It would have to do for the night.
Candle Lit Camp

After we were settled into our tents I figured we would all need to sleep at some point. Not sure if any of us would be able to with this weather but it was worth a shot. We had brought up a book with us. So the girls snuggled in and I read them a bedtime story. After the story we snuggled in our tents for some well needed sleep.
Story Time!

Goodnight, Giselle, Kara and, Darla 
Ssshh..
                                                      Goodnight, Ivy

Night, Night

 Well, we all managed to get a little shut eye..

Shh...


I woke early the next morning. I saw that Darla was already awake and trying to peer out the window at the storm's damage. By the daylight I guessed it was around 6:30am. I gently laid my hand on Ivy's back and whispered to her while brushing her hair back from her face "Ivy, honey, time to get up.. it's morning" I heard a little groan and she rolled over reaching her arms up to me. Wanting me to hold her. I carefully picked her up and held her to my chest. Darla woke up Giselle and told her it was breakfast time. We let Kara sleep in a little bit more and we headed downstairs. 


Good Morning!

We all instantly ran to the windows to see what the storm had done over night. It was still raining outside but only a small mist. The yard was a mess. My plant pots on the steps were strewn around, tree's down in the front yard. I waited on the front steps for the rest of them to find me. 

Oh, no...
 Once we were all together we took a walk to inspect the damage that the storm had left us...

Oh no..

The storm has wrecked this tree and tossed my bike across the yard. 
Look at the tree, and my bike!

Oh, no. Ivy's teeter-totter had been blown over and flown half way across the yard. She was a little distraught about it. 

Mommy, it's broken! 

We walked a little further down the yard and there was her pink slide tipped over and thrown down by the driveway..

Is it broken Mommy?
 We kept walking down the driveway when I saw a bit of smoke.. I yelled for Kara to catch up with me. "Kara, quick! Girls, hurry!" I was standing in the middle of the hill and we saw a giant tree had been taken down and another was on fire, along with a power line down. I ran down towards the tree on fire and yelled to Kara "You have your cell? Call 911! We need a firetruck" The girls by now were a bit afraid and asking many questions.

Oh NO! 
FIRE!

 Once the fire department got to the scene I ran up to the house for blankets and sippy cups for the girls. Standing in the kitchen I tried to flick the light switches but nothing worked. We were still out. It must be from the down power line out by the trees. I could hear the siren's wailing still, maybe they called for backup. I was worried about that power line as well.  I was trying to ready some food in the kitchen for them as well. They were keeping an eye on the fire.

Here they come!
The firemen were on the scene and taking care of the fire. They said that lightning must have struck the tree and the tree must have taken down the power line. There was just a small fire in the tree from the lightning.

Fireman!
The Fire Department was down there for a few hours. They had to inspect the power line and put in a call to the power company to send a truck out to fix that so they could restore our power.

Stay clear!
 Once the fire was put out and everyone was safe again the girls wanted pictures with the fire people!
They were our hero's!

Giselle and the fire woman!

Darla and the fire woman!
Ivy & the fire woman

Once all was said and done, the fire was put out, the trucks were gone and the fear had left, it was time for some FUN!

What's more fun than jumping in puddles in a rainstorm? Nothing! 


Jump with us!


Hopefully our weather stays calm for us for a while!

Love,
Meg 














A rumble in the sky

 Storm clouds roll in..

"Mommy, what's that?" Ivy had asked me when we were sitting at the dinner table. It sounded like a storm was rolling in.
"Sounds like a thunderstorm is rolling in from the ocean." After the next loud crash, I knew I was right. We went and stood out on the front porch and the storm was getting closer. It was just out past the lighthouse. I could see the sea swelling and crashing around the rock formations. The fog horn on the lighthouse was alerting us of the impeding storm. We both stood on the front porch and watched the lightning flash and the thunder roll. It got a bit too close for us and the rain started to roll onto the porch in sheets. So, I decided we should go inside and turn on the weather channel. You never can be too careful when you live on the ocean...
Uh oh..
Wow!

The weather warned of a potential hurricane headed our way.. it was time to prepare. A quick trip to the grocery store to stock up on candles and batteries. I have a bad feeling about this...


Love, 
 Meg





Saturday, May 26, 2012

Prima Ballerina's meet zombies!

Hadlee's Ballet Company

"Pirouette, NO -- tendu! Feet together, feet together! Point your toes! No, not like that -- like THIS!" That is all I heard when I walked upstairs to our ballet studio.. I was stunned at what I saw.  
My little prima ballerina leading a line of *zombie's* in a ballet lesson. Yes, I said ZOMBIE! 
It was quite a sight really. I know she loves zombies well, the two of us do really. 

Practicing

So I figured.. if you can't beat 'em.. join 'em
Beautiful Ballerina's

My partner and I

Hadlee Ballet Company

Thank you for stepping into our *ahem* beautiful ballet company.

Love,
Meg