April 2008

APRIL 2008

Time sure is flying by....Let's see what all has happened so far in the month of April

I got 2 new birds - Kiwi and KiKu....please see an earlier post for their pictures! All of the birds are doing great. Kiwi loves to get his head rubbed. His latest thing is to sit on Rusty's had while he does his homework. KiKu is doing great as well. She is really adjusting to her surroundings and she is finally starting to make more noises. All of the birds - including the cockatiels and lovebirds love fresh fruit and veggies and Kiwi loves brown rice :-) They are little people!

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Brooke had a birthday on the 10th. Here's a picture of the birthday girl at her party!

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The kids went to Dante's birthday party on the 12th. The kids had a great time. Dante had a Thomas the Train theme and it was so cute! Dante is getting so big. What a cutie!!!



Alan, Carrigan and Dante getting ready for a group picture!



What cute party favors Sue had for the party! Alan wears his hat all of the time!

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Carrigan went to Brooke's birthday party on the 19th. All of the girls had a great time getting all made up. They had their hair done, nails painted, had their picture made, decorated a frame to put it in, made lip gloss and bath gel! Carrigan had a great time. Thank you Kristi for watching Alan for us so that Carrigan could do something without her brother!



Carrigan and Brooke all dolled up!!!!

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Kristi celebrated Hunter's birthday on April 20th. His actual birthday is April 22nd. We had a great time. Unfortunately though Pat, Rusty and Matt were able to come but we had fun anyway. Kristi made a Low Country Boil which was wonderful. Yummy Yummy :-)



The Birthday Boy!



Grammy and the grand kids! Hunter, Carrigan and Alan



Kandis and Hunter!

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A couple of hours after Hunter's party Dixie and Princess got into a fight. Let's just say that Dixie won. About 530pm that night I had to take Princess to the emergency animal hospital. Poor little thing had to get stitches in her tail. Dixie got ahold of her tail and it tore. When you first looked at it - it was not that bad but by the time I got her to the emergency animal hospital - the tissue had started to swell and it looked like a small balloon coming out of her tail. Needless to say - Princess had to be sedated, the tissue had to be cut away and then they had to sew her back up. Princess and Dixie don't get to play anymore. Princess growls at Dixie (I would too if I were her) so we have decided to keep them separated for now on. We don't want to take that chance again.



Here is Princess sporting 2 of her 3 collars that she had to wear. I had to take her back to the vet 4 days later and get a bigger collar because she had gotten ahold of her tail and ripped some of the stitches out. Rusty removed 3 stitches on Monday night and she is now feeling much better.

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The guys at the fire department had a going away party for Rusty on the 27th. Thank you to all of the guys and to everyone that came. Thanks to Zach and Susan for opening up their new home to everyone. Thanks Leo for arranging everything! :-) Everyone had a great time.



A group shot!



Rusty and Josh. Thank you Josh for coming. That really meant alot to Rusty :-)



Here's a picture of the kids fishing. They had a great time :-)



A picture of Rusty after he got thrown into the water. I think it took a total 4 guys to get him into the water.

I have more pictures from the party but I will post them later! Thanks again for all of the support and kind words guys! It really meant alot to Rusty :-)

Kim

April 11, 2008

CAMPING ON WEST POINT LAKE
April 3rd - April 6th

What a fun and exciting camping experience we had over this long weekend. Carrigan was on Spring Break last week so we decided a couple of months ago that we wanted to go camping. Luckily Kati and Kevin and the kids were able to join us on Friday along with Kevin's oldest son Josh and his wife Katie and their 2 kids Hunter and Cole. Josh and Katie came over on Saturday.

I took several pictures from our trip - I hope you enjoy!



Here is a picture of our camper all set up. We were at Holiday on West Point. We were on Site 11 (it accommodated our camper 30'+). Kati and Kevin were on Site 10 and Josh and Katie had a tent on their site. For those of you looking for a place to go camping...I highly recommend this place. As you can see .... there was plenty of room and we were literally right on the water. The site was pretty flat also so that made it easy for the kids to ride their bikes. With these 2 sites being together we were pretty secluded which made it really nice. The site (#12) next to us was through a wooded area and we could not see them. The only negative thing was the bathroom in the culdesac (a toilet set over a hole in the ground and the bathroom needed a new paint job). There was a bath house within walking distance which had showers and 1 bathroom that was in much better shape than the hole in the ground - LOL!!! For those of you wondering - yes, our camper does have a bathroom and a shower but we did not use it all of the time since there was no sewage hookup at the site. However there was water and electricity. Rusty had to make a couple of trips to the dump station but it was not bad at all.



While we were getting the camper ready - the kids could not wait to go down to the water. This is a picture of them skimming rocks across the water.



This picture was taken on Friday. We went to site 19 & 20 (no hookups). The sites were beautiful and it was in a cove. With it being in a cove there was no wind which made it easier for the kids to fish using their bobbers.



I love this picture of Carrigan and Alan fishing side by side.

Friday afternoon when Kati and Kevin arrived - the winds really started to pick up. We knew there was some bad weather coming but we weren't sure how bad. The winds were so hard that it tore up our white canopy. Hopefully Rusty will be able to fix it. Later that evening Kevin took out his laptop and we started watching the radar. We were able to eat dinner before the bad weather came. We had our radio on and heard that there was a tornado spotted near Pine Mountain and that people needed to take shelter. As soon as we stepped outside Rusty and Kati heard the sirens. I never heard them but all I was concerned about was getting the family and Princess to the bath house. Once we all pulled up to the bath house we all ran inside and waited. Kevin had his laptop so they were able to see when the bad weather went by. Once it passed it was back to the camper. Kati took a picture of us in the bath house so hopefully it turned out good enough to post.



This picture was taken Saturday morning. Brooke is helping Alan with his fishing pole.



Carrigan had a serious look on her face.



Brooke fishing!

MEET OUR ANIMALS THAT WENT CAMPING!



Princess was probably checking out a boat in the water.



This is Josh and Katie's puppy Buck sitting so pretty!



Here's a picture of Amy on the front of Kevin and Kati's boat. This picture was taken before they pulled away to launch the boat. As Kati was driving the truck and trailer/boat to the launch - Amy spotted another dog and decided to jump out of the boat. To make a long story short - Amy ended up being fine but she scared us to death. She only suffered road rash on her chin. They were so lucky.

There's never a dull moment when camping with The Black's!!!! LOL!!!! Love Ya'll!!!!



While Rusty, Kevin and Ty went fishing - Rusty put Carrigan and Brooke in charge of keeping the fire going. Carrigan stirred while Brooke found pine cones. They were a good team.



Left to right:
Hunter, Brooke, Carrigan and Alan
The kids had a great time playing in the rain :-)



Left to Right:
Kati, Brooke, Carrigan, Kevin is in the back, Ty is to the left of Alan sleeping, Alan and Rusty.
Here's a picture of almost everyone sitting by the camp fire roasting marshmallows.



Ty sleeping :-)



I think that Brooke had way to much fun that day and was on the sleepy side!



Rusty helping Alan with the marshmallows!



Princess decided to get in Carrigan's seat and sit by the fire!



Left to Right starting at the back row:
Carrigan , Brooke and Ty
Katie holding Cole. Hunter, Buck and Josh


This picture was taken not long before a tree branch came crashing down and just missed the girls! Like I said - it's always an experience when camping with the Blacks! HAHAHA!!!!



Brooke and Carrigan getting ready to go for a ride in Josh's boat. Carrigan still thinks that Josh is the coolest cousin ever because he has a big fun boat!



While they went boating Alan decided to get his fishing pole and his net to catch some fish!



Kati and Kevin on their boat!



Alan thought this was so cool when Uncle Kevin would do this :-)



Josh and Katie bringing Carrigan back to shore so we could go home.



Josh couldn't get his boat any closer so Carrigan had to swim to shore. This is a picture of Josh putting her over the side. She wasn't scared at all. Notice the kids watching her!



She was doing so good :-) Everyone was smiling!



I did it Mommy and Daddy :-)

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MEET OUR NEW FAMILY MEMBERS

Kiwi and Kiku




This is Kiwi.
He is 9 weeks old! He loves to be held and that towel is his favorite! He is a Parrotlet. He loves to be cuddled. The picture on the right is his first time being on his playpen. He was a little scared but he loves it now!



This is KiKu.
I don't know much about him/her. As soon as I find out more I will post.
Thank you Shannon for thinking of me and bringing him to me. He is going to be in a very loving home and he will get lots of love and attention.

I hope that everyone enjoyed reading my BLOG!!!!

Kim

April 7, 2008

WE HAVE BIG NEWS!!!!!!!

MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA
HERE COMES RUSTY!!!!!

I am so proud of Rusty - he got accepted into the Medical College of Georgia Physicians Assistant Program. There were over 240+ applicants and only 40 students got accepted :-) He will be leaving next month.

I just wanted to share our big news.

If you have any questions - just ask!

Kim

P.S. If you see Rusty or talk to him - please congratulate him. This is a really BIG deal! He has worked so hard going to school the last 2 years taking the final classes that he needed to apply and working 2 jobs! I am so proud of him :-)