Was it a tornado or potatoes!

Today we had a little excitement around here. Emily and I were at the neighborhood park when a lady come over from across the street to collect her kids and let us know a tornado had been spotted in the county and was headed right for McHenry. Now at this point in time the sun was out and it was beautiful! I told Em we had to get home because a storm called a tornado may be coming. She was OK with that and never showed any signs of being afraid. She let any one she encountered on our way home they needed to go home because a big storm was coming! We got home, secured our items for the crawl space, (it's a space under the house that is a bit bigger than a crawl and Gary, at 6' 6" can stand down there) and called Gary to let him know what was going on. By this time the skies had darkened and the neighbor was out watching the weather with a scanner. The tornado sirens started and we headed for the basement. Then I heard our scanner say the warning had been lifted and the sirens stopped. Em and I came up and went outside to see what was happening and my neighbor told me his brother-n-law had just spotted the tornado over the hospital, (for those of you who don't know the hospital is only 1 mile from our home) and he sent us back under ground! As we came in the scanner was reporting the new sighting and the sirens were back on. Now I was really scared at this point, but not Emily! The tornado never touched down. I do believe it went over the house, the lights flickered and it was like a huge wave of air or wind that blew over the house and then the down pour. So Emily and I weathered our second tornado (the first one was in the middle of the night last year, May when Emily was 2 1/2, that one did not touch down either) together, this time without the comfort of Gary. Emily called her daddy to tell him we were alright and there were no more "POTATOES" in the sky LOL! We are alright, God certainly was watching out for us today! THANK YOU!!

Dougherty Family CF fundraiser

As most of you know I have a cousin, Matt who is living with Cystic Fibrosis, and will be making the journey from California to Illinois to make this event. Gary also lost his nephew Ryan last year to this horrible disease and we miss him deeply. Ryan left behind a wife and two beautiful children Lily and Wyatt. We need to stop this disease now! We would love to see anyone who can make it out to this event! If you can not make it and would like to make a contribution, please contact us and we will be happy to arrange that for you. Thanks to entire Dougherty family for their time and energy to raise funds to help wipe this disease out!

Walla-Pa-Looza!!

What: Walla-Pa-Looza 2009, A musical fundraising event to benefit the American Cancer Society

When: Saturday August 1st, 2009. 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Where: Johnsburg Community Club at 2315 W. Church Street in Johnsburg, IL

Walla-Pa-Looza 2009, a musical fundraising event, will be held on Saturday, August 1.

Volunteers from all over the county will converge to raise funds to benefit the American Cancer Society. Walla-Pa-Looza 2009 will be held at the Johnsburg Community Club at 2315 W. Church Street in Johnsburg, from 2:00 pm -11:00 pm. The event will feature four live bands throughout the day; Always Frantic, Dannyand the Devils, Peter & The Versatiles and Blush. Food and beverages will be available for purchase thanks to Half Times Pizza and Ribs. Events throughout the day will include a 50/50 raffle, silent auction, ticket raffle and more. A $5.00 per person donation will be collected upon entrance to the event. As this is a charity event, we are seeking support and financial assistance from the local community. We appreciate but are certainly not limited to donations like raffle items, silent auction items and of course cash donations are always welcome! We also have a corporate sponsorship program available for those local businesses wishing to participate at a level that will allow greater exposure of their business. Please join the
fun for a fabulous day of friends, food, dancing and a chance to make a difference in the lives of the many people touched by this disease.

For more information on the event, volunteer opportunities, donations or sponsorship contact:

Chairman: Craig Wallace 815.363.1189 cwallace4000@comcast.net
Co-Chair Corporate Sponsorships: Nick Bionda 847-254-9093 nbionda@yahoo.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Cash donations can be made on the web at www.walla-pa-looza.org
Check payments can be made out to “Walla-Pa-Looza” and mailed to:
Walla-Pa-Looza
c/o Craig Wallace
4000 Cedar Creek Dr.
Johnsburg, IL 60051
All contributions to Walla-Pa-Looza are tax-deductible.
Tax Id#: 5911-809-9
Special thanks to the Woodstock Infantry Club for the benefit of The American Cancer Society.

Sunset Lake Resort 2009

OK, time to get caught up here. First I need to wish my husband a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! We celebrated Gary's birthday camping this weekend with my sister, Sarah and her family and Gary's niece Rachel. This was Rachel's first ever camping trip and she did great. The weather was not good to say the least but we certainly made the most of the weekend. We found a new (well new to our family) campground in the Moline area called Sunset Lake Resort. The site we were able to secure was right on the lake and we were greeted by some very friendly ducks! That was very cute until they came callin' at dawn the first morning, they were not so cute then! We did not let the kids feed the ducks the next day to deter them from waking us up so early. That did not help, they paid us a visit every morning.

The weather was too chilly for swimming in the beautiful and very large pool, but there were so many other things to do. We had fun mini-golfing, paddle boating and canoeing. My brother-n-law rented a golf cart for the weekend and the kids, and us big kids too, loved cruising around the resort in that. We celebrated Gary's birthday on Saturday and surprised him with a homemade birthday cake. Thanks to my sister for baking the cake. We also enjoyed making and eating s'mores, hunting for fire flies and enjoying the campfire at night. The camper served us well, however the temperatures dropped so low Thursday night we had to run to Walmart and get more blankets and tennis shoes. Rachel and I only had sandals and our feet froze. After we picked those things up we were quite comfortable the rest of the weekend. We love to camp and this new place is wonderful and we can not wait to get back there.

The weekend ended with a little more excitement than I would have liked. While I showered Sunday morning before we left Gary, Rachel and Emily decided to take one more canoe ride around the lake. They loved the canoes and paddle boats and did real well in them, that is until the very end. They were coming in from their ride and were pulling up to the pier when Rachel stood up to leave the boat and at the same time Gary leaned to reach for the pier on the same side. Rahel jumped up on the pier and Gary did not straighted himself upright and well you guessed it! Emily was in Gary's lap and he grabbed hold of her and over they went! Thank goodness Emily was wearing her life jacket and Gary was able to stand and touch bottom. Gary lost his cell phone and his wallet was pretty drenched but the important thing is they were alright! Emily was more shaken up than anything, but it has not frightened her away from the water. She is already talking about going back in the boat and being able to swim when Summer gets here! So a good time was had by all and we are looking forward to being able to get back there soon.

Yesterday Emily felt our dog Molly needed to be apart of the dress-up fun...I am thinking Molly didn't feel the same way ;)

4th of July 2009

This year we enjoyed the 4th of July fireworks here in McHenry at Peterson Park. Steve McMichael was at the celebration this year doing a promotion and we snapped a picture of him with Emily right before he tried to kidnap her...just kidding folks, we was smitten with her though!!

What a difference a year makes!

Look at the two pictures below. The first one is Fourth of July 2006, Emily is not yet 7 months old. The next picture is Emily the following year, she is just over 18 months old!! HOLY COW!! What a difference a year makes! Side note, look at Gary's shirt...this is becoming his July 4Th version of the Christmas sweater folks!

Happy 4TH of July!!

We would like to wish all our friends and family a wonderful Fourth of July!! Thank you to all the men and women who have served our great country and for those who are fighting for and protecting us today. Everyone be safe today!!






Here are some pictures of past 4TH of July celebrations.