Broken heart

Remember THIS POST about my friend Monica who was battling cancer and the one we babysat for (her 1 year old) all summer while she did her chemo.

Well......she lost her battle on Wednesday.

My heart is broken.  No words can even describe the pain I feel for her 3 beautiful children.

Please include them in your prayers continually :(

Monica Baker

1980-2012

 

At Hotel-Dieu of Saint Joseph Hospital, Perth-Andover, January 11, 2012, Ms Monica Ann Baker of Drummond passed away at the age of 31 after a lengthy and courageous battle with cancer. She was the companion of Danny Beaulieu. Born at Perth-Andover in 1980, she was the daughter of Pius Baker and Mary Ellen McLaughlin and step-daughter of Donald Michaud.

Monica worked at the John Caldwell School cafeteria since 2004.

Besides her companion, she is survived by her three children, Isaac, Destiny and Evva, her father Pius Baker, her mother, Mary Ellen (McLaughlin) Michaud (Donald), her brother, Mitchell Gordon Baker (Anouk) of Morrell Siding, step-sisters, Line Michaud of Drummond, Lisa Michaud and Sonia Michaud of Halifax, step-brother, Serge Michaud of Victoria, BC, nephew, Ethyn Gordon Baker, maternal grandfather, Hubert McLaughlin of Limestone Siding, godparents, Charles and Shirley Thomas of New Hampshire, double cousins who were sisters at heart to her, Jennifer Levesque of California Settlement and Joni Perley of Fredericton, as well as several aunts, uncles and cousins. She was predeceased by her maternal grandmother, Joan McLaughlin, paternal grandparents, Chester and Mary Baker.

Resting at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Grand Falls (Portage) on Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. Her funeral service will be held Saturday, January 14th at 3 p.m. from the church with Father Gilbert Doddatto officiating. Interment will follow in St. Patrick's Cemetery. For those who wish, donations to the Friends of St. Patrick's would be appreciated by the family.

Arrangements are by O'Regan's Funeral Home, Grand Falls.

Introducing my dear friend, Monica

When I see this photo, I think of my sweet friend Monica's amazing qualities!

She is so strong. 

She is a fighter.

She is a wonderful mother....and

She WANTS to live.

That's right, you heard me:  she wants to LIVE. 

You see, she has cancer.  She found out about her adrenal cancer when she was around 20-25 weeks pregnant with her baby.  They removed a tumor the size of an orange.

Since then (May 2010), she's been fighting with all her might, all the while raising her 3 beautiful children (Isaac, Destiny and Evva).

While we were camping with her two oldest cuties, she got some bad news.  The cancer was spreading fast (2 tumors on her kidney, 2 on her liver and is NOT operable).

YET, she has still not given up on LIFE! 

She wants to see her babys grow and she is fighting hard!

I have grown to love this family so much and want to do all I can to help them out.  Last minute, the day before she started her agressive chemo I had this crazy idea of taking her families photos and we did.  Despite the rainy (and I mean heavy rain) forecast, we found a spot that was covered.  In the end, we didn't need to be in a covered spot because the skies cleared for all of 20-30 minutes right while we were taking photos.  All the children were cooperative and smiles and I was really pleased with the shots we got in the little time we had!  As soon as we began walking back to the cars, it started to pour rain.  God was watching over us that day, no doubt in my mind.

  

This is Evva (10months old in this photo) and her mommy

Isaac (10 years old) and his momma!

Destiny (8 years old) and her momma!

Danny, Evva and Monica.

When you think of my friend Monica, please say a prayer for her and her little family!

Mini vacation with friends

We took a few days to go to a Vacation Resort called Val Cartier in Quebec

 (about 20 minutes from Quebec City) - a MUST do park (and cleaner than Blizzard Beach that Noah & I went to at Disney)!!!

We invited Noah's friend (Isaac) and his little sister (Destiny) to join us, to let them have some good ole' fashion fun after a very hard year

(their mom was diagnosed with cancer and is starting chemo this summer).

It was their first time at a water park, so happy we got to experience it with these cuties!

Noah and Isaac have been the best of friends since we moved to

Grand Falls a few years ago.

It was quite interesting packing for 3 children (rather than just Noah).  Not only did we have more seats used up but this also meant we had less space to pack MORE luggage!!!  We made it (barely) - don't know how The Duggars do it!!!

This was the view from our camp ground - of most of the water park!  As I pumped air mattresses for our TEE PEE tent, everyone else admired the view!

We all went swimming, but I only lasted a short while

 because the water was TOO darned cold!

We taught Isaac & Destiny how to make a tee pee out of the wood to start a camp fire!

One of the highlights for Isaac & Destiny was brushing their teeth outside

- they had NEVER done that before!!!

OH the technology!!!  After our first campfire (the first night)...we all snuggled in our beds and watched a movie on our net book using some iPod speakers for all of us to hear!!!

Here's a pretty good view of our tee pee and camp site!  Jacques was making me some yummy breakfast - we started a new tradition (fry some onions, then add some canned potatoes, then some canned ham, then scramble some eggs in this mixture, then add some cheese!  OH MY YUMMMM!)

Here's a view of the inside of our tee pee.  In order to earn some $$$ for the arcade, we made them make a skit and perform it for us!  Hey, it was a win/win!  We got some quiet, they had an activity and they got money for the arcade! 

On our last night, we told ghost stories (or scary stories).  I told them of a flactuating man who pumps air mattresses for little girls (Jacques).  It ended up being such a funny 'scary' story that all of us were laughing so hard we were crying!  They didn't know what flactuate meant, so when I told them - did we EVER laugh!

What a great time away - but by the morning we came home Isaac & Destiny were SOOOO excited to get home to see their momma!  So glad they came with us!

Road trip to PEI

What an amazing last minute get-a-way to Prince Edward Island!

The daughter of our best friend (who has been through so much in the past couple of years), needed a friend (or so I thought) to be with her as she celebrated her daughters high school graduation.

So OFF we went on our road trip!

First stop, to get some gas we noticed these really cool moths.

They were EVERYWHERE...we found them kinda fascinating!

 

Getting closer to the ISLAND and a view I will NEVER grow tired of:

CONFEDERATION BRIDGE

the bridge that joins New Brunswick and PEI.

Noah, our little photographer took this cute photo of Krista and I!  

 It's always a blessing to have photos of you and your friends! 

Thank you, Noah!

On the way back from Krista's we made a pit stop for some of the
World's BEST Ice Cream (oh, and Canada's BEST too)!

 

And cool enough to find out that we could take a Factory Tour! 

 We had to wear these little hats to show we were on the official tour!

(kinda felt dorky, but what the heck)!

The t-shirt Noah wanted the most was actually in print while we were there:

COW OF DUTY

Black Spots

Noah's favourite game right now!

Now to enjoy some yummy ice cream!

When leaving Krista's on Thursday afternoon, we went to visit my dad. 
That was interesting to say the least.  Nice visit though!

Then we made a pit stop in Moncton to visit Noah's best friend - OWEN. 
It was Owen's last day of school and he had received his 'grading' present that the boys THOROUGHLY enjoyed:  BB Guns

I will never get tired of driving through New Brunswick - beautiful scenery!
Great road trip - yet again!

A special Graduate!

We took a last minute trip to Prince Edward Island, mid week towards the end of June to be with our best friend to share in her daughters graduation!

By the end of the evening, I had taken over 450 photos - so as you see, she was growing tired of me snapping in her face!  TOO BAD, Brit!  You only graduate from high school once!

All in all, during the L-O-N-G ceremony, Noah did pretty good. 

He got up to wonder and as you can see (from a distance),

he was super bored!  lol

But we survived and made it to the "P's" to watch Brittany receive her diploma

and watch her mom cry!

I can't believe how grown up she is...

we've known Brittany since she was around 2 years old!

Now that the ceremony was over, can you tell someone is a happy camper!! 

Some special shots of the proud Mom, graduate and Grandmother. 

Oh and some 'special' shots of my lil' man who was

dancing at this point because the whole event was

O-V-E-R!!!

CONGRATULATIONS BRITTANY!

FRIENDSDAY - Wednesday's

Another awesome FRIENDSDAY,

started out with some super special hot chocolate for some pretty cute kids!!!

(oh, and don't forget about the spray whipped cream in the mouth)

Destiny

(Noah's friends' little sister)

Isaac

(Noah's friend)

After the hot chocolate, Destiny and I made some chocolate cookies,

THEN some banana bread (looking ever so cute while stirring the dough)

THEN, she wanted to do some crafts (so we did)

THEN, she wanted to sing some High School Musical karaoke on the WII (so we did)

Noah and Isaac came in (just) long enough (from playing hockey in the RAIN) to tease us girls and get a photo!

THEN, after supper Destiny wrapped Jacques around her little finger

and convinced him to sing some songs with her!!!

What a great day....can't wait to see these two cuties come back again!