Learning to "Capture" Myself

Going through some of my albums on my laptop I came across some pictures that I really want included in my blog. I intend to have this year published into a book and would not want these pictures to be left out.

Back in January my Uncle Harold came down to Georgia to visit and brought along Aunt Monica, too! It was a real treat to have them come down and any time that any of my family come down to Georgia I try to make at least one dinner and have everyone over to eat. My Uncles always enjoy my food, which I am thrilled to cook for them, and it is also a time for my children to have them here with us. I always jump at the chance to create memories for my children!

My Uncle Harold had a special role in my life as a child so my heart warms every time I get the opportunity to visit with him. I LOVE MY UNCLE HAROLD! This man taught me how to ride a two wheeled bicycle and a 4-wheeler! I spent weekends at his house as a child hanging out with his 2 sons, Aaron and Adam. I spent Halloweens at his house riding through his haunted hayrides. He always allowed me to decide what we would eat when I spent the weekends at his house, which always turned out to be homemade pizzas! I could go on and on...I would probably have to say that most, if not all, of my happy childhood memories my Uncle Harold had a hand in creating. I can't say enough about the kindness and love my uncle has shown to me throughout my life.

He has visited us down here in Georgia several times but this visit was different. The past couple years my uncle has experienced a lot of health issues. He is currently battling throat cancer. He had finished treatments and was between doctor appointments so decided to come down south to get out of the extreme winter upstate New York has to offer. He loves the warmer winter weather the south has to offer and this was his chance to come enjoy some of it. Usually he would load up his pickup truck and trailer containing his Harley Davidson motorcycle and make the long drive down here. This time he took a plane down since he has had to give up riding his bike because his body just can't handle riding it any more. That was a sad thing to hear because as long as I can remember, my uncle's choice of transportation has always been his Harley.

This year I have really been trying to push myself out from behind the camera to in front of the camera. So many of our family memories that have been captured do not include me in them at all. When it is my time to leave this world behind I want my children to have pictures of me to remember the times when I was healthy and loving life! I have lost so many people in my life and have no pictures of myself with them and would do anything to have a picture to look at. So, this time my uncle was here and I was going to get in front of the camera with my favorite uncle who means so much to me. Life is so short and one day he will no longer be here to come visit and I will have that small memento of the two of us together. I pray that God touches and heals his body from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. I want him to stay here on this earth as long as God will allow. I hope my uncle knows how much I love him and how much sweeter he made my life by being in it. I love you, Uncle Harold! :)

 Just me and my Uncle Harold <3

Uncle Harold & Aunt Monica

Gage wins SEAL FOR A DAY

June 22, 2012 Gage participated in a local Boys & Girls Club event called SEAL For A Day. He competed with boys his age in different categories to see if he has what it takes to be a Navy SEAL. Gage took over the competition and cleaned house! We were so proud of him and he was so proud of himself, too :) Love things like this that build self confidence in kids. My baby boy had a blast!

Here is Gage in one of the hats that he won in the competition. 

This one is his favorite :) 

Here he is with more of his winnings of the day, an 

autographed book and (green) hat by Howard Wasdin.

 Best Overall Male for the day.

 Best Male for ages 11-12.

 Best SEAL Team.

 He is proud to be an American <3

Love that smile! My baby boy, Gage. I am so proud of the young man he is becoming.

I hope he always knows that no matter what he does, Mama is his #1 Fan! Love you my boy <3

I am Christian Marchelewski Jr., and I just got Punked!

After picking up Christian from school and on my way to dropping off Nate & Gage to SEAL For A Day, I happened to notice Christian had blue armpits. This meaning that he was wearing a newly purchased, white t-shirt from Old Navy and now the armpit area was blue. I know that his deodorant is a blue gel so thought for a moment that it had somehow gotten on his shirt. This was a little strange to me because this is the same deodorant he has been using for quite some time and it has never done this before.
As I asked Christian what happened to his shirt, his youngest brother Gage was behind him and could barely contain his laughter. After asking what happened to the shirt he begins laughing harder while trying to tell me that while Christian was asleep last night he and Nate had put blue food coloring on Christian's deodorant bar!!
 For once in his life, Christian was speechless! It was soooo funny! Christian is the prankster of the house and he had just been punked by his 2 little brothers! To top it off Christian's friend JaMarcus was able to witness our discovery, too! I tried to take a picture of him in the shirt but he wasn't letting me do that since I would be sure to post it on FaceBook! Since I am the Mama and do all the laundry I took a picture of the shirt before I washed it...it all washed out and no harm was done to Christian's shirt :)
All is well that ends well.Oh how I love raising sons <3

This was a plus of being the launder of the house :)

Funny Memories

 Ain't it funny how you can read something and immediately be brought back to a moment in your own life!?

A friend shared this ecard on FaceBook today and I couldn't help but laugh and think of my next new blog post! This brought back a funny memory of each of my two older son's...



The first one I thought of was Christian, when I was expecting Nathaniel I was ALWAYS exhausted by mid-day. I have never been a mom on a tight schedule for anything, naps, eating, etc. When we are tired we sleep, when we are hungry we eat! That is just how it is in our neck of the woods! I know I just had about 10 friends FAINT! lol

Well, back to my story. I was probably about 6-7 months pregnant with NateMan and sleepiness kinda just crept up on me while Jr. was watching Barney. What better time to catch a cat-nap, right? It seemed like I had only just shut my eyes when I feel a sweet, soft voice right outside my eyelids calling, "Mama." I open my eyes and Christian is so close to my face that I had to pull my head back to focus on his face and what I was looking at? There staring me right in the eyes is my little toe-head boy with big, blue eyes! He has egg white dripping down from the tip of his perfect little nose!! As I scan the rest of his face I notice some more of the slimy substance on top of his head. He said, "Mama, I was making some eggs for you. I quacked them me self." He had egg white and egg yolk all over his head!
I wanted to get mad but all I could do was laugh! I tried so hard to keep a straight face...it was very hard. I slowly got up from the couch looking around the living room, sure I would find egg all over the carpet. There was none. Thank God! I went out in the kitchen and saw the proof that I needed to assure myself that I had dozed off for more than just a second...there were eggs everywhere! On the refrigerator, on the stove, on the oven door, and on the floor! At this point in his life about the only breakfast he would eat was eggs, bacon, and grits. We always kept a good supply of eggs on hand and had just bought a 2 1/2 dozen box of eggs. You guessed it! He cracked EVERY single egg in the box! If you have ever had to clean up a raw egg off of any surface you know what a feat this is. Boy oh boy! I was starting to feel the anger rise as I looked at this huge mess but when I turned around and looked at that little face with raw eggs dripping from it there was no way I could be angry at him for trying to cook his mama some eggs. I was so thankful he never tried to turn on the stove!
He is much better at making eggs for me now....he even washes the dishes :) I sure wish I had a picture of that face to share but it is only in my memory.

Nathaniel's story is one about his drawing, so it kinda goes with the ecard saying :) When the boys were little guys my husband travelled A LOT! This left me, at the time, Christian Jr. and Nathaniel at home for weeks at a time without seeing their Daddy. At this point I was pregnant with Gage and Daddy was working in Kissimee, Florida. His company had set up his housing down there and just so happened it was a place that did not allow children. Can you believe it!? Right there at Disney and no children allowed!! It was beyond frustrating, especially since they were still little guys and not in school.
Christian Sr. was down there several months working and FINALLY convinced the park owner to allow me and the boys to come visit for 1 week! We were sooo excited to be spending the week with Daddy but most importantly getting down there near Disney! There was 1 rule with us being allowed to visit, any damages would be our responsibility IMMEDIATELY. The very 1st day we get down there and can't wait until Daddy gets home so we can go off on an adventure! We waited impatiently all day for him to get home from work. Finally the time comes and he is home. He gets his pockets emptied out onto his usual place near the front door, an end table right next to the sofa. Daddy goes to jump in the shower. I go to get his clean clothes from the closet to hurry things along so we can hurry out of this trailer and get some dinner!
I never noticed the jumbo sharpie Daddy just put on the end table near the sofa...you guessed it! Our little strawberry-blonde boy with chubby cheeks and sad, blue eyes grabs that jumbo sharpie and draws us a picture all over that nice WHITE couch!! "Mama, Nate jawed a pictaw." Jr. is walking into the bedroom to tell me this. "Where did you find paper?" I asked him. "He jawed on the couch, Mama." Oh MY Lord!! No way! I run out and sure enough, not only has he drawn on the couch but it's with a JUMBO SHARPIE!! WHITE COUCH, JUMBO BLACK SHARPIE!!! Never mind going to do anything fun on this trip, we are going sofa shopping folks! Not even shopping for a new sofa for home...a new sofa for the dreaded trailer lady! Ugh!
Even though, at this time, my NateMan was walking around and a budding artist he was not talking. To this day he doesn't talk much, or should I say not as much as the other kids in our family do. I think Christian said all he wanted to say, so why bother talking himself. He is very brilliant this way! The look he gave me spoke volumes. He had the biggest smile and such a proud look on his sweet little face....I couldn't be angry at him! He was so proud of his work. Even though I was scared to death of the small fortune this budding artist's canvas was going to cost me, I couldn't get mad at him. We went straight to work on this sofa with some upholstery cleaner and believe it or not we were able to get that jumbo sharpie drawing out of that white sofa!! It was a miracle!
He has never shaved the dog or written on walls, praise the Lord. I can't say the same about never drawing on another sofa, though! *Sigh*