Father and Sons

Father and Sons.

An evening a couple weeks ago Fonzy and the boys decided to play football in the middle of the cul de sac. Of course I couldn't let this opportunity pass without taking some pictures.

Fonzy and the boys make everything a competition. Fonzy is hanging on to his glory days and the boys are trying to finally beat him. He gives them no slack, and never have since they were little. They will compete with anything! They've even had rap battles. I still have the raps saved in notebooks.

This day, there was lots of laughter, yelling, and smack talking....and I hope memory making.

That's what I hope most of all. That after all the competition, and smack talking they remember the fun they had. They will look back on these pictures when their childhoods are just memories, and say, "Dad, you remember that time we beat you in football?" And of course Fonzy will say "No! You remember that time I beat you both at football!" and I believe right then and there, a new challenge will be issued and they will be back at it. All a little older, probably a little slower, but football in hand, ready to do it all again!

Unofficial End of Summer

Today marks the unofficial end of summer. The boys are back in school, there was a chill in the air this morning, and Fall is right around the corner!

Come on Fall! I'm ready!

Daily December - The Tree Decorating That Wasn't

You know how you have grand ideas in your head - of a magical time of getting the Christmas tree, and decorating with the family. And oh how fun it will be. And all the pictures and great memories you will capture. And how PERFECT it will be. Then life happens, and the picture perfect event in your head doesn't quite happen.

Instead of decorating our tree, I got a trip down memory lane. Into an box that use to be a toy box for 2 little boys. One no longer here, and the other a Dad himself. A box that holds drawings, homemade cards, and cherished memories of days long past. Smiling at pictures drawn of me. Tracing words that little hands wrote, hands no longer here. Remembering Christmas's past, another lifetime ago...

 Thinking of the here and now and 2 more boys I get to celebrate this Christmas with. And hoping I can make it magical for them.

Summer Series - Day 3

We've been eating a lot of quick meals lately, frozen pizza, fast food, hot dogs. With our busy schedules it's always easier to do something quick. Sunday is the day we slow down and I cook a real meal.

If you've been a reader of my blog, you know I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I love finding new recipes, and trying different things, but if I'm cooking the same thing over and over again, I hate it. I've never made homemade macaroni and cheese. I'm a Velveeta shells and cheese kinda girl, but decided I wanted to make the real mac & cheese. I found a recipe on my Allrecipes app (love this app!) for a smokey mac and cheese. Sounded yummy to me. So I got the smoked Gouda, Parmesan, Cheddar and Swiss cheese and got to work.


Homemade mac & cheese is a lot more work than boxed mac & cheese. I'm sure you all knew this.

During the process of shredding all that cheese, I realized I need a new cheese grater. The little one I had made the process longer than it needed to be.

Dinner came out pretty good. The mac & cheese was really good and I would make it again. It had a nice smokey flavor to it.


After dinner, we decided to take a family stroll. The main reason is to tire out Titus so he sleeps all night, but I feel it's good for all of us. Time away from the TV enjoying all the beauty that is around us.

Summer Series - Day 1

Since I'm getting back on this blogging thing, I needed something to keep me going. I have some ideas for weekly blog posts, but since the boys are the ones who have been asking me to start blogging again, I've decided to do a summer series. A picture(s) a day to capture this summer. The summer before Elijah starts middle school and Ezekiel high school!

Here's to new beginnings - for them and for me.

Our Perfectly Imperfect Life

When I started this blog I wasn't sure what I wanted this blog to be other than a place to document our life and keep family updated.

It's been 6 years and my life and blog have gone through many changes. Blogging became an outlet when my oldest son was killed - a  place I could pour my heart out when I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry the pain away. It holds my inner thoughts, joys, sorrows - Life!

I haven't been updating as regularly as I use to. The boys and hubby mention that at times. "Mom - you don't blog anymore" and I think they kind of miss it. And so do I. I keep telling myself I'm going to start blogging again, but then I feel I have to have the perfect picture and something great to write. And when I don't have the PERFECT post, I end up not posting. But life is not perfect, so why should my posts be perfect? When my boys are older, they aren't going to care if the post is perfect, or if I had something great and profound to say! They will be happy just to have the memories, and my words, jumbled and imperfect as they are.

So here's to getting back to documenting our perfectly imperfect life!

Neuse River Adventure

A couple of weeks ago we decided to do a little exploring and check out the Neuse River which is about 10 mins from our house. We cross over the river practically everyday, but this is the first time we've stopped to check it out.
When we got out the truck, we heard rushing water. The river normally looks calm when we cross over it, so was shocked to see a waterfall! There were people sitting along the river bed fishing and also sitting on rocks in the acutal river fishing. There were turtles swimming about, dragonflies, little fish, the boys said they even saw a crayfish.

It's amazing what you find when you slow down and take time to explore.

Officially Summer!

It's officially summer!

And boy does it feel like it! The past few days it's been in the mid 90's, and it's predicted to be that way for the next couple of days.

 The boys and Fonzy are on summer break. This is the hardest time for me! All of them are home enjoying the break, while I still have to get up and go to work everyday. Not fun! But I won't be doing it alone for long. Fonzy and Ezekiel summer break will be shorter than usual this year. Fonzy has transferred to teach at a year round school and Ezekiel will be going with him. Fonzy will start back the first week of July, Ezekiel the second. Ezekiel is not too thrilled his summer is short this year, but he'll get over it I'm sure. I think I need to plan a few days off, so I can enjoy a short summer break too!

Off to check my calendar and schedule some time off!

Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

Don't you just love fresh flowers? I do! Just looking at them brightens my day. If I could afford it, I would have fresh flowers all over the house, and when they died, I would get more. My favorites are Gladiolus. We planted some last year and I'm hoping they come back this year.

Make a wish!

Sibling birthdays were celebrated this past weekend. Karen's birthday was Saturday, Jay's is this Thursday. Cake and cheese cake for everyone!

Elijah finally got to go fishing this weekend. He has been bugging me everyday to go fishing. I wouldn't mind taking him, I like fishing, but I need to find somewhere close to take him. Also, even though I like fishing, I have a hard time putting the worm on the hook....just the thought of piercing them with a hook doesn't sit well with me. Then if we catch a fish, I have a hard time taking them off the hook. I feel bad, cuz it has to hurt. Luckily, they have an uncle who likes to fish!

Seeing these pictures remind me of another time they went fishing.....with Samuel. It hurts my heart to know they will never fish with their older brother again. All we have are these precious  memories.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Happy December 1st! 

This picture is one of my favorites of the boys. Makes me smile every time I see it. I was trying so hard to get a cute Christmas picture of the boys. I had those big old school colored lights and tried to drap them around the boys, but after a few seconds they started yelling the lights were burning them. I tried the white twinkle lights, but just couldn't get a good picture. I was getting frustrated and so were the boys. Finally we had enough!

Disappointed, I downloaded the pictures and started looking through all the outakes and found this one. I instantly fell in love! It wasn't what I had imagined, not what I planned, but it captured a priceless moment and will always be one of my favorites.

This Moment

I'm home sick again. This cold/flu - whatever it is, is kicking my butt! No fun being sick!

While sitting here I've gone through a few of my old pictures and this one jumped out at me. It was taken February 2009. Wow...over 2yrs ago. I have so many pictures sitting here on my hard drive. I really need to do something with them. I love making photobooks, but I never seem to get around to it. I really need to do that, because if something happens to me, what would become of all the memories I've captured? Would they stay forever locked away on the hard drive? What a waste!

Life travels at warped speed. This picture is proof! Two years have passed since this moment. This moment of carefree childhood days. A moment that would be lost forever if I don't do something about it. The time is now!