Top of a Monday

Plenty of smiles and sunshine to you today from Gasperini-Ville!

Hope you have a blessed Monday,

On Michael

His P-Y-T and Billie Jean are personal favorites of mine, but you could pretty much put on anything from his repertoire and I'm a happy camper. I can recall many-an-afternoon spent dancing on our living room "stage" to The King of Pop. His "Beat It" album was a white tape with black writing playing on our stereo through much of my childhood.

I am so saddened to hear of his passing. He was definitely a strange bird, but undoubtedly the product of early stardom, pressure, and a family without direction. More than anything, I feel a tremendous sadness for his soul.

I had dreams of seeing him in concert. I would probably have been one of those crazy fans who passed out in his presence. Seriously.

HiStory plays in the background today in Gasperini-Ville... ;) Hope you have a blessed Friday!

A Morning's Victory

Today as we finished breakfast our T stubbornly refused to bring his breakfast dishes to the sink. "I'm too little" was his excuse, despite the fact that the boys have been doing this for quite some time.

"No trains or cars today then," I responded, hoping that the overwhelming threat of not being able to play with all things loved by boys in Gasperini-Ville would force him into submission. Not the case. T went off to play.

In the meantime, M was making plans for his morning playtime, configuring the appropriate track and train characters. T attempted to join in before I reminded him that his breakfast bowl was still waiting and he was not to touch the trains.

And then M piped in, "If I brought T's bowl to the sink, then could he play with trains?" "Yes you may," I replied and M took off to carry the bowl to the sink.

While I was still disappointed in T for shirking responsibility, I couldn't help but do a little dance inside regarding M's selflessness. Shouldn't I be encouraging this type of behavior the most in our home, rules and responsibilities aside? Loving others should trump all else! M had acted in such a loving and Christ-like way toward his brother, I couldn't help but celebrate this small victory. Christ has revealed Himself to us this morning! Hallelujah! Alleluia!

Father's Day Gift

It is so hard these days to come up with gifts for our GG, especially when we want to show the extent of how much we love and appreciate everything he does for us. What do you give to a daddy who deserves the very best??

I think we hit it just right this year... PHOTOS!! And lots of them! Mimi and I took the kids two weeks ago with the intention of surprising GG and the grandfathers with pics. Later that day GG came home from work early and saw a few of the pics on the counter--surprise ruined!!! I was so bummed! Thankfully, we were able to keep the best ones a secret until Sunday.

Here are a few of our favorites from the session. The boys and I are so glad to now grace his desk at work--the poor guy had no pictures of his family beforehand.

You could say he's rather inundated now. Good stuff.

Enjoy and blessings!

Happy Father's Day!

To our awesome fathers, Papa and Pappy.

To my wonderful GG, the best dad on the planet (that's our vote!).

To Uncle C, Uncle Ed, and Uncle Joe, our boys' godfathers.

Know that you're loved and cherished today!

Blessings,

Silly Faces Friday

Can you tell we're going a little stir crazy?

The following shots, courtesy of photojournalist M...


After a week full of rain and one car in the shop, we're going a bit batty over here in Gasperini-Ville. Praise God for the weekend to come! We'll be welcoming home Uncle C and celebrating a joyous Father's Day together... Mimi and I will ring bells to farewell their parish priest. I will also be spending some of Saturday planning for next year in MOPS. Should be a full and fun weekend.

Now, to get these house-bound children outta here! We're off to the pool to cool off on such a hot, sunny, beautiful almost-start to summer. Blessings to you!

A Good One

Very rarely does a family pic like this one come through. It's amazing what stratus cloud lighting, a beautiful garden background, and... the promise of M & M's does to ensure a good shot. :) (Notice the cute little bruiser on the right--is he a munch or what?!)

Enjoy!

Overheard at lunch

B-mama: My boys are so handsome. Do you know what "handsome" means?

M: Yes. It's when you wear big clothes.

T: It's when you have a big camera. In the store.

Lol. They know how to keep me laughing, for sure.

Our little dog bowl tyrant!

How was your weekend? Hope it was relaxing!

Blessings,

Hello Friends

I am happy to write that we are well. We are full of encouragement many thanks to you.

What a heartwarming response I received to my Building Cathedrals post yesterday. That is for what the community of believers is meant here on earth! Hallelujah! Alleluia! Thank you for your prayers for us. We bask in your prayers.

The post was truly an outpouring of my heart--I sat down initially to write something completely different and out it came. There were moments when I wanted to take it back for fear of judgement or that others might think I was judging our M unfairly. But I let it be and am better for it. Hopefully other parents out there with ornery children found encouragement knowing they are not alone!

My mom called me immediately after reading it, worried and anxious about our rough times. What a dear! I sounded pretty sad, huh?! :) I will say that the grief was not as much overt sadness, but more soul aching. The day was no worse than any other. The preceding 24, 48, even 168 hours had been pretty normal. This is just life and we are trying to wade our way through it. There are ups and downs; goods and bads. But there is always love. Thank our good Lord for His Mighty and Enduring Love!

Most importantly, we love our little M. He is the most exuberant, passionate, strong-thinking little 4-year-old I know. I am so proud of him in so many ways. Have I mentioned he's beginning to read? And is a whiz with numbers? He swings a golf club like Tiger. He plants more kisses on his littlest brother than the rest of us do in a week. He insists on planting one on T every time T falls asleep in his car seat. He has an ear for music and belts "Life is a Highway" by the Rascal Flatts every time he re-creates the car race scene. He makes the *best* car racing noises on the planet, using his two little chubby lips and a lot of spit. I love him.

I just want my boys to grow to be selfless, God-fearing men.

Our aches here are for all the right reasons. No one said the straight and narrow was easy to follow. Trial by fire, baby. ;) Yes, indeed.

Hope you've had a brilliant day!

Thanks again for walking this road with us,

For an honest post

on some of my struggles of late,
head on over here today.


No facades in Gasperini-Ville.
God bless,

Monday Yawns

Is it wrong to feel this way on a Monday? :)

Coffee, where are you? (wink!)

What a great and FULL weekend it was! Another yawn.

Sleep was a low priority, for sure, but how much FUN we had in its place!!

We observed our first Engaged Encounter weekend--the diocese here offers a weekend retreat for engaged couples to grow in their relationship before getting hitched. GG and I are joyfully getting involved. We are in the early stages of writing a bunch of talks that we'll give as weekend presenters. The writing is the most rigorous part--then we'll be assigned an EE weekend or two every year to present our marital wisdom and impart hope, love, and faith to engaged couples in the area. Pretty fun! Both of us are excited to be a part of such an encouraging ministry!

Secondly, we celebrated the 30th birthday of a dear friend in town who we've come to know and love after meeting up with her and her hubby through GG's work. GG and Matt have a lot in common and struck up a friendship immediately when they met at work conference two years ago. We love his wife, Katherine, just as much. It was a fun surprise celebration and we met so many great folks at the party. It's not surprising that this great girl has some pretty awesome friends--we so enjoyed meeting them all and were humbled to be part of such a special group.

While we might be a little sleepy, perhaps its the price we'll pay occasionally for good fellowship and time with friends. Have a blessed Monday!

Happy 10 months!

To our Sweet J, happy 10 months!!

*You delight us with your smiles, giggles, and sweetness.
*You madden me with your ever-tipping of the dog bowls! (Is there a flood in the kitchen? Most definitely, YES!)
*You are as stubborn and resilient as the rest of us. ;)
*You enliven us with your clapping and recent "bye bye's".
*Your prayers are so endearing.
*You are thin (25th percentile for weight) and long (90th for height) and seem to be on track with your middle bro, T.
*You have grown to be a brilliant (but rather light) sleeper. As long as we tiptoe, you rest pleasantly about 15 hours/day.
*You are a precious gift and we cherish every breath with you. You remind us of all things little and sweet. You help your mama slow down and smile.

Happy Day, J!
Can you tell we love you so?

The Birds and the Bees

M: "Here comes the queen bee (flying a newly created play-doh bee) and she's going to go to a meeting with the drones."

Little does he know, "meeting" is really mating.

And I'm SO glad we're not onto that topic yet!!! lol

Out And About

The boys and I have taken to doing lunchtime adventures in order to exercise our wiggles and entertain our bubbling selves. Baby J naps from 9-11am and then from 2-4'ish, leaving us with a 3-hour window (if we're really on top of things, which we often are not!) to head out and explore!

Yesterday we headed to the pool. Gasperini-Ville decided to "take the plunge" this summer by joining the local community center. It has a fenced in baby pool, which makes this mama very happy. We also have run into a couple of friends from M's preschool class and the boys have a great time playing together. Quite interestingly, I find our boys' behavior while out and about (especially around other children) to be the best it ever is. What an incentive for me to hop in Big Blue and get out around town!

Today we picked up some ice cream shakes and then browsed Wal-Mart--two large boys sitting in the cart bucket and one wee boy in the child seat. We looked to be a spectacle of sorts only surpassed by the woman pushing triplets in car seats in a stroller contraption. I resisted the urge to say something like, "You must be tired" to their tired-looking mother, knowing from my own experiences that she already gets her fair share of comments. Poor lady! Instead, the boys and I admired the three babies and moved on. We had other fish to fry! Our goal in shopping was to get these, Puddle Jumpers:

Our pool requires Coast Guard-approved floaties and we saw another family with these the other day. I picked the woman's brain and off we went to Wal-mart. They thankfully had a few left (top secret info: find them in the boating section!) I am hoping they will give the boys some confidence (and me some peace of mind) before we plunge into the big kid pool. M is very tentative as we would expect, so we're going to have to approach the issue delicately.

One additional place we've been frequenting lately has been the local Children's Museum, which is an awesome place of discovery and imagination. All three boys enjoy the dinosaur dig. I have to be super vigilant of our sweet J, who loves to put the "dirt" (small rubbery pieces) in his mouth. This past time we also enjoyed building wooden towers out of blocks, gathering apples from the apple tree, riding PlasmaCars around the place, climbing the tree house, playing with the canal lock and water features, and doing some maintenance on a play car. Needless to say, this is an AMAZING outlet for their curiosity and I'm thrilled to have it so close by...

Thus, it is summer and we are basking away.

Hope you are doing the same.

Blessings,