9 years ago today...Happy Anniversary to us!

Nine years ago today Chris and I were married at St. Andrews by the Sea Hilton Head SC. If you ask people what they remember, they don't say the food, the music or even our love for each other.. they say.. IT WAS HOT! It really was. I think it was about 95. We were so happy. I felt like I was floating on air all day. It was and still remains along with the birth of the boys... as one of the best days of my life. We have had so many great moments together,our wedding, birthdays, our engagement in Central Park NYC, Hawaii, trips to Fire Island where we met. I love my sweet husband more today than 9 years ago. I know its cliche but it's true. Today we face the sun, the rain, the current tornadoes and hurricanes hand in hand facing it all....TOGETHER.

"The Magic Of Love

Love is like magic And it always will be.For love still remainsLife's sweet mystery!!Love works in waysThat are wondrous and strangeAnd there's nothing in lifeThat love cannot change!!Love can transformThe most commonplaceInto beauty and splendorAnd sweetness and grace.Love is unselfish,Understanding and kind,For it sees with its heartAnd not with its mind!!Love is the answerThat everyone seeks...Love is the language,That every heart speaks.Love can't be bought,It is priceless and free,Love, like pure magic,Is life's sweet mystery!!- Helen Steiner Rice -

Welcome Summer - Memorial Weekend 2009

Happy Summer everyone....... We had a great albeit wet weekend. I actually love a nice warm rainy day. The kids though really seemed to be greatly deterred by the rain... take a peek!

Shea Pool Potluck

Some of my Berewick Best Buds

Ditto

Brian, Chris and sweet pea Savannah

Jeremy, Nathan and Grant enjoy the pool

Friends

Friends.. and food = HEAVEN for me!

Cook Out for Cure: Cancer Commando Berewick Team/Miss Carrie doing tattoos... great girl

Povs and Petes

Petes.. we love our Pete neighbors and good friends( Tad and Jackie)

This is my fave picture: I think EVER!!!!! JOY... PURE JOY!!!!!

Berewick Friends : in a pure joy moment!

Tattoos

CJ post tattoo

My sweet friend Amber. If you look in a dictionary under Domestic Goodess this girls picture is there!!!!!!!! good heart, great family.. GREAT GIRL

My Marleney.... beautiful inside and out.. she reminds me of my Maria from home!!!!!!

Nothing Like Doritos on a rainy day..... and yes they just got haircuts MOM.....

Alyssa and CJ have a moment... HA HA HA

playing

Petes again

Jake and his cousin.. enjoy the fun

Mason all bundled up

Daddy and Mason at Northlake Mall Monday

CJ in the playarea

I spent an hour in my beloved Anthro.. I just walked around smelling all the beautiful smells, feeling fabric, touching blouses and home goods. I was in heaven. I spent $13!
Early birthday gift.....

bookstore

Weekend Review

Hello dear blog reading friends,

Happy Monday to you. Here is to a new week of life! Take a deep breath and just EXHALE... AHHH I feel better already.
We had a nice weekend. Chris was away for one of his Guy Weekend Golf Trips. He visited Kentucky and had a great time! We missed him a lot. CJ knows how to play the sympathy card. Whenever daddy is away and I scold him he starts to wail.... "I miss my daddy"........oh that boy of mine! Miss Chrissy( Preschool Coordinator) made me smile the other day. She said...." CJ may look like Chris but his mannerisms are all you Gieselle". That just cracks me up. And it is sooo true. CJ can be very dramatic and sensitive... and I think that is all from me.

I wanted to do a Shout Out to all the Steele Creek Christian/Catholic Moms doing the Mother and Children Mach 1 Program with me. I am learning soooo much about my faith, about myself and about all of you. I am really enjoying it! I need to take some pictures of our group so I can share on here. You know it's true what people say about reading the bible.... it really does apply to life today. There is infidelity, jealousy, marriage, births of children.... sins! I have been amazed at how relevant the readings have been.
For fun I am watching all the prior sessions of Big Love. Oh I am soooo addicted. While I love my husband to pieces... I kind of have a little crush on Billy Paxton.... Bill Hendrickson( I think that is his name). I have a crush on how family focused he is... how he prays to God.. how he is so committed to being a great father and role model..... I use to love boys with tattoos and earrings( did you know my husband has an earring?) and today I like boys with tattoos/earings, jocks( like my sweet pea), and great fathers... (like my sweet pea and Bill from Big Love)!
We had our neighbors and good friends Nathan and Taylor over on Sunday for a playdate. It was a rainy day and we were going bonkers and needed some company...... the kids had fun- but the truth is I needed some girl time and chat time.....Leah is a great friend.... I enjoy chatting with her...I love easy friendships where the conversations just flow... mothering, food, balancing life and family..... we discussed it all. Whoever thinks playdates are for the kids is sadly mistaken!
CIAO for now... sending love to you.... MAKE THE WEEK GREAT.

Nathan.... about to color. I made a horrible mistake and bought mess free markers but not the mess free paper! Result.. markers would not work on this paper. Luckily kids were clueless!

What every boy wants to do on a rainy Sunday

CJ, Nathan, Miss Taylor.. and Mason.. hanging together on a Sunday


CJ excited about his big Thomas coloring book!

Motherhood Weekend Pictures, Today May 13th

I continue to find great comfort in my home life! More than ever.... someday over a beverage I would love to share what a wild ride this year has been. In many ways this has been the hardest year for me from a professional and career perspective. But I am also starting to get and create answers and feel very LIBERATED.... and empowered. I am pretty clear on who I am.. and what my contribution in this beautiful world is suppose to be.....so step by step I am creating exactly what I am suppose to.... WOO HOO! YEAH ME!!!!!!! Anyway, I took a ton of pictures Mothers Day Weekend and they make me happy so here they are down below......



As for the boys.. CJ enjoyed the Shea Pool this past weekend. He went right in( with life jacket). I definitely need to look into swimming lessons. And Mason is saying a lot of different words. My favorite is to hear him say his name.. when I ask him..." What is your name?" he says.. "MAY MAY".. and this just cracks me up! They both love.. absolutely love taking every pillow off my couches and having pillow fights! OK if you are stressed please do this... GO GET A PILLOW and throw it around for ten minutes.. even picture some of the people you are angry/pissed off at.. I promise you will feel so much better when done.... ok so I gotta go and get my pillow.. where is that pillow....?????????????

Chat soon, hugs and love Gieselle/Gigi

I got a dozen pink roses from my boys..... they make me soooo happy! PINK RULES.. PINK RULES.. everything in the world should be PINK!

pool

Mason taking it all in but cautious....

CJ right in...... it was actually pretty warm

I love our neighborhood pool! It relaxes me to just be there and be outside!

My roses.... I love gardening. Feeds my Soul even more than the flowers I think!

ROSES..

Mothers Day Artwork from CJ

Mason made this cute flower/palm print in school. I soooo love it! I am the type that wants to save every art project for EVER!

Roses

The lovely Lucia one of my dearest Mommy friends in the neighborhood had a small gathering for dinner on Mothers Day... she is such a wonderful hostess and "nester"! Each mom got flowers...

And some of us brought her some. I loved bringing my very own ...... I was sooo proud! Note mine are the smaller ones not the beautiful long stem ones.. but still beautiful to me!

The kids played games outside one of my favorite Uncle Jerry outfits on CJ I might add and .. NICE Lawn JOE.. very nice!

Pastor Reggie, Lucia's neighbor.. great man..I enjoyed talking to him.. He has that energy I love in people.. energy that makes you want to talk with them.. very positive and just happy guy!

Joe( Lucia's) husband and Miss Adriana....

The hostess.. can not say enough good things about this girl. ADORE HER! Lucia and Michael

What Motherhood Means To Me Today:

Saving My Pennies for this beautiful book... Shawni is a beautiful mother of five, family photographer and I love reading her blog link
She is just beautiful and has the most beautiful family. I look forward to reading this. Right up my alley........

My mind is full of thoughts....



Motherhood for me is...

- my safe place, the place where people love me unconditionally.

- the place where I can walk through the door after a horrible day and there they are my boys with a dozen pink roses saying.. "Happy Mother's day".

-sleepless nights that turn into days where I am suppose to perform. Some moments I am great and all is fine and some, I can not even articulate my first name.


- making so many friends who are now sisters. We share motherhood and it transcends race, education, "family background"... they/ YOU are all my sisters....whether we work in the home or out of the home or both.. you are my sisters! I need your friendship, camraderie, support!



- my calling. Professionally as a Mom Life Coach I want to help other mothers/parents find their Voice/Passion and figure out how to create space for themselves.



- CJ who will hug me and tell me I am beautiful.


- Mason who will snuggle with me any moment of the day.


- saying goodbye albeit bittersweet to the younger, free spirit, better dressed Gieselle.


- saying Hello to this strong Woman/Mother Warrior who wants to make the world better for all the children on the planet. Don't get in my way !!!!!!!!!!!


- a woman who knows her priorities and has pretty good boundaries that I think others at times try to cross or make me cross.


- hundreds of phone calls at 9:15 am telling me that "X" is running a fever and one of us have to come get him. The panic of figuring out which one of us will cancel the day..... and now appreciating leaders/managers who always gave me space to just "go".


- love with a depth that I can find no words to truly explain. The love I feel for the man I created these children with and for my sons.... my gifts.


- seeing God everyday in the face of my children.


- watching Mason at this moment demolish a drawer and knowing it is OK.......


- visiting my Pediatrician so much I consider her a friend.


- endless discussions about sagging body parts, hours of labor, ill fitting clothes. Yet I still feel BEAUTIFUL.

- Motherhood is my mother, EVA. My best friend, confidante, fan, cheerleader, truthteller. She has set the bar soooo high as it relates to being a mother that I can only hope to reach it every soooo slightly. Mom, I just adore you and love you!



- being so very blessed. Having the most amazing purpose in life.. to help guide these two boys in their lives. Helping make them into good, loving, content boys who maybe someday, can take the love they have experienced and share it with others as parents, as fathers,spouses, partners, uncles, whoever they are.. as good humans who were so very loved by their MOTHER.




Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers of the World. God Bless you! I hope you all know how wonderful and special and important you are.

Love, Gieselle/Gigi but more fondly called.. "Mommy"