What A Great Birthday!

Eric flew me out to Lakeland for my 30th birthday Friday and it was one of the best trips I have ever had. He spoiled and pampered me for a straight four days, it was a wonderful change. Eric picked me up from the airport around 10 AM and took me to lunch at Red Lobster. After Red Lobster it was off to the mall where we shopped like crazy, if I looked at it he was ready to buy it--that doesn't happen very often with him. He took me home so I could change and get ready for dinner and then it was back to Tampa for a couple drink and dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. What a wonderful evening, it was absolutely perfect!

Sunday we stayed home all day because my back was hurting again after all the walking we did Saturday, but I enjoyed the day of total relaxation. He left that morning to get donuts and he picked so food up at the store so we could make dinner. We had a nice shrimp boil and it was great to spend a whole day with Eric.

Monday morning I woke up to omelets (Eric makes the best veggie omelet I have ever had anywhere) and off we went shopping again. We spent most the day going here and there and then he took me to a very nice dinner Saltwater Grill.

Tuesday morning I woke up very depressed, I just didn't want to leave him, knowing that this was my last day with him until Christmas Eve just bummed me out. I moped around most the morning until finally he had enough and decided to do something to get my mind off of it and boy did it, I ended up in Wild Cats Tattoo where Eric bought me a tat. I got my lower back done by a great artist there, Greg, who had the gentlest hand I have ever had while getting ink, it was very smooth and not painful at all. Eric took pictures that I will post as soon as I remove them from my camera. Of course, I got some Wiccan art done and I love it, it's all black tribal with a pentagram in the middle and a crescent moon on top, and I have so many more ideas to add on to it.

So, all in all, I had a fabulous trip thanks to my wonderful husband and I needed a get away badly. I can't wait to see you next month, I just wish you could've made it here for Chip's birthday. I love you and miss you bunches and I think about you all the time. Sooner than later you'll be back here living with us and I can't wait, I know you can't either!

Down For the Count

Since last Wednesday I have been down with very bad back pains. I have no clue what I have done to my back but it has been horrible, I walk like I'm about 90-years-old. I go to the doctor tomorrow to try and get this taken care of before Saturday. For those who do not know, I am heading to Florida for a few days to spend my 30th birthday with my husband. Wouldn't you know that something like this would happen a week before I leave! I have spent a lot of time in bed with the laptop or in a hot tub soaking...I have been very bored!

I was able to do school with the kids today, which went very well. I have a kindergartner now. I can't believe my baby is now in school, they grow so fast. He is doing great and seems to enjoy school. Taylor has done amazing this year as well, but what's new with that, she has always been a very intelligent child. I am very proud of my two kids and I am glad to be apart of their education as well.

I can't believe we are so close to the end of this year, it has flown by. Eric has let his district manager in FL know that he is moving back and of course they are sad to see him leave but are happy that he is staying within the company. They have not decided exactly which store he will be in and there has been some talk of him becoming the outside salesmen, I think he would really enjoy that.

More sad news as well...our cat Gabby past away Thursday. Eric and Taylor took it pretty hard, Tay really loved her cat. Gabby was only 3-years-old and we will all miss her very much.

On the 31st of October we will be celebrating Samhain (Halloween) and will remember our loved ones that have pasted this year and all the years before. In the Pagan community, Samhain is the time where the realms of our world and the "other side" are the thinnest, making it easier to cross over. It is best to make an offering to your ancestors on this night (where trick or treat came from) usually of breads or cakes, many even set a place at the dinner table for those loved ones who have past. Jimmy is going to dress up as the black Spider-Man and Taylor will be a witch. I am just hoping that my back will get better by then, the kids will be mad if I can't take them out. I teased Taylor and told her that she would have to push me in Maw-Maw's wheelchair...she didn't think that sounded too fun.

I hope to have pictures soon but my camera has finally crapped out on me so now I have to get a new one.

I hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Halloween!

Underground Accoustic Show

The kids and I headed to Kyle's Tap Room for an Underground Accoustic show and it was great. The kids have been begging me to take them to a show but they are all played at bars and I wasn't sure if that would be a good idea, but I was talked into it. It was great and the kids had a blast. I can't wait to see another one soon.

Daddy and his boy


A mother's love
Proud Uncle Nick

Happy Baby
Cousins Kam and Vinney


Mommy and Vinney

Vincent Mikel Pictures Galore

Sydney and Vinney


Looks like Grandpa here
Shhh...Sleeping Baby
Rare look at his open eyes
PUT ME BACK IN!!!!!

I can't take my eyes off of him

Taylor Jimmy and I spent some time at the hospital today. Steph and Vinney are doing great. Stephi was up walking around and recovering nicely. Vinney slept the whole time I was there, I didn't see one peek of those eyes. Tay and Jim are so proud of their cousin and fight over who get to hold him.

Welcome Vinney Mike

Vinney's First Diaper
Proud Nani

Mommy & Daddy





Vincent Mikel Maucelli Marshall arrived this morning at 10:10 A.M., weighing in at 8 pounds 7.9 ounces and measuring 21-1/2 inches. Stephanie is doing great after her scheduled c-section, she is feeling very tired. I am so proud of my beautiful nephew. Taylor and Jimmy hung in the whole morning waiting to see their new cousin. Stephanie and Vinney will remain in the hospital for four days. Mom accompanied Steph during the c-section and Dad, Dylan, Nick, Sydney, Rachel, Kam, Taylor, Jimmy, Shelia, and myself were in the waiting room awaiting his arrival.


Stephanie Jo, you are a mommy now, that is too cool! Congrats to you and Dylan, I wish you both the very best, you have a gorgeous son!

Friday, September 28, 2007

Vinney Mike will make his descent into the world at 9:00 A.M. We are all so excited! Stephanie will be moving into her new home this week. Steph wants me to stay with her that first maybe even second week and help her, which of course, I am more than happy to do. We can't wait to meet you Vinney!

Moving On...

I don't think that our family will ever be the same without Dooley with us but we will try our hardest to move on with him in our memories. We all have expressed the emptiness now within us and like I have said before, there will never be another who can replace the void in my heart that I am now left with.

On a better note, Vincent Mikel Maucelli Marshall will be brought in this world before the end of this week and I am so excited to see him. I want to add that I misspelled Vinney, this is how she will spell it. He will now be Vinney Mike!

I have started searching for homeschooling supplies since the time has come to start school once again. I found a great site today that really made me happy and I cannot wait to use it. I have choosen a new path for myself and will take my children along for the ride. At first I was not going to mention it but I am proud of who I am and everyone who knows me know that I am a good person. I have figured out that I am Pagan and I have chose to take the path of Wiccan which has been a very interesting subject for me. Since I have stumbled upon this a couple months ago I have felt so much better inside, at peace. I have learned a lot about moon phases and natural healing, it has been a great experience.

For so long I thought pagan's were devil worshippers but looking into it I found they do not even believe in the devil, they are for nature and nature's way and I think that is great. Never knowing where I belonged in a religion has been a struggle for me for several years and now I am so happy to find something that is what I have believed all along, I just didn't know it had a name. The Wiccan Law is very simple to remember: "Do as ye will but do no harm!" I was able to celebrate my first holiday Saturday, which is Mabon: Autumnal Equinox, it was great and you can celebrate with everyone even if they do not believe the way you do.

I will continue to homeschool the children through Abeka, which is a Christian school but I will also teach them about the "Old Ways" as well and let them choose the path that is best for them. Eric was a little scared when he first found out that I have decided to do this but has calmed down once he figured out what it was about. He was here to celebrate Thanksgiving with me over the weekend and everyone who joined in had a great time, even Uncle Mike had a place at the table. Even though this is not the way my family believes, they did stand behind me and had a great time, thanks to all that came to celebrate with me.

Uncle Mike: Through darkness, there is light; through bane, there is happiness; through death, there is birth! We will always love you and will miss you the rest of our days! Blessed it be in the Goddess Light!

A Sad Day For All

Today was one of the saddest days of my life, I had to say goodbye to Uncle Mike. I cried so hard and felt so lost at times. Seeing my family members cry, most of them I have never seen shed a tear, tore me up inside. I know that Uncle Mike was there, I could feel him, he knows that all these people showed up for him and you know he was smiling when he heard all the stories and memories people were talking about. I was happy that so many people loved him! He was one of the greatest men I have ever known and I will always think of him.

As everyone knows, my sister is getting ready to give birth to her first child, she has decided to change his name in memory of Uncle Mike. He will now have the name, Vincent Mikel Nicholas Marshall and she is trying to make her c-section September 26th, the day Uncle Mike would turn 49. Stephanie Jo, I know Uncle Mike is so proud right now, a part of him will be with Vinnie always.

I want to thank everyone who showed up today, it meant so much! Forever in our hearts you are Mikel Doolioni of the Maucelli's and we are proud of you and your legacy will live on with us!

I Love You Uncle Mike!

Dear Uncle Mike,

I wish I would have told you all the things that are going through my mind at this moment, before it was too late, but we never expect that the ones we love may never be seen again. Since you have passed all my memories of you have been playing in my mind like a movie and I am remembering things I haven't thought of in years.

I still remember the first time I met you when you were first living with Auntie Ann in Regency Apartments and there was no furniture in the living room and we all sat on the floor, at that moment I was so young and didn't realize I was meeting a man who would eventually make a huge impact on my life. There was also a time when I was young, right after you and Auntie Ann moved into Poppa and Nani's old house, it was just the two of us and we made chocolate chip cookies, you know, the ones in a roll that you refrigerate, and then sat outside on the patio table and ate cookies and milk. I still remember you looking at me and telling me how beautiful I was, I never forgot that, it made me feel so good.

You were the first person to teach me to ride a 3 and 4-wheeler and that first time I wrecked it was you on the back with me. I felt so bad that I wrecked your bike but you were more concerned with how I was and told me that the 3-wheeler could always be fixed. You were the one who saved me when I wrecked the 4-wheeler too, I have never seen someone with such fast reflexes, you were off your bike fast and able to keep mine from pinning me under the water in the creek. The night Angie, Dustin, and I decided we were big enough to camp in the woods by ourselves and I got scared, it was you that stayed the night with us in the tent and kept us safe. I love you Mike Dooley, more than you probably realized.

I have never felt such sorrow as I feel now and I still can't believe that it is you that is actually gone. I know that you had so much on your plate and it must have seemed endless, but we always have loved you, always! I was so happy to see you three weeks ago and now I am so glad that I did, I just wish that I would have know it would be the last time because I would have held you a little longer and let you know how much you mean to me. Uncle Mike, you have a huge space of my heart that no one will ever be able to fill, you are a very special person and I know that you are safe now, you are at peace and that does make me happy for you, all your demons are now gone.

When I saw you a few weeks ago, I told the kids to give Uncle Mike a hug and you looked at me with shock and asked, "You still call me Uncle Mike?" Why wouldn't I? You were the only uncle that ever paid any attention to me or showed me any affection. You are such a compassionate man, you always looked out for others before yourself.

I wanted to write a memorial for you on the page, but even though I know you have touched so many people, I cannot speak for them, but I can speak for me. I decided an open letter is the best way to go and now every one, especially you, will know the love and pain I feel at this point. You are so special and will always be remembered, with me your memory will never fade and I will make sure my children know how great their Uncle Mike was.

Uncle Mike, I ask one thing of you at this point, please be with our family Wednesday, we will need you with us!

Love you always and Forever,

Joey

In Loving Memory of Mike Dooley

Mike Dooley passed away last evening. The family has stuck close today and we our doing our best to help Auntie Ann, Rachel, and Sean through this tough time.

We all are remembering all the great times we have had with him and hope he is finally at peace. As everyone knows, Mike, was always joking around and always so much fun to be around. I will remember Mike always as my favorite uncle, I loved him very much.

I am having a hard time writing at this moment because this has been such a hard day for us and my head is not all here, but I wanted everyone to know how much this family loved Mike and we will all truely miss him.

Uncle Mike...you are truely a wonderful man with such a big heart, I just want you to know how much you mean to me and have been a huge part of my life, you will always be in my heart!

WOW...It's Been Awhile

I know, my posts keep getting farther and farther apart, but soon I should be able to make regular posts.

I have never been this busy in my life but everything is starting to come together and I am getting closer to a calm down. I have found Auntie "G" a new home and we have placed the deposit down, she will be moving in about 3-4 weeks. I know she is very excited about the move. She is moving into a 2-bedroom assisted living to start out with and will be transferred to a 1-bedroom as soon as it's available. I now need to get her home ready for a sale and I will have her help me with all the small details on that. She is doing so much better these days, now that she is on regular medication and eating everyday her mind is back to where it needs to be, she still has some problems with her short term but she is 86-years-old and that is expected.

I realize that this is a long process but I am here for the long haul and cannot wait to get her settled into her new place, she is going to be very happy there.

I talk to Eric every day and he is doing great, we miss him a lot. He has been keeping busy at work and we spend the evenings chatting on the phone before bed. It's definately been hard without him here but I know it's not much longer until we will be reunited again. I really enjoyed his visit and we pushed as much as we could into his week here, but it didn't seem long enough.

At Poppa and Nani's we spend a lot of family time together, at least twice a week we have a family movie night where we pop some popcorn and find a comfy spot and veg in front of the big screen, last night was Wild Hogs...funny movie and a definate must see. We have dinner every night as a family and we all love sitting and chatting. Once we put the kids to bed it's off to the computer room where each of us sit at our computers and do our surfing. I feel very honored to have grandparents like them and love to be around them all the time.

Lets move on to Stephi! She is doing well in her pregnancy with only a few more weeks to go. Last Friday we had a false alarm, but it's her first and those things happen. She is growing bigger and bigger each time I see her and we know that Vinney is already in position, he's ready to go. We have decided to postpone the baby shower because everything keeps piling up on top of each other (meaning, everyone has something going on) so we have decided to throw Vinney a Welcoming Shower after his birth, that gives everyone a chance to meet him. Please watch in the mail for your invites probably sometime in October.

The kids are both doing great and Jimmy is very excited for Kindergarten to start. We have visited Renee, Jordan and Delaney a couple times since we've been here and I am sure we will see more of them in the future. Alisha and Izabel came for a visit last week and that was a lot of fun, I love seeing both of them. I know Izabel will do great with her new baby sister when she arrives, she seems to adapt pretty well. Izabel and Jimmy hit it off really well and had a lot of fun playing together, we will have to get together for more play dates.

Taylor and Jimmy have been great with adapting to me taking care of someone else as well and help me whenever they can. Nani and MawMaw have also been big helps whether it be watching the kids on a split second notice or helping me with information, I am grateful. Nani will help me get all the supplies she needs for her move and has been a great rock for me to lean on when I have felt some much pressure. I have many others that are helping through and I cannot say thank you enough.

I think that about covers everything and I will try to post soon. Love you all!

My New Exciting Life

I have been going non-stop for the last 3 weeks. For those of you that don't know, Auntie G (Lelia,) had a bad accident and was put into the hospital with a broken kneecap. I have moved her to a new Elderly Care Center that she really seems to like and I really like this place as well. I have gone to one court hearing over her accident but it has been continued for August 1st and I will continue fighting for her until she is safe. Mom had surgery last Friday and I have spent a lot of time with her as well, she is staying at Nani's until she is able to care for herself. I have had a lot of problems with my knee and plan on getting knee surgery while I am here so I can have Nurse Nani help me heal.

Steph had a doctor's appointment yesterday that Taylor and I accompanied her to and everything is looking great: strong heartbeat, vitals are great and now she will start going every two weeks. I can't believe she is already this far in her pregnancy but I am very excited for the arrival of Vinney, as I know she is as well.

Eric, will be in town August 3rd and I am very excited for that. We plan to have a fun-filled week together. We got a room at the Chateau Avalon for the weekend he gets here and plan to do some shopping at the new Legends Mall and have a nice dinner. The kids are very excited to see their Daddy and I know he misses them as well.

I have been taking pictures but will not be able to post them until I get over to my mom's. The kids have been doing great but spend most of their nights with Aunt Ste, I have them three nights a week and everyday but Sunday and Monday. I am not used to not having the kids around but I know that they love being with their Aunt Ste and they miss her so much while we are in Florida.

I will try to post more in the future, but until I get everything wrapped up with Auntie G, she is my priority and get her back to feeling safe.

Alisha, I tried to call you and I can't get through. Give me a call at Nani's so we can get together.

Busy Busy Busy

Hi-Di-Ho strangers! It's been awhile but hopefully I will be able to post more soon--I have a lot going on in my life right now and just don't have the time. I got some good news this afternoon, Eric, will be in town August 3rd and is planning to stay a little over a week! Yeah! I really miss him and can't wait. Mom has been very sick for the past week so I opted to stay with Poppa and Nani for a bit, I really don't want to come down with what she has. They have been nice enough to let me stay in their 5Th-wheel and I love it. The kids have pretty much abandoned me and I have become Stephi's babysitter while she is at work. They love their Aunt Ste so she keeps them almost every night except maybe two nights a week but she brings them to me while she goes into work and then immediately picks them up after work. I guess she is getting used to being a working mom before Vinney arrives.

Steph has been doing very good in her pregnancy and I am able to feel Vincent move all the time. I can't wait to see him, I know he will be a beautiful baby boy! Hopefully I will gets some updates on the 11th for both babies, Steph and Alisha have doctor's appointments on the same day and I can't wait to find out the sex of Baby Jack!

I will try to get some posting done soon so please keep checking, I haven't stopped I just have to take care of some family issues and then I will be home free...hopefully!

Pictures From Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse and everyone had a lot of fun. The last time Jimmy had gone to one he was not old enough to know what was going on, so he really enjoyed it. I loved seeing Dad and it's not very often that Dad, Stephi, Nick, and I all get together at the same time.