My Favorite Things (Like Oprah)

Last night while my beautiful husband slept, I layed there unable to shut off my brain. I couldn't tell you what all I thought about except for this one great idea I had. Have you ever gotten one of those email surveys that tells you all about the person that sent it. You're supposed to copy and paste it into a new email and fill it out about yourself before emailing it to everyone you know. I love to read those. I don't always take the time to fill them out about myself, but I enjoy them nonetheless. For some crazy reason, this is what I was thinking about last night as I listened to Scott sleep. So I got to thinking that not everyone enjoys getting those things or likes to fill them out and send them on. I'm starting a new feature her on my blog...My Favorite Things. I'll post a themed list of my favorite things. If you agree, disagree, or want to share your favorite thing within that theme, leave me a comment.
Soooo... I think that my first list will be about every girl's favorite thing...Beauty Products!

MY FAVORITE BEAUTY PRODUCTS
Here are the things I can't live without:
1. Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily Treatment Shampoo and Conditioner
















2. Crabtree & Evelyn's GoatMilk Comfoting Body Lotion



















3. Bare Minerals Make-up

















4. Clinique 7 Day Scrub Cream Rinse-Off and Turnaround 15 minute Facial




5. Paul Mitchell's The Conditioner (I could not function without my leave-in conditioner.)















6. Ion Shine Spray (God's gift to dull hair!!!)














7. Juiceman Jr. Juicer (Beauty begins with what you put into your body. What goes in must come out.)















8. Curling Iron - 1.5 inch barrel









9. Warm Lemon Water first thing each morning (helps to keep the alkaline and acid levels in your body balanced)













10. Turbie Twist (especially now that my hair is so long!)














11. Maybelline Great Lash Mascara (ALWAYS looks good and inexpensive.)













12. Maybellin Lip Polish Hi-Shine in Pink Cadillac

America's Next Top Model

Here's Our Boy!

This is Joshua Steven Martin born March 14, 2006.


This is Joshua David Martin born July 8, 1980.

A Spa Weekend with the Girls...

I started a post about my weekend to the beach a couple weeks ago and saved it because I didn't have time to finish it. I just got around to finishing it. Scroll down past the announcements about Baby Joshua to see the pictures.

Our Day in Old New Castle, DE

There's this fantastic little town about 20 minutes from us in the middle of a very metropolitian area. Going there is like taking a walk back in time to the late 1600's. I absolutely love it!!! I would give anything to live there. It is so amazing. We went there last Friday when we had the record highs (our car temp recorded 79 degrees). It was such a wonderful day!!! Here are a few pictures. We took a ton more and you can check them out on our family's website...
www.homepage.mac.com/pastorscott78

HE'S HERE!!!

Joshua Steven Martin joined us early this morning. He is a healthy llittle guy weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. He was born via c-section at 4:40 am. There was some confusion between all of Anissa's doctors as to the due date for Little Guy. Some said April 1st, others said March 20th. Either way they were worng. His due date was March 14--today. So welcome Little Guy! We've waited a long time for your arrival!

I will post as many pictures as I can as soon as I get them later today.

It's a Boy!

Josh and Anissa recently had an ultrasound and it showed without a doubt that they were in fact having a boy. Little Buddy should be here soon. Anissa is scheduled for a c-section on March 28, although just yesterday she was already 4 cm dialated. These are exciting times!

Spa Weekend at the Beach with the Girls...

What is it about a group of women than attracks the crazies? A couple weeks ago I was so blessed to be able to get away with the girls for a couple days. We went to the beach and had spa treatments. EVERY time we went out, we atracted some sort of attention. The owner of one of the restaurants even came over to our table and offered drinks on the house to us. You should have seen his face when we told him we didn't drink. Ha! We took desserts on the house instead.

All and all, I had a wonderful time! It was totally relaxing and a true blessing to be able to pamper myself. I had forgotten what it was like to wake up to something other than Natalie's chatter...I woke up to the sound of the waves crashing out my window. What a glorious thing. I do believe that I would live at the beach if I could. Here are some pics from our get away.





This is the beach house we stayed at. It's Sandy's sister's place. Just gorgeous!

Me and Suzie

Debby and Jackie

Amy, Jackie, Suzie, Debby, Me, Beth, Anita, Sandy

Christmas 2005--Cute Stories

Over Christmas I captured some precious moments with Natalie. I thought that you'd enjoy hearing the stories and seeing the pictures.

A couple weeks before Christmas, I heard Natalie playing by the christmas tree so I went over to see what she was doing. She was hugging the tree saying "aww, Baby." When i got a little closer I saw that she was hugging an ornament with a baby cradled in a moon. Here she had given the baby her burpie. Now for all of who do not know what a burpie is, let me explain. When Natalie was a baby, we would put her to sleep by putting a burp cloth lightly over her face to block out the noise and lighhts. She grew accostomed to having it around her face and eventually the burp cloth became the burpie. It's her security blanket and we don't go anywhere without one. When she was born we had 24 burpies. We are now down to 7. So it's a big deal that she shared her burpie with the baby in the ornament.


Daddy dressed Natalie...he's so creative. Her shoes....box filler from Scott's external hard drive. (Yes, thank you, that was my genious idea for a gift. He was floored when he opened it! Score one for Melis.)


Aunt jecca gave Natalie a Fisher Price doll house for Christmas and I love to watch her play with it. It makes all sorts of sounds and she just loves it.


And then of course, I found her in the cupboard on morning. She kept saying, "Hi Mom!" and waving. It was the cutest thing ever!

Christmas 2005--At Home

Because w knew that we weren't going to be around on Christmas day we were pretty laid back about opening presents. Scott and I opened ours late one night a day or two before Christmas Eve. We didn't take any pictures, but it was really nice. We had a fire lit and only the lights of the Christmas tree on. Very romantic and personal. With Natalie we opened her stocking and a couple gifts on the eve of Christmas Eve and then the rest on Christmas Eve morning.

She's digging in to the stocking...


Opening her first gift...


It's a ditty (kitty). She LOVES kittens...no, the kitty was not real..her dad's allergic, or so he says (wink wink).


And a few more...

Christmas 2005--Christmas Eve Service

So here is Natalie all dressed up and ready to go to the Christmas Eve Service. I insisted that she pose for some pictures before we left. It took me 20 minutes to do her hair. I used my curling iron to flip her ends up, but she wanted to do it herself--thus it took 20 minutes. I was not about to wait until after service to take pictures and risk the cute hair-do going flat, which it did by the way.

All was well at first...


But things started to go sour when Natalie's foot began to bother her...


She wanted to take her shoe off, but because we were already running late, I wouldn't let her...


Things went from bad to worse when she decided to throw a fit...


She finally had enough of pictures and walked off the set.