Let's Go Fly a Kite

Natalie received a kite for her birthday. Last Monday it was pretty breezy so we thought it would be a good day to fly a kite, but it wasn't. It was way too windy. Scott couldn't even get it up above the lowest currents. It gets so windy here because of being right on the water and we were at the park on the water.

Natalie tried to help Daddy, but it was no use....

The kite just fell apart.

So we just posed for pictures.
Isn't she the cutest!?

While Daddy tried to get the kite back together and up in the air, I caught Natalie singing, clapping, and spinning around while she sang Jesus Loves the Little Children. It was so precious.


Once we finally gave up on the kite we headed over to the playground, where Natalie proceeded to wear Daddy out completely.



There is this pair of ducks that hang out around the beach by the playground. They're as friendly as ducks can be. Natalie loves to watch them.


So that was our afternoon at the park. We go there just about every day. I'm sure that you will see lots more park pictures as the summer begins!

The Cows Line Up to See the Crazy Tourists

A couple weeks ago we took a road trip out to Indiana for my grandpa's funeral. (I'll post more about that later.) On our way to and from the funeral home we always passed lots of farms. Most of the grazing fields for the cows were set pretty far back from the road, but there was this one that was right on the edge of the road.
One night on our way back to my other grandparents house we saw about 35-40 cows out in this field. Scott pulled the car over so Natalie could get a really good look at the cows. (We don't see much of that anymore since moving from Wisconsin.) When he did, I started mooing at the cows. (I speak the Holstein cow dialect.) One by one the cows began to walk over to the fence. Pretty soon, they were trotting over and some were even running.
As they came, they lined up along the fence and just stared at us. It was hilarious! I think there were only 8 or 9 cows that didn't come over to the fence. They just stood there and stared at us! The whole time I kept telling Scott, "this is so going on my blog! This is what blogs were made for!" So of course, I pulled out the camera and started taking pictures.


It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long, long time. If I had taken our video camera with us I would send in the tape to America's Funniest Home Videos.

(Grandma, you would have loved to see those cows line up for us. It was as if WE were their entertainment!!!)

Natalie and her Terri

A couple weeks ago, we had a fantastic worship conference at our church. (I'm so backed up with things to post here, that I hope to post more about the conference later. Ahhh!!! I have so much to write about.) Anyway, here are some adorable pictures of Natalie and her best friend, and babysitter, Terri. They spent the day of the worship conference together.










Are they not the most precious girls ever! I am so blessed to have them BOTH in my life!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE!!!

April 25, 2007

The Birthday Girl sill sleeping.

Her birthday decorations...


Natalie--still sleepy--and her breakfast cupcakes (muffins).


Because Natalie slept in, Daddy wasn't able to stick around long enough to eat breakfast with us or watch her open her presents. So Mommy, being the stinkin' genious that she is pulled out her computer and got Daddy on iChat. (For some reason the microphone wasn't working, so I just had him on speakerphone.)

The princess backpack she had been begging for! I filled it with lots of little treasures.

After breakfast we painted her new butterfly bank.

We went for a birthday cocoa latte and took some coffee to Daddy. She wasn't interested in getting her picture taken. (Did I mention that she still wasn't feeling well?)


She went to Rainbows for the first OFFICIAL time. These are some of her best friends. Rachel is behind her, Damion, and Larissa. Her BFF Ava hadn't gotten there yet.

I think that it was harder on Scott and I to see her go to Rainbows than for Natalie. I saw him in the hallway just before service and about lost it when I told him that I had just taken our baby to Rainbows and that now I was on my way to give her her offering!!! He almost lost it too.

It was wierd because we're the parents of a baby, not a little girl who goes to Rainbows and has memory verses, which by the way, she is totally uninterested in. Typical pastor's kid.

Anyway, it was a wonderful day. On Tursday night, when she was feeling better, we took her out for her birthday dinner. She wanted to go to Bertucci's for pizza. Mmmm!!!! I'm sure not complaining!!! We haven't finished celebrating just yet though. We'll have birthday cake with my parents when they come.


Happy Birthday, my Baby!!! I wish you many more to come!!!

The Real Wedding Crashers

Scott and I discovered this great new show tonight after Heroes. It's hilarious! Just the thing we need after the intensity of Heroes. It's like Punk'd but better and funnier. Ok, I'm going to go have a root beer float. Enjoy!

Blog Browsing

Have you ever wasted away and hour of your day doing absolutely nothing? If you haven't yet, then I have the perfect way for you to break that good habit. I've termed it "Blog Browsing." At the top of blogger blogs is a dashboard and on that dashboard is this nice little button that says, "Next Blog." One day, in my curiosity, I clicked it wondering where it would take me. I quickly jumped into another blog and then another and another. I was hooked. Now, needless to say there is JUNK out there and you have to be very careful about that. Have that back button handy! But, I find it to be endlessly fun to peek into other people's lives. Scott would say it's the "nosey neighbor" in me, and you know, he is right on. I love to watch people whether it's at the mall, out my front window, or through blogs.

Through my new-found past time I have discovered the world of craft blogging and let me tell you there are alot of them out there. You don't have to push the "next blog" button long to find one and when you do, there will be a bunch of links to other crafting sites and blogs.

I love to do crafty things, but I haven't done much for the last year and a half. Well, I suppose if you count designing and decorating my house a craft then I have been doing quite a bit! My mom and sisters are just as crafty as I am, but they actually take the time to do it, unlike me. So for Christmas, my mom asked me what kinds of crafty tools I needed. (She had already stocked up on a bunch of stuff for Anissa and Jessica.) I told her that since the tools she got me last year were still in their original packaging I better pass on craft things this year. She was so sweet and understanding but I felt like I popped her balloon.

My sister on the other hand, got me stuff anyway, but I am so glad she did!!! I have been wanting for a long time to try my hand at painting. I love to draw and I love to write. I figure that painting must go hand in hand with those two things. And hey, I've watched Donna Dewberry many times!! Two or three years ago I had declared that I wanted to start painting and asked for painting supplies for Christmas. I called my sister and got the low-down on what I would need. (She's a painter.) I ordered a Blick Art catalog and everything. I was all ready to order. Then I got cold feet. I didn't get any art supplies that year, but I never really stopped talking about it. So it was a totall shock when I opened my sister's gift this Christmas and found a red canvas bin filled with everything I needed to start painting! She even had a mug and tea in there for the cold nights when I would be painting. I was speechless. It was the coolest thing ever!

Yeah, the awesome red canvas bin sat by my craft table in the basement for a month before I ever even revisted it. (I'm awful!) Then the supplies sat for another couple weeks before I worked up the courage to just dig in!!! The ONE night I painted was glorious. I had no idea what I was doing. I'd never painted before--I mean really painted. Natalie and I paint all the time, but this was with real paints and watercolor paper and canvas. I had this picture in my head of what I wanted to create. It was very abstract--nothing to difficult, but I couldn't shrink it down enough to fit on my paper. It was so grand in my head. So I finished what I could that night and decided to come back to it later on, once I had gained some perspective. Yeah, that was 3 months ago. I haven't painted since. I have got to start setting aside time just for my craftiness to be exercised!

There is one other thing I have started AND completed in the past couple of months. One night, while I was watching tv, I started drawing Miss Spider. It began just as a little surprise for Natalie. Something to make her smile. (She loves when I draw pictures for her.) It turned out really well. So well in fact that I surprised myself. I wasn't sure what to do with it, since it wasn't just a bunch of scribbles like I thought it would be. My sister suggested I add pastels to it, so I added pastels. Then once I felt that it was finished I mounted and framed it. Now it is waiting to be hung. From start to finish it only took me 5 months! (That doesn't include the time that it will sit on the floow waiting to be hung. I'll let you know when that happens!)


Maybe that's why I don't do many crafts anymore! They sit forever waiting to be worked on, finished, or hung up. Hmmm... sounds like there's a sermon somewhere in that single thought. Another time... For now, I have a beautiful picture to find a place of honor for. It was a birthday present from my creative inspiration--my sister. It's where I am at right now. I just have to find the best place for it! It needs to be in a place that I see it often throughout the day and where visiting family and friends can enjoy it too. Where am I going to put it?

The caption thing says, "CELEBRATION SONG, Tim Steward, They will celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing Your righteousness. Psalm 145:7 NIV
The funny thing is that the day she gave it to me I had read that chapter of the Psalms in my devotions. I had struggled over it because here we all were at my grandfather's funeral and the Word was telling me to celebrate His abundant goodness and to joyfully sing of His righteousness and no one felt much like doing that. But that's just it. We have to CHOOSE to praise even when all the world around us may seem to be falling apart.

That chapter just before is David's cry to God for deliverence from his enemies. As I read these chapters that day in my devotions a thought struck me. Throughout the Psalms David cries out to God for deliverence from his enemies who were all around him and God wasn't always quick to answer. Psalm 22 opens by saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That's just the opening. He goes on to list all the ways in which his life is miserable, but then the miracle takes place and he begins to declare the goodnesses of God. David acknowledges that God doesn't always seem to be around, BUT HE CHOOSES TO PRAISE HIM ANYWAY knowing that He is right there and deliverence is on its way. Deliverence doesn't come just when we ask for it. It comes when we stop looking at our problems and start praising God.

Romans 5:1-5 says that it's good to rejoice when we're going through easy things, but it's even better to rejoice during struggles. It is those struggles that will produces in us perseverence and then perseverence will produce character, and character will bring hope. That's why we rejoice in suffering. We know that when we rise above our circumstances and praise, we are being made stronger in Him. Plus it just blesses His socks off to hear our praise.

Wait... do you really think that God wears socks? I would think that when you have feet like "bronze glowing in a furnace," they wouldn't get cold. Hmmm... guess that phrase doesn't really work too well.

Well, anyway, I didn't mean to get all preachy at you. It's just that I'm trying to work that all out in my brain and the more I repeat it and talk about it, the better grasp of it I seem to have. This isn't the typical post for me. No pictures of Natalie or any funny anecdotes, but it's what came out, so enjoy!

We're Back...

So we finally got home yesterday evening around 6. We've been all over the midwest this past week. Two Sundays ago my grandfather passed away so we headed to Indiana for the funeral. Since it's such a long drive we drove as far as Scott's parents in Dayton and spent the night before driving the rest of the way. On our way home we spent an extra day to celebrate Scott's grandfather's 82 birthday. (My grandpa would have been 82 on May 1st. That was hard celebrating Paw's 82nd when I had just buried my own grandfather who wouldn't get to celebrate his 82nd birthday.)

Anyway, we got up to leave on Sunday morning and Natalie started puking. She didn't stop all day so we had to stay. We left yesterday morning--puke-free, but with a still very sick girl. She was running a fever and was just sick. So it was a loooooong drive. I rode in the back with her and we barely stopped at all. It was a tough trip on all of us. I'm so glad to be home! It's amazing how much more difficult things can seem when you are away for the comforts of your own home.

The whole trip was long even though we were only gone 7 days. Lately it just seems as though once we are barely through dealing with one difficulty another one is there to keep testing our faith. I told my mom yesterday on our way home that I have never been so convinced of God's goodness as I have been these past few months. I HAVE to believe that He is who He says He is. If I don't what am I left with. Nothing. I am constantly saying "God is good." Not so much to share it with others, but mostly because I need to constantly remind myself.

God has done so much and I feel as though I have only just now met Him for the first time. I want to share more about it and share about our trip, but it will have to wait until another time. I still have a sick girl to care for. We're going to the doctor this afternoon. Tomorrow is her 3rd birthday so we just tacking on this illness to her 3 year check up. Please pray for her. She isn't puking anymore and the fever has broken, but she is still very uncomfortable and lethargic. My poor baby!!!

I love Heather!!!

So my girl, Debby, called me tonight and left me the most amazing message! She told me that she was watching Idol last night with her family and her daughter Heather said that the lady on there looked like "Miss Melissa." You know who that lady was?


JENNIFER LOPEZ

HELLO!!!

Yeah, I've gotten Tori Spelling and Kate Winslet before, but never J Lo. I personally think she's hot, so I take it as a great compliment!
Scott says we have the same booty. Ha! Isn't he dreaming!

Anyway, here is what she looked like on Idol...


I totally see it now! Same hair for sure...same body, same amazing clothes.

The Reason I Have a Birthday to Celebrate

He wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent

and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.

He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.

You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.

But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;

they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.

You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.

He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.

They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

The birds of the air nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.

He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work.

He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for man to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:

wine that gladdens the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine,
and bread that sustains his heart.

I will sing to the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the LORD.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

[Psalm 104:2-15, 33-34, 1]

The Sweetest Thing

As I write this, my baby girl is asleep in my arms. It has been a very long time since this has happened. What a sweet treasure this is!!! Don't ever take for granted the wonderful feeling of holding your babies or oved ones in your arms. We don't know what tomorrow holds, so love them today as though there was only today. My mom brain says, "put her to bed so she'll sleep through the night," but my aching mommy heart says, "I'm never letting her go."

To top it all off, The Three Amigos is on tv. I haven't seen this since high school. It has taken me back to fun times in my parents basement with Morlie, Jon and David, Chris, the Fritzels, and my siblings. I think I would like to have a "plethora of pinatas" for my birthday tomorrow. Good times, good friends. It's a good day!

One Week

I just realized today that my birthday is one week from today. This happens every year to me. My dad's birthday comes and goes (March 18) and I realize that my birthday is next in the Martin Birthday Calendar. This year it took me a while though. I mean it's already into April!!!
I just wanted to give everyone the heads up on it so you have plenty of time to shop for gifts. I know that you will want to mail any packages as soon as possible to make certain of a timely delivery. I will be entering the last year of my 20's which is a little bit of a big deal for me, so please don't be dumb and remind me of that. I don't want any "getting older" cards. That's just not funny. But BIG gifts and great gestures are always welcome!!! So feel free to love me extravagantly!
(Gift cards are always a wise choice.)
My address is 10 Hickory Dr, North East, MD 21901.

Natalie vs. Repunzel

So Natalie has been bugging me for weeks to cut her hair like her friend Taylor's (to her chin), and I have put her off because I want her hair to be long. Her daddy told her she could cut her hair if she wanted which made it even harder for me. Her hair is very fine so it doesn't take but a few minutes for it to look stringy and dirty even when she's straight from the tub. I really noticed it this afternoon. After an early dinner I was bored, so I asked Natalie if she wanted me to cut her hair before getting in the tub and she got so excited. She was running all over cheering and jumping around. It was too cute to resist. So we went upstairs and I cut her hair off! AHHHH!!! These are the before pictures...


See how stringy it is? So anyway, I chopped 5 or 6 inches off like it was nothing! It was actually kinda fun.

I had avoided cutting her hair also due to the fact that just doing a trim on her is difficult. She moves all over. But tonight she did pretty good. All I had to do was ask her if she wanted me to cut her hair. She would say yes, and I would tell her that she had to be still or turn her head this way or that and she would. I was very impressed. After bath time, I dried her new hair do and did a few touch up before taking these cute pictures...




Now I have to admit that when I started cutting I had no idea where I was going with the hair style. I just started cutting. I knew that I needed to get quite a bit of the length off because her hair is so fine, but I didn't want to loose too much length from the front. What you see is what we ended up with. It reminds me of someone I used to know....

She is so excited! She LOVES her new hair! She has been looking in the mirror all evening. She's so excited to show Daddy who has no idea what I did. He'll be thrilled but want me to cut mine the same way. (It's his favorite way for me to wear my hair--the above picture is his absolute favorite picture of me ever.) She's got big girl hair and a big girl birthday coming up. Let's all pray that big girl panties will come soon too!

How Great Is He!

Laughing Babies

Rejoice In Suffering?!

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
[Romans 5:1-5]

"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"
[Same passage--The Message]

Natalie's VeggieTales Friends

Natalie calls all of her Fisher Price Little People her VeggieTales. We had given her a set of VeggieTales little people based on Duke and the Great Pie War for Christmas two Christmases ago. So those, the Little People, My Little Ponies, and all other small toy have become her best friends. She carries them around in a basket that I had given her to use becasue I was tired of her dropping them everywhere! So she takes them all over the house with her when she plays. They are usually with her when she comes into our room in the mornings. My favorite thing she does with them is when she lines them up all over the house.

I have alread found them on the steps, in the kitchen, on the side of the bath tub, etc. She carries them around in a basket and talks to them as though they were real, which I'm sure they are to her. One time she had them lined up on the steps and she was singing to them. Another time, I caught her reading them a story in her room after she had lined them up. One day, she came running downstairs yelling for me to come look at her friends. She told me that she built her friends "book houses." This is what I found in her room. Each little friend had its own book as their "house."

Often while I'm making dinner she will line them up on the kitchen floor. Again each friend had its own sqare on the floor.

Last week, I heard her telling them that she had to go potty, so I quiety followed her to see what she was doing. (Keep in mind she prefers her diapers to wearing panties right now. Panties, she says, make her pee pee go down her leg to her socks.) She told them as she went that she needed to pull her pants down and go pee pee. The she had to wipe her bum, flush the toilet, and wash her hands. I peeked around the corner to find her sitting on the floor with her pants down around her ankles--diaper was still on--pretending to go potty. (I was sick that the camera was in Scott's office because it was the cutest thing ever!) I jumped on the potty training opportunity and asked her if she wanted to go on the real potty. She said, "No, I go pee pee in my diaper, Mommy." And that was the end of her teaching her VeggieTales how to go potty.

On another note: The middle of this last week was beautifula nd the temperature was in the 70's. Natalie had gotten some sidewalk chalks earlier this spring and it was finally nice enough to use them. Here are the results....
(These are her barbies: Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, "Little Man," and Taylor.)



As you can tell, Mommy ended up doing most of the drawing with the sidewalk chalks. Natalie was very specific about what she wanted drawn.

UPDATE: For All My WI Friends...

EARLIER (11AM)... Just thought I'd give you something to chuckle at. The last couple of days have been warm and spring-like. Last evening the temperature began to drop and today it is only just in the 30's, but it's raining. It may get colder so the schools have been closed in preparation of the ice we may get. Can you believe it! I mean I know that ice can be VERY dangerous--MD--WI--it doesn't matter, but to close schools for ice that MAY come tonight. It seems a bit ridiculous to me.


LATER (7PM)... Ok, so I will admit that the weather has proved to be quite dangerous by any standards. This morning when I posted the above I was shocked that they were already cancelling schools and events for the rain. The rain turned to sleet by 230 this afternoon and by 4 is was ice. The temperature has continued to slowly drop, so now we have snow on top of ice. I can hear the snow/sleet/ice hitting the windows as it comes down. Scott wanted to go over to Wilmington to get this pair of shoes that we have been on a mad dash for the last two days. I refused to go and forbade him to go as well. (Just like a good submissive wife should do! Ha!) Sometimes he just doesn't think things all the way through. Bless his impatient heart. So we are snuggled in for the night. We rented some movies and are having a late dinner. I just took another picture of our front yard. Quite a difference from this morning.

Musings

Each day we are awoken by the Lord and given a fresh chance to live the life we have always wanted to live. We get the opportunity to make wrongs right, to start over, to try something we're scared to death to do. Whatever each day holds for us is a wonderment, to be certain.
God gives His children good gifts. When we stand for Him through the dark times of life and tell the world, "I HAVE to believe!" God's gifts far exceed anything we could ever ask or hope for. He loves us and longs to spoil us with His goodness. Wow! What a thought that is!
Is has been a struggle for me these past few months to continually stand and declare that I DO BELIEVE and I TRUST Him with my life. When all the circumstances surrounding me seem to say life is coming apart, that is when God says, "Will you still stand and trust me COMPLETELY?" That is all He asks of us. It sounds so simple and easy, but I am telling you today--it takes guts to stand against all that this world has to offer. But I stand and hold fast to His Word because I know that in the end, it will all be worth it. He will make it worth it. He is the only one who makes life worth living. I am holding on to that with all my might.