June ..... Here and Gone Already!

I can hardly believe that the month of June is already almost gone! Wow! How did that happen? I guess that is what happens when life comes at you full force? This month was a busy one: Graduations, Vacation, Our 4 year anniversary, Nathan traveling, Strep Throat, An ER visit with Emma, Scrapbook Deadlines, A trip to Penn., and so much more!! I am sure that next month will end up going just as fast! It's not even here yet and there is alot already on the calendar! I will be traveling to Chicago for a week to help A2Z Essentials at CHA, while the girls will be in PA visitng thier grandparents. Nathan has several trips slotted for the campaign he's working on, and there is a chance that all 4 of us will be spending several weeks down in South Carolina while Nathan campaigns down there. Details on that are yet to come though. This week has been pretty busy getting ready for our annual garage sale at my parent's house. We always do really well with all the baby/girl items that we have. We actually have regulars that watch for our sale! Mom had a lady doing other buisness at he Police Station the other day ask...when is your daughter going to have her garage sale? How funny!

Let's see some random thoughts to end this busy week....

1. I have a hard time putting a book down once I start it, even if it means staying up into the wee morning hours to finish it!

2. I love bananas in my vanilla icecream.

3. My second toe is longer than my big toe.

4. I got my hair cut this week as well as re-highlighted. It's cut the same just shorter, but they taught me a new way to style it. I'm not sure what I think yet, but I do know that I don't like the blond "skunk" streaks in my highlights!

5. My dream car is a purple mustang, hardtop. I don't see that happening anytime soon when you can't fit three carseats in the back? That's what my Montana mini van is great for! The " Mommy-mobile!"

I'm sitting her typing this out thinking...hmmm....I REALLY should be finishing that book I have only 5 chapters to read yet? It's after 10:00 pm....oh well! Never too late to start reading! It's the ending my reading time for the night that's so bad! LOL! Besides, if I don't finish reading this fourth book in the Amish Abram's Daughter's series, then I will never start reading my book Captivating. That's the one that we are doing for our Bible Study on Monday nights. Yep, I'm behind because I have been reading this other book! Huh! I guess that just comes to show how much reading time a mother of toddlers gets!

Our Trip to the Smokies...

Well today has been a busy day...as it always seems to be after a relaxing vacation! Today was filled with nursing lil Emma Grace back to health, unpacking, and cleaning. It is amazing how dirty your house can get when NO ONE is here for a week??? That's one of those great mysteries of life???? Tonight we went to Bible study again and as always it was wonderful! It is so nice to have fellowship with other Christian women! It's also funny to realize that you are not as messed up as you think and that other women are just like you! LOL! It's a girl thing!

I promised you a recap of our vacation so here is the gist of it....

Friday - Arrive at Aunt Donna's house for the night in KY. We all bunkered down for a quick snooze and were out bright and early the next morning for TN.

Saturday - We arrived in Pigeon Forge, TN at about 4:00 that afternoon and spent the afternoon/evening exploring our new cabin...pics below! The cabin was absolutely great! Nathan and I got the dibs on the big master suite this time! LOL! Mom and Dad had it last time so we got a turn. It was so beautiful and it had a TV built in the wall as well as a heart shaped jacuzzi tub. The cabin had 3 other bedrooms as well as a game room with a pool table. It also had 2 decks, a hot tub, and a goregous view!!!! We were literally on the side of mountian....kinda scary drive up the mountian to get their but great view! That evening we went out to eat at a pizza buffet with my cousin and her husband/kids who came to see us for the day. We also went to Walmart to pick up groceries for the week.

Sunday - That day was spent in Gatlinburg. We did the aquarium and did some shopping. It was so hot that afternoon that we left early and headed back to the cabin for naps. After naps, Nathan and I went with my brother and nefew to play put-put golf. We had a lot of fun, which is a big deal becauseI am the type that gets made when I can't hit the ball right. I also get mad when people try to give me tips...so...Nathan and I don't play put-put that much! It isn't worth the argument. But, I will have to say that we all had a blast this time!

Monday - Nathan had to work all day that day so we went shopping at the outlet malls while my Aunt Donna kept the kids at the cabin doing crafts. It was nice to have some adult time. We made up for it with the kids though by going to Boyd's Bears and making bears with them that night. Maddelyn made a dog and Emma made an elephant...with daddy's promting!

Tuesday - We spent the day in Cades Cove having a picnic lunch and enjoying the wildlife. It is such a beautiful drive up in the National Park, but Cades Cove is the best! We were able to see 12 deer that afternoon and thanks to Brandon and Nathan...3 bears as well. Yes, my sometimes too daring hubby and brother go running off into the field with cameras in tow to take some pictures of the bears! All I kept thinking was he is going to be eaten alive and we are all standing here watching!!! Needless to say they heard a few words from the ranger afterwards about disturbing the wildlife and staying on the path. Nathan's exuse is that he was doing it for me to get great shots for my scrapbooks! I was like hun...I like to get great pics too, but I have never risked my life trying to get them! I am not THAT addicted to scrapbooking! That nightall of us went to play put-put as a family. Even the girls had thier little clubs taking swings at the balls. too cute! Everyone had a blast and the put-put course was themed after Old MacDonald so the girls had a blast just walking through the course! Afterwards we took my brother and nefew to a golf car track for a few races and had a blast.

Wednesday - We all went to Dollywood for the day. Nathan had to take some time outs with his lap top to work as he had been doing all week. Yes, he did tow his lap top around with him everywhere we went that week but he had to. Dollywood was great. There was something there for everyone, even little Emma Grace! There was one section of kiddy rides where you only had to be able to walk to ride on them...such as ...the Lucky Ducky, Pigs, and Flying Bumble Bees. It was so cute to see the girls riding them! After eating a huge buffet that night we were all wore out!

Thursday - We all kinda took a day to chill that afternoon. I had to drive Nathan an hour to the Knoxville airport to catch his plan to Iowa. On the way back I stopped at the Scrapbook Superstore. I liked the selection because I found quite a few new products as well as a larger selection of companies I already have seen, but the organization was crazy! Some places were organized by product, other by theme, and still other by company! You couldn't find anything! I did get me some new chipboard and some new Prima's that I hadn't ever seen.

Friday - We ate at the most wonderful catfish house...too bad prego's me can't handle anything fried right now beacuse the fish was amazing! We then did some shopping around Pigeon Forge while the guys went to look at all the cars that had come into town for a car show.

Saturday - We headed home and got in at about 7:00 pm, exausted form a long drive and a great trip!

I know that's not everything but you get the gist. We all had such a great time! The girls loved spending time with thier cousins and Aunt Donna which they don't get to see that often. We all had a great itme and are already looking forward to our next family vacation. Sometimes it's just nice to get away from it all.

Back from TN

Were home! What a great trip! I had planned on writting a big piece on our trip the past two nights...but it still has not happened yet! Last night after we got home at about 7:00pm, I unloaded the van and got the girls bathed. Nathan was still in Iowa for his second trip...so I did this all on my own and needless to say after 9 hours in the car...unloading.....and getting the girls down....I was done for the night!!!!

Today I picked up Nathan at the airport and then we had a nice lunch at Red Robbins for Father's Day. At his request we as a family watched "Cars" and then I ran into Archiver's while we were there. Anyways I had planned on updating my blog about vacation tonight but Emma Grace had other plans!!! We just spent the last 3 hours in the ER with her! See when we all had Strep Throat last week we did great on the antibiotics. The day before Emma ended hers she came down with a fever and a rash. This has been going on for about 4 days and this evening she was just misserable so we called the nurse line at our doctor's office. The doctor called us back and told us she had to be seen tonight and go to the ER. So after 3 hours they came up with pretty much nothing. They did several tests and found nothing. The DR said everything checks out on her besides the fever! When we got to the hospital it was at 103.3! He said maybe it is a virus but to give her meds around the clock and see our DR tomorrow. So that was pretty much our night. It is day 2 and I still have a pile of luggage at the foot of my stairs...LOL! Maybe it will get unpacked tomorrow???

Lazy Days of Summer

We are on our 2nd half of the Martin family vacation. Currently I am writting in our van as we travel down I-75 to Pigeon Forge, TN. We have Brandon, Austin, and Emma Grace with us, and poor Mom, Dad, and Aunt Donna have all the girls with them! It's been going fine so far with only 2 potty stops! Not too bad with two 4 year olds...a 3 year old...a 20 month old...and a pregnant person! Last night we arrived at Aunt Donna's at about 10:30pm. We stayed there for the night and left her house at about noon for our trip south.

Our trip to PA was nice. Nathan's lil sister's graduation was very nice! She was so proud to walk across that stage...after the short rain delay. Nathan's Grandma from TX as well as his grandparents from OH were all visiting for the weekend as well. The girls of course ate up thier time with Grandpa David and Grandma Carla!!! It was nice to see the family as well as celebrate Elizabeth's graduation.

I'll leave you with a few random thoughts about traveling 10 hours with toddlers....
1. NEVER drink more than a few sips of water unless you like stopping often for potty breaks!
2. Don't bring anything unless it can be divided equally among all three girls AND they all have to have the exact same color and everything!
3. Car DVD players were honestly inspired by GOD!
4. Walkie-Talkies are a great way to keep both cars entertained but make sure no one else in on your same channel!
5. When driving, make sure that you always stay ahead of my dad driving unless you plan on making your 10 hour trip a 12 hour one!
6. Toddler girls WILL have a fight to the death over lip gloss if there is only one of them!
7. It is possible to have 11 people on the trip and everyone to have a "bird" call name for the radios.....
Mama Bird - Mom
Papa Bird - Dad
Auntie Bird - Donna
Flying Eagle - Austin
Z-Bird - Zoey
Tea Party Bird - Regan
Diva Bird - Maddelyn
Papa's Eagle - Emma Grace
Double Eagle - Me
Eagle 6 - Nathan
.......................remember....we had 10 hours of driving to entertain ourselves!

I'll check back during our week down here to let you know how the trip is going!

Details of Me...

Well you can probably tell that we have been quite busy by the fact that I haven't updated in a while. We had a normally busy week last week with doing things around the house and Nathan working on campaign stuff from home. Saturday I spent the day helping the family get ready for my cousin's graduation party. That afternoon we had a great time at her party. They had a wonderful idea of doing it a bit different...which was fabulous!!! For food they had a make-it-yourself taco bar! YUM!!!! Then, instead of a cake, they had delicious sugar cookies! They are my grandma's recipe and of course terrific! Wow! You can so tell we are pregnant!!! Anything mentioning food sounds great to me! I was on 2Peas website a little bit ago and they had a crock pot recipe thread. I was reading along thinking...man...I want to try everyone of these! They all sound so good! The funniest part is that I am thinking all of this with a VERY sore throat!!! Yep, all 4 of us now have Strep Throat. NOT fun! The girls came down with it yesterday morning and poor little Emma had the Strep rash all over her chest. We got everyone on antibiotics and we hopefully should be back to normal soon. The girls are acting much better today and thier fevers are gone but Maddelyn still says her throat hurts some. Of all the times to get sick!!! We are actually on the road to PA right now. No, literally I am typing away as Nathan drives up I-71 to Erie, PA for a couple of days. His younger sis is graduating this week. We will then be leaving there on Friday to head out for our family vacation in TN. We have a cabin rented for a week in the Smoky Mountians. Everyone is so excited to have a little time off. Well, Nathan will still have to work some from the cabin but at least he will be there with us!! The kids all seem excited as well. Maddelyn tells everyone we meet that she is going to the cabin. So cute! So the past couple of days have been quite busy with 4 sick-ees....packing for a week and a half....and preparing to do all the silly stuff that has to get done before you can leave your house for that long. It's been interesting to say the least!!!

So enough about the silliness of our lives.....here is a challenge that Heather Preckel had on her blog this week.http://heatherpreckel.typepad.com/blog/

I AM: a wife, a mommy of 2 1/2 childern, a child of the King, a daughter, a sister, a scrapbooker, a friend, a blogger, lover of history, and politician's wife in the making???

I WANT: a new digital camera (Cannon Rebel would be nice! :D ), a new mattress set...my parents will understand, a clean house, my scrapbooking room organized, to be caught up on my custom orders, to read more, to spend more quiet time with the King, quiet time in general would be nice too!

I HAVE: been bless by God! He has given me such a wonderful husband and two great daughters with another baby on the way. I also have an amazing support group of extended family as well as a great dog...even thogh she runs off sometimes! Who could ask for anything more than this!

I WISH: that I could protect my daughters form the hardships in life that are yet to come. I know that these are all great learning experiences that will make them better women, but it is so hard to watch themg o through the tough times.

I HATE: when people grind there teeth! Ohh that just hurts my jaw!!!, onions, clutter of any sort, and not knowing what's going on...part of my control freak issues!

I MISS: some of the friends we left behind at Lee. I also miss my dear friend in Va especially now that she is pregnant!

I HEAR: Maddelyn humming to herself as we sit at a truckstop filling up gas. Yes...it's 12:06 am and BOTH girls are still awake!

I WONDER: why do pregnant women have to scratch all the time? It's like an uncontrolable habit to scratch...anywhere...just to scratch! UHHH! 8 more months of itching! LOL!

I REGRET: the stupid things done in life, taking the little things in life for granted such as family and day to day events with the girls, and not coming out of my shell more often to experience life to it's fullest.

I AM NOT: afraid to follow God's will for our lives, a bold person, mean, satisfied easily (or so hubby says after he spens 30 min in the gas station trying to get the lady to refill the nacho cheese so the pregnant wife can have chips and cheese at 12 am...lol!)

I DANCE: with my children when Kaytie's blog comes on or infront of the TV with the Doodlebops.

I CRY: when I get stressed out, at the end of romantic movies, at the end of a good book, and more often when I am PG,

I AM NOT ALWAYS: perfect even though I try way to hard to be, in control of things which is also hard for me to handle, and the best with going up to new people and introducing myself.

I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: anything scrapbook related, except I can't sew on layouts.

I WRITE: on my blog; in my emails; and on 2peas message boards

I CONFUSE: hmmm? prbably a lot of people?

I NEED: security..in many different forms, but I just need to know that it IS all going to be ok

I SHOULD: spend less time scrapbboking and more time being silly with my girls, read more, and deepen my level of quiet time with God.

I START: too many things at one time!

I FINISH: off every box of popsicles or carton of Breyer's strawberry icecream that enters our house!