Ebay Queen!!!

LOL! That's what I feel like today...an Ebay Queen! Have been listing my but off the past two days and have a total of 34 items on right now! I have a few scrapbooking items on, like a custom album and a custom layout, but most are clothing items. You can check it out if you want to at my ebay.... http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyeBay

Besides Ebaying, Nathan went to his Bible Study tonight and Maddelyn had a friend from church over tonight. They had a blast, but Emma doesn't do well playing 3rd fiddle. I guess we need to work on that one.

Not too much to write about tonight, so I think I'll do some random things that make me smile:

1. Spending time with my hubby!

2. Eating anything with fruit and ice.

3. Sitting back and looking at one of my layout after I just completed it.

4. Knowing that I am raising a little girl who is just as big as a perfectionist as me...Maddelyn!

5. Falling asleep while listening to it raining outside.

6. Seeing the first snow of the season.

7. When the man and women get together at the end of romantic movies.

8. Finding new ribbon to buy or my scrapbooking collection!

9. Seeing our new baby for the first time in the ultrasound.

My very own B&B!

Well yesterday was quite a busy day for us Martins. We spent the entire day moving bedroom furniture and re-organizing. Sounds like fun huh? Well it was for the crazy perfectionist/organazional freaks like me!! See, when we moved from Tn to Oh I got rid of our old matresses. So, when I left my parents house to move here, we had a bed, but no matresses for the new house. My parents said we could just take their guest room bed until we bought our own set. Well with the campaign and now Nathan working on the presidential campaign...we hadn't been shopping yet. So, we finally bought our new matresses...they are sooooo comfy! They were delivered yesterday, but in order to have a place for them we had to set our bed frame up and make a new place for it since the headboard is so tall. The bed itself was given to me as an heirloom. It is a cast iron bed with the big brass knobs on each bed post. The bed was what my great-grandparents set up their household with when they were married. So I now have my beautiful antique bed back with new comfy matresses to match!! The most exciting part is that I finally have my room organized as well. See when Nathan started traveling so much on the campaign trail I said that I wanted his office for my scrap room and he could have the studio area in our bedroom for his desk. It all worked out fine with trading rooms...and I now have a WHOLE ROOM to scrap.....but he ever re-organized the mess of office supplies that came upstairs. He is gone so much that he just never got around to it. Well he finally set up his office yesterday and I love it!!! I took a couple of pictures of our new little B&B room! Isn't so cute! Very "Mandi-ish" huh?

Well we are off on the road again tonight. I am attending a 24 hour crop at the store and Nathan is meeting up with some old college friends for a guy's night out. The girls are headed to their grandparents house to play with the twins, so everyone should have a pretty fun evening.

It was so funny, last night at Dinner Maddelyn was so heart-broken when she discovered she wasn't a twin. She was talking about her daddy being a baby inside her grandma's belly....with baby #3 on the way this is a common subject - who was in whose belly. Anyways she then said "like when me and Emma were twins in Mommy's belly." We of course corrected her saying that they aren't twins and she was so upset and determined that they were! I told her that I only had one baby in my belly at a time and that Aunt Thelma and Aunt Cathy had two babies in their belly and that the girls are both twins because they are the same age. It still did not satisfy her. She wanted to be a twin just like her "friends" - cousins are! Nathan and I thought it was hilarious! Only in a family like ours.....(Maddelyn has 2 sets of twin girl cousins, both a year older than her) can a child be heart-broken when she learns that she isn't a twin! Too funny!

My First CHA!!!

Well we are back form our week in Chicago. We are all a little weary from our travels but the show went well. A2Z did quite well with new orders as well as making an appearance. We had so many new people stopping by and commenting on both the booth itself and our 8 paper lines. You can see some pictures of the booth by visiting Heather's blog at http://heatherpreckel.typepad.com/ My pictures look very similar to these so I figured since hers were already loaded up I'd just direct you there. I did upload pictures of some of the layouts and projects I made up to display in the booth. The altered items are in the new Carefree line from A2Z. The layout of Emma is in the new line Giggle and the layout "cousins" is in the new line Wish. I just love the photo of Lil' Emma Grace on that layout. It captured her true self...silly and full of life! What's so funny is that the color version of the photo shows her with a snotty nose and a big bruise on her forehead, but all of that blended in when I turned it to b&w. Isn't it funny what you can hide in a photo!! LOL!

My first experience at CHA was a blast! There were a total of 6 of us in the A2Z booth including Heather Preckel, Heidi Lacy, their mom Ronda, Judith who is on the design team with me, and Amber who designed two of the paper lines. We had so much fun together while of course selling paper! I was a bit overwhelmed with the whole experience though! LOL! There were 3 different covention floors all filled with craft booths, most of which were scrapbooking. I think I got burnt out on seeing all of the new products! Mandi admitting that she was ever burnt out on anything scrapbooking related??? HaHa! I saw tons of new products that I can't wait to get my fingers on once they arrive in stores! I would have to say that my favorites of the week were (A2Z's new papers of course!!!), the American Craft Rub-ons, Bazzil Flowers, 3 Bugs in a Rug Papers, Lil Davis Flocked Ribbons, EVERYTHING in the Maya Roads Ribbon Booth, Heidi Swaps new Bling circles, Crate Paper's new line...I think I may have not been overwhelmed as I thought! I remembered more scrapbooking products than I thought I would! Good for me...bad for Nathan and my scrap'n budget! LOL!

While in Chicago we did get to do a little sight-seeing as well. We went down town on Monday and did the Michigan Ave. shopping thing. It took a lot of will power to walk out of American Girl empty handed! I think we'll wait until Maddelyn is a little bit older? While in Chicago I did get to meet Sarah Cox...Nathan's boss' wife. We stopped by their condo to meet her and their daughter Julieann....adorable little girl! The amount of hair she had put little Emma Grace to shame! :D Sarah was so sweet welcoming us into her home. She and John have a beautiful view out of thier living room windows. I have always said that the city was not for me, but I understand how one could fall in love with it with a view like that. Sarah said that she is interested in beginning to scrapbook, so maybe I can convince her to become a fellow Pea? Wouldn't be great to have a First Lady on the 2Peas board??? LOL!

Life here is trying to get back on track now that the girls and I are home. Maddelyn and Emma are very excited to see Daddy tomorrow afternoon when he returns from his trip to Iowa. I have spent the day trying ot unpack and relax a bit before another busy weekend. We have the final sessions of our bible study/marriage retreat this Saturday and the store is having a 24 hour crop night on Friday to celebrate Heidi's birthday. So basically by the time Sunday rolls around...I should be a happy camper! LOL! I don't do well without sleep. I'm one of those totally non-morning people who doesn't talk until AFTER my shower!!! Ask Nathan, when I'm tired it's best to just leave me be. I know it's not the most flattering fact, but it's me!

I'll try to get some pics of my ultrasound tomorrow and post those. I keep forgetting. Until the next time.....

Off to CHA!!!

Just a super quick update on the family.....we arrived home safely last night from our week in South Carolina. We all had a blast but the highlights of the trip were swimming for Maddelyn, visiting Boone Hall for me ( where the movie North and South was filmed) and meeting up with my college suite mate Erin Bailey. Sure there was a lot more that went on between all of that but for lack of time that is a sum up of our travels. I posted a few pics of visiting with Erin. It was so nice to see her agian and I can't believe that she is entering into her 3rd year of Medical School!

I leave in the morning for CHA!!! The girls are going ot PA to visit the grandparents and Nathan is off to campaign again. I will be spending a week in Chicago with A2Z Essentials setting up, working the show, and tearing down again. I am so excited as this is my first CHA. I also have 5 altered projects and 2 layouts going up as displays in the booth....so very awesome!!!! I will post pics of them when we get back as well...for lack of time!

We had our first ultrasound today of Martin baby #3! He/She is doing great and posed just perfect for us! I will take some pics of the photos with my NEW DIGITAL CAMERA and post them when I get back. Such a cutie.

Like how I threw in I got a new camera! Yep, hubby spoiled me with my anniv. gift this year! I got a Canon SD450! Woo-hoo!!! So, you'll be seeing many more pics than ever! Remember to thank my hubby for that!

South Carolina

Well we made it to South Carolina safe and sound...well sorta. The safe part for sure, but sound???? We left Mansfield at about 2:00 pm Sunday afternoon. The trip totalled about 11 hours so we arrived in McCormick, South Carlina between 12:30 and 1:00 am. All was going fine. We were quite tired but ready to settle into the lake resort that we had reservations at. One problem...there was NOBODY there? Yes, there were cars around from guests, but there was no one around at the main desk for us to check in at? What were we going to do? We were all exausted and needed to find somewhere to sleep for the few remaining hours that night because Nathan had to be back on the road for his first meeting the next morning at 9:00. So, we decided to go down the road and see what we could find as far as a hotel. McCormick is a VERY tiny town...Willlard has more to it if you can believe that!!! So we find the only hotel in town and decide that since we are in the middle of no where and it's 1am we will just get a room there for a few hours and in the morning go back to the resort. Nathan goes to check in and I think...hmmm...that's wierd he paid for the room at a sliding glass window to the office, maybe it's just a southern thing? Then, I know we are in trouble when he comes walking back with the room key and the TV remote!!! Yep, they keep them in the office! Well we soon found out it was because the remote was pretty much the only thing in the room that was possible for you so steal. There was one queen bed, a sort of night stand, a TV bolted to a TV stand on the wall, One towel and wash cloth, a sink, and a tiny bathroom. That was it, no kidding, it was AWEFUL! As I told my mom, the best way to sum it up on the kinda place we stayed at is that in the bathroom there was a window in the wall...mind you the walls were all concrete blocks painted white. The window's curtain consisted of a pillow case that had a rope strung through the top and was nailed to the wall. I am not joking you!!! I am almost ashamed to tell everyone of our no-tell-motel! The worst part of it was that after we left that morning at 7am...the earliest we could get into the resort....Nathan told me that they charged us by the hour to stay the previous night! UHHHH! That made it even worse! We stayed at a by the hour motel! Nathan said we laugh someday about it???

So, then the saga continues at the resort. The front desk lady said that we were not to come in until Monday...great...so they didn't even have our townhouse ready for us yet. She said we could stay in one of the resort hotel rooms until our town house was ready. The maids got there at 8:30 and would start with our house. So...we all marched upstairs to the temporary room and slept a couple of hours since needless to say we didn't sleep to much at the no-tell-motel. So finally we got into our actual townhouse at 10:30 Monday morning. Uhhhh! What an experience. As soon as our bags were in the door Nathan took off for his first meeting. the girls and I started unpacking and then spent the day around the resort checking out things and swimming that afternoon.

Yesterday Nathan had meetings in the afternoon and was back at the resort that evening so we once again took the girls swimming. Maddelyn was as usually apprehensive about swimming and Emma was fearless. She almost worries me because she just jumps in whether you're there or not. We would be climbing down the steps to get into the pool and Emma would just keep on walking down even though she couldn't touch! She isn't afraid of anything compared to Maddelyn who the whole time she is in the water has a death grip on you. After we got out of our suits, we went to the resorts resteraunt and ate outside. It was so nice to sit and look out on the lake during dinner. We finished the day with a drive around the lake community and milkshakes at Hatdee's. Maddelyn said that she had a fun day and that the best part was swimming...even though she wouldn't let you let go of her!

I posted a few pictures of the resort from their website. I hope they turn out. If not you can check out thier site at http://www.savannahlakesresort.us/fishing.html Of course I forgot my digital camera so these will have to do for now. When we got home I will try ot scan in the layouts I have been woking on for CHA. We have some very cute papers out this show from 4 GREAT designers! It's amazing what talent these ladies have! I know that Heather Preckel...the design team coordinator has been posting some sneak peaks on her blog if you want to check them out. http://heatherpreckel.typepad.com/blog/

Happy Late 4th!!!

Hey all, sorry for the late 4th post. We spent the weekend with my Mom's sister...Aunt Donna and Uncle Clyde...for the weekend. We had a great time with my parents and nefew Austin as well. Emma ate up time being spoiled by her grandpa of course and Maddelyn had so much fun playing with Donna's dollhouse and Wizzard of Oz Dolls. Donna told Maddelyn this weekend that when we buy a house the dollhouse would be hers. I don't think she quite understood, but I know that she will love it. My aunt and I spent several summers decorating it with wallpaper, carpet, hardwood floors and furniture and it has always been a favorite of mine. Even now I still sneak upstairs to rearrange the dolls. I wouldn't quite say that I still play with the 3 story white pillar mansion, but I do love to look at all the pieces each time we visit. I just hope that my two girls have as many great memories with it through the years as I did.

I finally got back the pics from my cousin's Kaytie's graduation. I kinda stole these off her blog...thanks Kate....because I have not taken the time to scan mine in the computer yet. The pics are of her and her parents, her with my grandparents, and with Maddelyn and my twin cousins Morgan and Cathern. Doesn't she just look so cute in her cap and gown! Congrats again Katers and have fun at Lee U!! p.s. If you bring home a guy with a ring...make sure he isn't a southerner! LOL! Just Kidding!

Nathan arrived hom form NH last night and we are spending the next few days trying to play catch up around here and pack for SC. We will leave Sunday after church and come back the next Sunday. As I had mentioned before the campaign is getting Nathan a condo/townhouse there instead of several different hotel rooms across the state. This way the girls and I can go with him. It is getting to the point that if we don't go with Daddy, we don't see Daddy. The townhouse sounds really nice though. It is in a resort community, so we will have the normal swimming pool, lake, and such there to entertain us while Nathan travels around the state campaigning for Mr. John Cox.

Once we get back on the 16th, I have my first OB appt. on the 17 (I'm 10 weeks now!!!) and then on the 18th the kids go to PA and I go to Chicago for CHA! While we are gone, Nathan will be in Iowa and NH. So basically we are pretty packed for the month of July!!!

Well I will check in agian soon. Sorry for the delay between posts, I guess that is what summer does to me blogg'n. Off to a BBQ with some church friends!!!

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!

A New Bible Study...

Well, we are back from the great outdoors, if you can call it that! I mean how naturalistic is air conditioning...the in-camper potty...and watching movies in the camper when it rains? NOT that I'm complaining though! That is plenty outdoorsy for Mandi! We all had a wonderful time! The kids loved every minute of it! Maddelyn, Zoey, and Regan played great together. Sure we had a few....I had it first moments, but when you have a 3 yr old and twin 4 yr olds for an entire weekend that's not bad. Maddelyn did end up learning to ride her bike! She was so proud! She still needs to work on it though. She got the pedaling thing down but can't do that and watch were she is going at the same time. She is kinda like me when I am typing....gotta look at what I'm doing, not where I'm going! :D

Nathan got in at about midnight last night from his Iowa trip. He was of course tried from the long drive but you could see the excitement in his eyes from being back on the campaign trail! He is home for about 3 weeks and then he will be headed back to Iowa again. Nathan was able to spend the morning with us at the camper and even watch Maddelyn show off her new bike riding skills. she's so proud! Emma also learned a new thing this weekend. Her latest phrase is..."O-K!" She is so cute saying over and over again!

Tonight was the first session of a new bible studdy that Nathan and I are involved in. They have us split into two groups. The men are doing a book called "Wild at Heart" and us ladies are doing the book "Captivating." I will be sure to update you on the study as well as how the book in general is. I have heard it is a must read for every Christian woman. The books will be in this week as well as a journal to go along with them. Nathan seems to be excited about his book/study as well. It is not only nice to spend some time getting into God's Word a little deeper, but also nice to get to know some of the other men/women in our new church.

This week should be anouther busy one as always! Nathan and I each have our plates full of things we need to get accomplished, he with the campaign and I with custom scrapbook orders. On top of all of that I would like to get the landscaping done this week by mulching and planting the new Hostics I bought. We will have to wait and see what the weather holds though. This newly PG mommy to be is NOT going out in 90 degree weather to mulch! LOL! We also have my dear cousin Kaytie's graduation this weekend. I can't believe she is done with school. Man that makes me feel old! I remember the day she was born...granted I was only 6, but I still remember it!

My Little Escape Artist!

We are back form visiting my parents and I have learned Emma has a few tricks up her sleeves! I put both girls down for thier afternoon naps today(...they share a room..) and after a few minutes I heard them giggling! I went in and found them both in Maddelyn's bed? Hmm? I had placed Emma in her own crib? Maddelyn said she used a large box of books placed beside the crib as a stepping stool to get out. Uhh! Emma! So, I moved the box, no problem. I placed them both back in thier own beds and left the room again. Not 2 minutes later Maddelyn is yelling "Mom..she did it again!" No way! So I open the door and there is Emma running around the room. So this time I put her in the crib and then hide behind the crib's foot board to watch and see what she is doing. That little booger walked over to where the foot board meets the crib rail......she grabs ahold of the foot board....hikes one leg over the rail...pulls herself up to straddling the rail.....huals both legs over the rail...and then just kinda free-fall-jumps to the floor! WOW! And this is my tiny Emma Grace and a full sized crib! Who would have known! So, needless to say neither girl got a nap today! How am I going to keep her in bed to take naps? Actually when I put them down tonight I brought the play pen upstairs to put her in. It has a netting side and nothing for her to grab ahold of to fling herself over the edge with. Unbelievable!!!

We got an email form Nathan's Aunt Tabith today and found out they are expecting baby # 5 January 27th! How funny is that! She was pregnant with Lydia when I was pregnant with Emma Grace! Feels like we are trying to keep up with the Jones' on how fast we can have those baby girls! I think that thier #5 is beating our #3 though! It's nice though because Tabitha is such a great resource/bank of knowledge for me on anything to do with babies/nursing/deliveries and all that falls between! Congrats Tabitha!

We are leaving in the morning to go camping with my parents, brother, and his kids. It should be a lot of fun. The weather is supposed to be beautiful so I am hoping to have a chance to teach Maddelyn to ride her bike. She officially knows how to pedal now, it's just confusing because on her bike if she does it the wrong way it puts the brakes on. We'll work on it though. I think we might take her rollerskates too. She is so looking forward to playing with her twin cousins Zoey and Regan.

Nathan should be home on Monday. He is still out in Iowa on the campaign trail.

So everyone, have a great holiday weekend and remember to THANK A VETERAN!!!!

BIG NEWS!!!

Well everyone in blogg'n land...we have big news in our family! We are now expecting baby # 3!!! He or she should make their arrival about January 30th of next year. Nathan and I are tickled pink (or blue!) about the news! It was funny to have to call him out in Iowa to tell him the big news though.

Oh, he is in Iowa because he has a new job. He has been hired on to be the National Coordinater for John Cox's Presidential Campaign. We are so very excited about him being given this opportunity! GOD IS SO GOOD! So, Nathan is busy this summer traveling around to different states working on the campaign. With him traveling so much it leaves quite a bit of time for me to scrapbook...which is always good! :D I have quite a bit of custom orders to fill for ebay, so that's good!

Wow, what a wonderful time in our lives right now! God has been so faithful to us not only blessing us with a wonderful job this week, but now a baby as well! Yes, we had a rough time after hearing the campaign results, but it was all for HIS glory and we were ok with that. We were just waiting for God to open that next door in our lives, which it looks like he has with this new job and another baby on the way. PRAISE GOD!

The Price One Pays for a Scapbooking Mommy!

T.V. ZOMBIES!!!! Yes, I guess this is the price one pays for having a mom who scrapbooks. You know all those perfect little families that have layouts showing the mothers PERFECTLY clean scrapbooking room with her children playing carelessly in the back yard???? Not true! LOL! This is what we call reality scrapbooking. This is what we call mom-is-scrabooking-dad-is-doing-computer-work!!! This is why I generally try to scrapbook during nap time and clean or such while the girls are up. This way only periodically the girls have "Tube-time!" How funny they look though sitting there all glued to the tv! And Emma! Such a young age and she still gets drawn in by the TV! In all honestly this really is not an all the time thing! Please don't turn me into Children's Services for scrapbooking while my kids are raising themselves! Funny thing is...you know I'll scrapbook these pictrues of my kids entertaining themselves while I was scrapbooking! LOL!

Random Facts About Me!

Well after a long day of household chores..how about something kinda off the wall?

Random Facts About Me:

1. I am fanatical about my covers in bed. No I mean I will actually wake up and fix them at 2am and then go back to sleep (well usually it is my dear sweet hubby getting up to fix them! :P). They have to be all nice, straight, and tucked in. I know Obsessive Compulsive!

2. I don't like chocolate..it can cover something else like a with a Butterfinger, but that's pushing it.

3. I'm the baby of the family.

4. I get really sick around people who smoke...allergies

5. I LOVE mayo but hate onions on my burgers.

6. My favorite color is pink...anyone who knows me is saying duh by now!

7. My all time favorite cartoon was the ole school Strawberry Shortcake. (My girl's nursery was in it.)

8. I am deathly afraid of snakes.

9. My 2 dream jobs are: Walmart cashier (don't ask) and owning my own scrapbooking retreat bed-n-breakfast.

10. I have no idea why snakes were not too late to miss the ARK??? Shoot!

11. I was born in the 80's...my name is Mandi...and my mom own's the Barry Manelow Greatest Hit's CD Set----> Coincidence????? I think not!

12. I'm a boon-docks girl who has gone SNIPE HUNTING!

13. I come from a long line of terrific cooks and can't cook worth a hoot! It was so bad that my hubby had heard about my family's wonderful cooking even before he met me! I guess he picked the wong family member to marry! LOL!

14. I LOVE CSI!

15. My hubby wants to be President! I think I could pull of the whole Laura thing.......NOT!

16. Laura Bush is my hero...well yes and no. I think she's great and a wonderful person to inspire to be, but she has a few political views that don't align with mine. So setting aside the politics...(like you can do that with a First Lady???) .....she is my hero!

17. My scrap'n style is very girly, lots of pinks, bright colors, tons of ribbons and rub-ons, and very geometrical.

18.I have no idea how I came up with what my scrap'n style is...but it sounded good!

19. When I was little and we would all play legos.....I would sit and sort them all out by color and then shapes while everyone else was building stuff. I still love to sort things. I guess it is the OCD again. Maybe that's why I like to make lists...clean..and organize? Hmm?

20. Speaking of cleaning...am I the only one who about once every few months has a midnight cleaning blitz? My hubby laughs at me. It will be about 10-11 oclock at night and I will be ending my day when I realize what a disaster my house is. So so I start picking up. Well one thing about me is that I have to finish whatever I start, so I keep cleaning and then sorting, and then I end up cleaning a closet or re-organizing a cuboard. Hubby is sitting there at 1am laughing his head off! But If I don't finish what I started I will lay in bed and think about it until the next morning. He says it is one of the funny bonuses of marrying me...midnight cleansweeps!

21. I still have not found one person who can tell me why my hubby and I can't share a mansion in Paradise??? I don't want my own! And what is Heaven if we can't stay married? So many questions so little time here on Earth. I'm gonna have me a big ole talk when I get to Heaven...lots of questions. Do you think God will ever get the point where he will say...Mandi put your hand over your mouth???

22. When I was little I talked ALOT so my parents would get tired of me talking litterally just to hear myself making noise. So we would be driving along, and I'd be just blabbering away..... and they would say....Mandi put your hand over your mouth. So, there I'd be just a little thing in the back seat riding along with my whole hand covering my mouth. Oh the memories. Now my whole family just thinks it's a gut buster...funny thing is I am tempted to try it on Maddelyn somedays!!!

HAPPY MOMMY DAY!!!!!
........As Maddelyn has been saying all day. Today started out wonderfully with my dear, sweet hubby and two princesses waking me up with flowers, cards, and breakfast in bed! How precious! See...I told you I married a prince! We then did nursery at church this morning and had a nice lunch at Fridays. After visiting my Grandma...her first Mother's Day without Grandpa...we then headed over to my parents for a cookout. My very first watermelon of the season! Mmmmm! We also stopped and picked up Liberty from my aunt's house. She had been keeping her and the pups while we were in the midst of the campaign. All 6 puppies easily found homes last week. It was sad to see them go, but 7 labs in one house is way too much!!! So Liberty is back in the house again and we now have our happy family back together. The girls missed her so much...well we did just as much, I think?

Here are some pics of my Maddie Jo helping me "garden" the other day. I was working on the landscaping getting it ready for Spring and she was pulling up weeds with her new gloves. She was helping out by picking the "yellow flowers" for Mommy. Well, she was supposed to get only the dandilions and when I turned around she had a big red tulip by the stem with two hands!! AHH! LOL! She is SUCH a helper! :D

There are also a few pictures of Emma after her hard day of work in the yard. She couldn't even make it through lunch without a little snooze!

Our whirlwind lives....

Well, as many of you know by now, these past two weeks have been a whirlwind for us. On top of the last minute campaign rush, we also had the passing of my Grandpa Hartz. It was something very sad but we had known it was coming for some time. We do have peace though to know that he is no longer suffering and is in a MUCH better place now. It was a beautiful service that was held for him. Nathan was honored to be able to participate in the military funeral for him by being an honor guard and firing the rounds. I have pictures that I will post later on, of the military salute as well as my grandma receiving the flag in his honor.

Well I'm not going to go into too deep of a speal, but Nathan did lose the election. As I told him, it was a race well run and I am so proud of him for how he conducted himself. He was able to walk away form the race with not having lost his integrety and not having said something about another candidate he would have been afraid to tell his children in the years to come. Yes, I did marry a wonderful man who not only was man enough to step up to bat and run...but he ran the race God would have wanted him to. I'm so proud of my hubby! :D So now our days are filled with trying to find jobs and still seeking that "normal" life....haha! We are just waiting for God to open that door to lead us into the next stage of our lives.

Today we went out to Kingwood Center and took photos of the girls with the flowers. The photos tured out pretty nice as seeing how Maddelyn was crying and whining between each of the pictures, saying she was done and wanted her treat NOW! Yes, she thought, ok...one pic and I deserve the icecream Mommy promised. It doesn't work like that! I would have to say though that I am pretty proud of the photos we did get. This was my first time doing a photo shoot with my girls outside of pics at the house or such. They actually do look much better in person and not scanned into the computer. I have to say without bragging on myself..not too shabby! :D I'll post more later in the week.

Campaign Update...Prayers Needed!

Just a quick update here at campaign headquarters.....Well, as many of you have heard, this has been a trying weekend for our family. Smack-Dab in the middle of crunch time, we got a phone call that my grandpa was in the ER after his heart stopped at Kidney Dialysis Friday. We had just packed out bags to head to the other side of the district to do a bit of door-to-door that day, but instead stopped everything and headed to the ER. Come to find out they had put him on a vent...not what the family wanted...and according to the doctors he was not expected to make it. My grandpa has struggled with Kidney and heart failure, Diabetes, amputees, as well as other things for many years. Anyways, after discussing it with the family and by him responding to the doctor's questions by squeezing his hand.....it was decided that they would stop all treatments and give comfort care only to him. Basically Grandpa is just being kept comfortable until his time to go. They removed the vent and he was admitted to the hospital. He has been put on O2 and he is being given morphine. So, basically we all said out goodbye's...cried a lot...and now we are just waiting. He is non-responsive now, but we still just sit and wait with him. Sorry for the depressing news, but in our family it is a bitter-sweet even. It is a hard thing to let him go, but we know that he is headed for glory where he won't suffer any longer.

This has made the final few days in the campaign quite unique. Nathan is balancing being there at the hospital with trying to run the campaign. I will have to brag on him a bit and say he has been wonderful through all of this. He took Friday and Saturday off just to be with me and the family at the hospital. Only after my family told him to go did he finally agree to go back on the campaign trail today. Not many men would do that. He was willing to give up all of the campaign time and show us that his heart was where his mouth was by putting family first. Thanks Nathan......what a wonderful man of God you are!!!

So, as we head into the final days of this campaign, I ask for your prayers not only for my family as they prepare for the passing of my grandpa, but also for the will of god to be played out in our lives with this campaign. No matter what results come in on Tuesday night, we know that we were there for a purpose and we followed what God asked us to do. It was all for His Glory...win or loss. Thanks to all of my dear friends and family for supporting us with all of your actions as well as prayers these past few months. We couldn't have made it through with out you!

New A2Z Essentials Papers

These are just a few projects that I will be teaching classes on at the Store in Norwalk. They are having a National Scrapbooking Day Crop, and asked me to teach on the new A2Z Essentials Lines. Of course I was happy to do so! Any chance I get to play with those cute papers is fine by me! If you like them, you can check out their website http://www.geta2z.com and see where you can pick some up at!

Well enough for now. this was just a fly-by post to show you what new papers A2Z has out. Back to the campaign now. It's 11:00pm and I am headed back downstairs to put together MORE yard signs. Yes, we ordered 1000 and all of them have to have the metal stakes put in by hand before we can put them up. LOL! The joys of campaigning! ;)

Crunch Time!

Well as you can tell with my lack of posts, we have been busy! So busy infact that the kids are visiting their Grandpa and Grandma in PA for a week and a half while Mommy and Daddy run all over the 4th district! To give you an idea of just how many doors we will be knocking on...hand's we'll shake....and people we'll meet, we have 20,000 pieces of literature, 1000 yard signs, and 29,000 phone calls to make in these last 2 weeks! Basically I am glad we have good walking shoes! I would have to say Nathan has done quite a bit more than me. Our schedule is so crazy that 6 hours of sleep at night for him is a good night!

Nathan had his second forum/debate last night. He did wonderfully! You can't tell it by this morning's news paper article coverage...but he stomped all over his opponent! In a political way of course! :P Hey, I figure if his opponent can do all sorts of nasty things behind out backs like spread false rumors....drive by our house and take pictures while I'm home alone with the kids.....call my husband less than Christian in an email forwarded from his campaign manager....try to get people to rescend their endorsements by talking filth about my hubby, Nathan can put him to shame by bring out the TRUTH infront of everyone including the media! Hey...if you want to play hardball, make your sure your slate is clean first! Basically we're only exposing they guy for who he really is.....not nice at all! >:( So if anyone is interested in learning the TRUTH about my wonderful hubby they can check out his website at http://www.martin4congress.comrtin4congress.com He is a great guy and I am very proud to say I'm a Congressional candidate's wife!






Enough politics...here are some adorable pics of my girls playing with our puppies!
They are HUGE now! They'll be turning 6 weeks on Sunday. They are finally getting to that playful stage! So very cute! Emma is hilarious with them because he fingers are at a perfect height for them to chew on. So, she'll go "No! Ouch! No!" Sure enough the puppies don't listen! Their little teeth are sharp though!

I am sure that this will be the last post until after May 2nd. We will be headed out on the campaign trail this weekend for our final week. Please keep Nathan as well as this campaign in your prayers. We definitely could use them. It is going to be an uphill battle, but we are here for whatever God wants us to do. If it's His will, we will win...if not...we won't. Either way we are following His direction and running this campaign as He would see fit.

Happy Easter from Campaign Headquarters!

I can't believe he's turned me into a campaign wife! LOL! We spent all day Saturday doing my first ever door-to-door campaigning for my dh! That was a new experience for me! We spent from 10:00am until 5:00pm knocking on doors and handing out literature! Yep..LOTS of walking and quite a bit of sun! Actually Nathan, Steve (our campaign manager), and I all ended up burnt! What was funny was that today at church our youth pastor's wife asked me if we had been on vacation? I was like no??? She said well you've gotten quite a bit of sun? I laughed and said no, this is from campaigning door-to-door! LOL! While most 24 year olds are planning how to treat the sunburns they received from Spring Break in Fl......Mandi is treating her campaign wounds! LOL! The best part is that in the next 15 days until MAY SECOND, we will be doing this same thing just about everyday! Lets just say that we have at least 20,000 pieces of literature to pass out before May 2nd! Yep...I'm buying a BIG bottle of sunscreen! :D

Now about the real reason to blog today. I just wanted to say a huge Happy Easter to you guys! We had a wonderful day going to service this morning and then a day with family at a cookout. The food and fellowship were terrific. We had fun hiding the eggs for all of the grandkids. It was so much fun for them that we actually collected them back up and re-hid them for them! You can do that when you have 6 little girls 4 yrs and under! They loved it! We also spent time riding a 4-wheeler and doing target practice! Yes, Nathan helped me shoot for the 1st time. I was so proud that I hit the target withthe 22, with my first shot! Wooo-hooo me a girly-girl. I should have stopped there though because that was all I hit for the rest of the afternoon! Shhh! Just let on like Mandi hit the target on her first shot! :D

I just wanted to say how thankful I am today to be a beliver. How blessed we are to have such a loving God to send His son to die at Calvary for Me??? I like the Christian song out now...can't remember the title or artist...that says that we picture Christ with his curly brown hair, blue eyes, and perfect skin as he dies on the cross. I rejoice that I had the opportunity to see the Passion of the Christ 2 years ago. It really hit home for me just how much Christ did suffer to pay the greatest price for MY sin! After walking away from the movie I was honestly speechless (a huge deal for anyone who knows Mandi >>>>yes I said nothing! ) It left me seeing the cross in a whole new way. A human way. I saw it as his mother peered up at him as she watched her first born be tourchured in a way that you wouldn't treat a animal...and then horrifically die. She saw Him pay that price for us. That tore at a mother's heart. So as you see Easter come to a close tonight. Make sure that you see beyond the "pretty crucifiction painting" that hangs at the front of your church, and see how it really was...a place of sacrafice for all of mankind. He died and rose again for US!

Practicing her art with a green marker and her sister!

Well I guess you can say that Nathan's campaign is allowing out children to experiment with their creativeness? We were all full swing in to tying to get a 500 piece mailing out last night when Emma comes climbing down the stairs. She is literally GREEN from head to toe! That is one of those parent moments when you know that someone should be in trouble, but you can't stop laughing to find out who. Well, the majority of the marker was on her legs, belly, and most of all her toes ( I think they were trying to paint Emma's toenails?) Anyways, Emma doesn't seem to mind at all and Maddelyn is proud as a peach of her newest "living scrapbook" as we like to say. It is not a rare thing for Emma to end up with stickers...glue stick or the sort on her. We asked Maddelyn what happened and her answer was "Emma did it." Well after a bit more investigation we found out that Maddelyn's bed, sheets, and pillow case were also covered in green stripes. So, Maddelyn then admitted that she did Emma's belly, legs, and feet...but Emma did the bed and her face. LOL! Too funny! It's kinda of obvious which child was to blame when Maddelyn had a few green marks on her...most were on her RIGHT HAND (drawing hand) and Emma was covered! LOL! After two baths, Emma is still a faded greenish color. Well I guess we will have to wait on those Easter pictures until AFTER Easter! The joys of being a mommy of toddlers!