Christmas is Coming...

My latest hobby has become this:

A felt Christmas stocking for Baby C. I made one for Micah when he was a baby. (I would show you, but it is packed away.) These stocking are kind of a tradition in our family. They are the ones with the sequins all over them. My mom's stocking as a kid was one of these and my grandma made all of us kids one. So I am carrying on the tradition for our kids. It is kind of fun to have a homemade stocking rather than a store bought one. The kit has a gazillion steps. Lots of cut outs, stitches, etc so it will take me a while. But this is a before picture and I will show you more along the way. I know you are thrilled!

Martin's First Yard Sale

Today we had our first yard sale. We decided to go in with another family and do it together. The sale took place at our house. The driveway and yard was covered with many items that we "had to have" and at some point lost their flair. A lemonade stand and Rice Krispie treats topped it all off!

So we started the sale at 8 because with 5 total children we figured it would be hard to get up and running. However, being the rookies that we are to the world of yard sales, little did we know that our start time really doesn't matter. We had people at our house before 7AM! These people are crazy. So our friends pull up and we start frantically putting stuff out to sell. So the four of us adults try juggling putting stuff out, negotiating with people, checking out customers, keeping watch that everything is paid for, and keeping track of whose money is whose, oh yeah, and watching kids. You try standing firm with a ridiculous offer while you have, "MOMMY, MOMMY!" shouting at you in the background. I found myself just saying, "whatever!" to these people as they walk away with a ridiculous deal. I mean this lady wanted a really nice pair of cropped pants from The LOFT for a dollar. I mean, come on, I paid like $50 for them. Yes, I'm a little disappointed that I can't wear them anymore and you can, but a dollar. Just give me three for it. I got a dollar.
The first hour was insane. My friend Janalee and I just kept laughing as we knew we practically were giving stuff away. So we gave ourselves a pep talk to be more hard-nosed. We had about 3 waves of people throughout the morning. Once we got all our stuff out of the house, we could settle more and enjoy it. All this to say, it was so worth it and we made around $280 for each family. Not bad for your first yard sale! It is kind of sad that we had that much junk! The best part is that we sold most of our stuff and took the rest to Goodwill. Nothing came back in my house!
Oh, the other drama was that our signs were mysteriously disappearing off the street corner. At least three people came and told us that an Asian man was taking them down. This man is our neighbor and in our house is known as Mr. Miyagi. He is an old man that walks in the neighborhood and has some strange behaviors. He "checks" everyones mailbox by looking in it, walks up and down peoples driveways, and apparently can't stand yard sale signs so he takes them down. Ed, my persistant husband, kept driving down and putting more up all morning. Mr. Miyagi isn't going to ruin our yard sale!

It has begun...

I love the fall. I love the weather, the pretty leaves, football, kids back in school, decorating my home with oranges, reds, and yellows, and cute little pumpkins, the smell of pumpkin bread, camping, my birthday...my husband loves it more though.
Tonight is the first event of the fall for the Martin family. It is Fantasy football draft night. Every year for the last nine years my husband and all his college friends (with some new additions) gather for their draft. It is a HUGE deal! It first started with a required jacket, tie and boxers, Dr. Pepper, Ritz Crackers, and a podium in a dorm room. Now it has transpired to an internet draft. No ties, no jacket, (yes boxers), no podium, no dorm room, but yes there are still Ritz and DPs. It started at exactly 8:45 and will go all night. There are 17 rounds with 16 players and 2 minutes per player for each pick. Yeah, it will go on forever!
The wives usually have a big part in it. We get to offer our suggestions (at times they are actually taken), keep track of the positions they have picked, take note of bye weeks...we are the secretaries. This year I'm taking a different route. I'm not involved! I actually kind of like it. We'll see how his team does this year without me!
Anyway, as I lay in my sweet bed, while my husband is sitting by his laptop on the floor with a lamp shining (PIXAR) on a bunch of ESPN magazines with more stats than you can bear, I will dream of cooler temperatures so I can wear my fabulous fall wardrobe! Goodnight!

Pictures from the wedding...

Again this is from a film camera and apparently the film was old because the quality is awful. But anyway, here you go!

Rehearsal...

Tyler and Ed after the wedding...All four of us...really bad picture...but Tyler and Lauren look great!
They are now at Southeastern. Tyler is going to seminary and she is working. We miss them!
Ed, Tyler, and some youth at the wedding...

Pictures from the beach

We had to use our old film camera, so we had to wait to get the pictures developed. It was hard too because we had no idea what kind of pictures we would end up with. They are ok, but here are some pictures from our trip.

Caleb got his feet wet...then half his body when a wave came and I wasn't paying attention!

What Caleb did most of the time...
Ed and Micah playing in the sand. Micah had a blast. He loved digging in the sand and making pools to jump in. (see below)
Micah was running and jumping in the "pool" and this is what we ended up with. Ed and I laughed really hard because he looks likes he's dancing...yeah, you know the move I'm talking about!
Our family picture on the beach...it is actually a really good picture if you can see us!

Our First Weekend...

As a lot of you know in the ministry world, Sundays are not days off. So normally as a pastor you take another day off during the week. Ed's has always been Thursdays because originally, the pastor wanted him around on Fridays to "get things ready for Sunday". Mondays are staff meeting so that was out of the question as well. So anyway, Ed decided to ask again about Friday because then he could have two days off in a row - Friday and Saturday. Pastor gave us a go, and so I am very happy to say we are experiencing our first true weekend. Before it was nice having the day after youth group off to relax, but then it was weird that he had to go back to work on Friday. So yay! we love our new weekends.

Things Unseen

Last night during worship at youth group, we sang "Hosanna". It is such a good song, but as I was controlling the slides, I was struck by how rich the lyrics were in one part.

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I walk from earth into
Eternity

Every single line is so good, but the one that hit me was "open up my eyes to the things unseen". How often do I miss things when I get caught up in the business of life? Or when I choose to focus on other things. Often times the things unseen can be the most rich things we could ever notice. It is a reminder to me that God is always at work in the lives of His people whether we choose to notice it or not. Lord God, may I never be so concerned with my own "world" that I miss what you are doing.