Merry Christmas Adventure

Christmas at the Martin house is always an adventure.  Chad got a Sea Eagle boat and had to test it out down the river on Christmas day even though we were covered in snow!

Let the Race Begin

In less that 1 month, January 15, 2011, I will be running my first 1/2 marathon in Charleston, SC!

I have been training for about 6 months and I know I will be mentally and physically prepared.  My goal is to run 20 miles a week for this last month...1 week down.  I love to let my mind wander while I am running.  Some of the things I think about are:

• Will I have to stop to use the restroom?
• Will I feel the need to stop and walk...major mental training against this.  This is my biggest fear.
• I wonder what will I wear?  I want to keep my run as close to my training as possible so I won't be altering things too much.  I am that person at the gym that wears the same 2 outfits ALWAYS.  I have thought about decorating my current t-shirt.  Maybe have my name monogrammed on it, or even spell it with neon duck tape...yes that is what I am thinking about when it looks like I am staring into oblivion.  Ideas?
• Currently I train at the gym.  When a song comes on that gets me pumped I have to restrain myself from dancing on the treadmill.  That's right, I would be that person with arms swinging.  Come race day I can't wait to do a big fist pump whenever I feel like it...then of course I worry about wasting energy.
• I think about some of the cute girls who have ran 1/2 marathons and how their finish line photo is so non sweaty...and how I might have to change into a second race outfit to look as if it didn't nearly kill me to run 13.1 miles...but that would be ridiculous, right???
• I wonder what if I sweat so much that my earplugs short circuit and then I am left to run the race without music!  Should I bring a second pair just in case...
• I get excited thinking about crossing the 13 mile marker knowing I only have 1/10 of a mile left to go and how I will straighten up and finish strong!
• I want to finish smiling and hope to not tinkle my pants once I stop.

Any suggestions?

Snow Day

We have had snow, ice and temperatures in the teens the past few days and as a result we have remained inside for the most part.  However, in combination with our indoors play, Summer has decided not to take an afternoon nap.  This has resulted in a Mommy that will find a way to get out of the house!  I wrapped my little snowflake in her snowsuit and we were off to the gym. 

Summer made her first craft, a snowman. Her contribution to the snowman are a few abstract lines on his body.  Here she is admiring her work of art on the fridge. 

 I told her to hug the Snowman...

Early Christmas

We celebrated an early Christmas this weekend with Papa and Grammy.  Summer thought the wrapped boxed were interesting but mostly for climbing on.                             

One of her gifts was a Weeble Treehouse that makes music.  Summer quickly figured out how to press the music button and dance!

Merry Christmas from Papa, Summer and Grammy

We ended the early Christmas with a little snow.  The storm came a few hours earlier than expected but everyone got out safely.

Out the Door

Snow Day in AshevilleGetting a 1.5 year old ready and out the door can take a long time...these days we typically always bring a toy with us to the car. In this photo Summer is walking her caterpillar.

And here she is bringing the flower remote to her My Little Pony motorcycle.

Carolina Mountain Christmas Spectacular

We went to the Carolina Mountain Christmas Spectacular at our church this weekend with Chad's parents, Gramma and Grandad, and it was amazing!

Summer absolutely loved the first few minutes. She was dancing, swaying left and right, jumping in the air and even shimmying her shoulders like we do in the car when Flo Rida comes on!

Unfortunately the show was 2.5 hours long and she was spent after 15. I took her out in the lobby and you wouldn't believe who was sitting on the sofa...SANTA CLAUS! I think I was more excited than she was. In fact, I'm sure I was...

We hung out with Santa for about 20 minutes until our babysitter walked by and asked if she could watch her while we enjoyed the show (she was a performer). What a blessing! Sweet Emily took Summer to the teen area and played with her for the next 2 hours.

We also saw the Grinch in the lobby and he played with Summer. Strangely enough she seemed to like the Grinch more than Santa...forgive her, she's young.

December Already

It is hard to think that just a week ago we were celebrating an amazing first half. PERIOD end of commentsAnd had such a great breakfast with Jay and Jen (even though my camera doesn't show it well)
But that is all behind us now. We are pressing on towards Christmas!The tree is up and half decorated...literally, Summer would quickly identify what ornaments were hanging too low and hand them to me.(I know, we have some lights out)

Although Summer struggled with conjunctivitus in both eyes, she has now recovered. I am preparing for another issue of my Junior League magazine to go to print and trying to squeeze all of my creative juices into it...sorry, not much creativity left for the blog these days.

We are going to the Carolina Mountain Christmas Spectacular today (at Biltmore Baptist Church)...but unfortunately just found out that they aren't offering childcare...hopefully that is a dirty rumor. Can't wait to let you know how it goes.

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I am so thankful for my family and sweet little girl (with a BIG personality)! I am not thankful for this camera that takes grainy photos...Summer showed off her 4-wheeling skills in front of Aunt Jen and Uncle Bud. Look at me ride standing up!Enough with the messing around...time to get serious and ride fast!When Summer got tired, Uncle Bud soothed her with some milk then off for a nap.

Summer Marie_18 months

Summer Marie is 18 months old!Oh my, I can't believe I am a year and a half today! Does this mean I get to start wearing mascara?Now that Summer is 18 months she can do SO many things:

• Pull off anything on counters within 6 inches of the edge (aka, Daddy's toothbrush and toothpaste)
• Unzip zippers that contain tubes of lotion or sample size toothpaste
• Unscrew lids of lotion bottles
• Apply lotion to her legs, regardless of whether she has pants on or not
• Reach into the dog food container and pull out a few snack pieces for Lucy

• She has 16 teeth
• She naps from 1-3pm (mostly)
• A funny medical issue has popped up recently. It seems that she has reattached the umbilical cord and cannot separate from me. Especially when I am in the kitchen! (whole lot of frustration regarding this!)
• She is a daredevil and will climb anything without fear

Funny conversation last night:

Me: Summer, do you want to go take a bath?

Summer: no

Me: Summer, do you want to go night night?

Summer: no

Me: (a commercial was on tv) Summer, do you want lip injections?

Summer: ah huh

Happy Birthday Bethany

We celebrated Bethany's 21st Birthday last weekend at Dreamland BBQ in Birmingham. It was a great time with family and of course the food was De-licious!Happy Birthday Bethany!
You KNOW you are in a fine establishment when they have "NO FARTING" posted in neon!
A big THANK YOU to the Martins for watching and loving our furry children, Sampson and Lucy! They always have a blast getting to roam free and swim in the river.

Family Time

While in Birmingham we visited Papa and Grammy. Summer actually learned how to say "Bapa" with a B instead of a P. We had a fun day checking out lake property.Summer is pointing to a boat with some fisherman.Hanging out on a log.Grammy, Summer and I went to check out the new outlet mall!Of course, with most shopping excursions we have to stop and have a play break.

Fun times with family.

A Day at the Zoo

We kicked off the holidays with a visit to my family in Birmingham. Mom had Veteran's Day off and so we headed to the zoo.It was unseasonably warm on this day!
Daddy and Summer danced to the carousel musicSummer and Mimi are both saying "Choo Choo!" as the train passed.Summer's eyes lit up as she saw the monkeys in the play area above us!
However, one of her favorite parts was standing on the ledge and leaning against the glass.

We had a great day with Mimi...more to come

Training Update

Hey Folks,

Just wanted to give you an update on my 1/2 marathon training. I am pumped and get more excited as it gets closer (little over 2 months away). I just got in from a run in the neighborhood and I as I was pretending to see the finish line I wondered if I will sprint across or keep my pace. And as I got a wedgie I wondered if I should try some of those running shorts with built in underwear, but then it will be cold so I don't know.

My playlist is the key element in my run. I currently have a playlist named "DJ Jana" on my ipod with everything from Dave Matthews (my running favorite), Kutless (Christian inspiration), Alan Jackson (take me back to the good ole days tunes), Kayne West (when I need some turbo).

However my latest inspiration is my new pair of running shoes. I bought another brand first but they had too much arch support so I returned them. I really wanted to pick the perfect shoes based on what fit my sweet feet but then the guy brought out these...

He had me at hot pink!

Under the Weather

As a Mom I play the mind game back and forth of should I take her to the doctor or not? If I had these symptoms would I just blow my nose and feel crummy or go see a doctor. For two days I have called the nurse for advice but resisted making an appointment just knowing that I will go and they will tell me it is a cold. But after Summer woke up from her morning nap and looked like this I knew it was time... (Please disregard my fake smile and the mile high pile of laundry waiting to be folded on the table behind me.)

Turns out Summer has a triple wammy: ear infection, cold and teething (4 eye teeth upping her total teeth to 16-wow). Since she has had a rash from 2 of the ear infection meds they put her on ammoxicilian but a high dosage. The down side is that she actually has to take the medicine for 10 days...twice a day...2 tsp at that! Tomorrow we are going to start rewarding her with stickers after each dose. Hopefully that will keep the liquid in the mouth.

Have I told you that Summer is left handed? Here she is writing me a little "I love you Mommy" note!

And she can type 65 words per minute? Or that she can get up in my chair and all over my desk in .65 seconds!It supposed to snow in Asheville in the morning...we shall see!

Holidays are Coming

It is that time again when I realize it is November and Thanksgiving and Christmas are practically tomorrow! There are so many decorating projects I want to do for the holidays. For example: spray paint some pumkins gold for my Thanksgiving table or collect a tree limb, put it in a pot and make leaves with things I am thankful for. Oh, I just hope I get around to actually doing one of them.

My Little Pumpkin muffin has a cold and we are in full on nasal suction mode...that means life is not fun! She sneezed this morning and green came out of both nostrils, uh.

However under the weather she was feeling, she did manage to bat her eyes at me during breakfast.

Happy Halloween

We are so blessed to have found a great church that we can be involved in and surround ourselves with Christian families. Saturday they held HooplA, Halloween Alternative, that was really fun. We knew there were a ton of people but later found out the number exceeded 8,000. Wow! Let's just get to the photos...

Daddy and Baby Mama on the move

Me and the Butterfly (Chad was convinced she was wearing a ladybug costume-eyeroll! Half the reason he said that was to get me to react-another eyeroll!)Instead of "Trick or Treating," there were games to play and the kids won candy! Here Summer was milking a cow! I was picking the shortest lines and couldn't stop laughing when I saw what this game was.Summer seemed to get the concept of receiving candy and putting it in her pink pumpkin. I did allow her to eat a package of fruit snack chews and she loved them.

On Halloween we dressed her up again and let her go to our neighbors houses on our street. By the way, I painted the pumkin's face...pretty cute.

One of our nice neighbors took a family photo for us.After going to the houses on our street Summer hung out with Daddy in the front yard to hand out candy.

However she couldn't resist the urge to take the candy herself and put it into her pink pumpkin.She met a little cowboyAnd took off with a Tiger's candy (It's the Bama in her)Of course she returned it like a sweet little girlWe had a great weekend! It seems like Summer is growing and becoming a little child before our very eyes. Thank you God for a healthy family.