Memorial Day

Please be in prayer for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family

Please read this article.

My heart goes out to this family.

Because I Can't Sleep...

It's almost 2 am and I cannot go to sleep! Part of it has to do with some things going on in my life (nothing bad, just a lot of stuff) and the other is the little human that keeps kicking me!

It's crazy, we've been at this church for 2 and a half years now and I've managed to not overload myself. I've pretty much stuck with helping Shaun with the music and the youth. For the most part anyway. Sure, I've helped out with big events such as VBS, but I just haven't overdone it. Until now. We're having a one day women's retreat at our church May 31. Way back in November I agreed to help out. I guess I didn't realize how crazy my life was going to be in the months of May, June, and July. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm helping. There's just a lot going on right now. In addition to the retreat, I have to get my Sunday School room ready for promotion Sunday--which happens the day after the women's retreat! I've been wanting to change up my room for a while now and I had figured that the perfect time would be for promotion Sunday since I have a ton of kids moving up. Plus, I've got to contact all these new kids and introduce myself, etc.

And then that Monday after promotion Sunday (June 2, in case you lost count) I'm starting a teenage girls Bible study. I did this last summer and it was such a hit that I really, really wanted to do it again. It's an 8 week study and to be sure and finish up before school starts back, I really needed to go ahead and start it. (There's going to be some weeks that we don't have it, like when I have my baby!)

That Thursday, June 5, we will head to Warren and Crossett for my sister-in-law's wedding. I also have a doctor's appointment that day. Fortunately, we decided to stay in town that Sunday instead of heading home Saturday night. I'm hoping in spite of all the wedding stuff, we will get a little bit of rest. And it'll be nice to be in church with my family again.

After the wedding is over, things start getting a little easier. Of course, we have student camp in June and I'll still be doing the Bible study. Oh yeah, did I mention I'm helping with children's choir on Wednesday nights, too? I'm leading the 4-5 year olds. We're working on a musical that we will present in August.

In July, the big thing is, of course, the BABY! Time has flown by so quickly! I still have so much to do to get ready for him. I've been so much more laid back this time than I was with Cayson. I just hope I get it all done.

We have VBS the week after the baby is born, but we planned for this, thank goodness. I don't really have to do anything, except work on a nightly newsletter template. That'll be really easy, I just have to sit down and do it.

Ha, I just remembered something else we're doing in June: Shaun and I are leading a community group in June!

When did my life get so busy??? I used to thrive on the busyness when I was in high school and college. Now it's just wearing me out! Say a prayer for me that I can get all this done and not go completely insane!

Now to end this post on a very, very positive note: As I type, Cayson is spending night #2 in his big bed!!! Yep, last night he slept all night in it and he's working on it for tonight. And he napped in it today too! This was a little bit hard for me, but Shaun reminded me that we've been working towards this. This is a picture of him spending his first night in his big boy bed.Isn't that so sweet?

What a great day!

Today was a great day in the life of First Southern Baptist Church! The theme for today was a celebration of ministry, tying in to the wedding feast of the Lamb. This morning, we had our service outside under a tent. We used guitars, congas, keyboard, and a praise team instead of choir. We decorated like a wedding. Russ preached on the parable of the wedding supper found in Matthew 22. We also had a family join our church this morning. It was such a great time of worship! (That's lil (ha) ole me over there on the keyboard!)



Tonight, we celebrated with a wedding banquet. This was to symbolize the marriage feast that christians will participate in one day. It was also a celebration of everyone that participates in ministry, or should be participating in ministry. It was also held outside under the tent. It was truly a special day.

How do they do it?

How in the world does this little boy, who's only 20 months old, manage to get into the things that I thought were well out of reach??? Twice today he has spilled a bottle of his baby lotion all over everything. The first time was only mildly annoying. More funny than anything. The second time got to me. I love him so much, but he got to me! Fortunately, I held my temper pretty well and didn't say things I'd regret later. I just need suggestions for what to do with all the baby stuff once the baby gets here. I always kept the lotion, baby wash, diaper cream, etc., either on the top bookshelf next to the changing table or in the drawer in the changing table. Since I swapped Cayson's room, I had all that stuff on top of a tall dresser that I thought he couldn't reach. Apparently I was wrong. What in the world do I do? He can open the drawers. We don't have a cabinet in the bathroom that he can't get into. Help me out here moms (or dads)!

Spilling lotion for the SECOND time today!!!

This morning I have...

cleaned up lavendar-scented baby lotion from all over the living room. Yep, someone got curious. At least the living room, along with my precious son, smells really good now!

New for me

Tonight I did something I've never, ever done before. I burned a baked potato. On the inside. I have no idea how, especially since the other one came out perfect. The only thing I can figure out is that I tried to make them with the salt on the skins. That was my first attempt at that. I coated them with olive oil and then sprinkled kosher salt on them. But somehow one came out burned. Oh well. Sorry dear!

Idol Dreams

Let me preface this post by saying that the Martin household LOVES American Idol. Even Cayson. I guess that's what happens when musicians marry each other. And our favorite for this season is David Cook. And we don't like David Archuleta.

Last night I had a dream. I dreamed that Shaun and I went to the pet store and bought a fish. I can't remember what kind it was, but I remember it was a blue one. (Hey, I do dream in color!) When we went to pay for it, our cashier was David Archuleta. The funny thing is, there was no mention of American Idol whatsoever. We then left to go visit Shaun's brother in the hospital. I have no idea why he was in the hospital. He's not in the hospital in real life. Anyway, that's not the important part of the dream.

When I woke up this morning I said to Shaun, "I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that we bought a blue fish at a pet store and David Archuleta was our cashier." To which he replied, "That's interesting. I dreamed that I went to Radio Shack and David Cook was working there." I thought a second and then said, "Hey, your dream was cooler than mine!"

My Hair

If my hair has become my son's "security blanket", I probably shouldn't get it cut 2 months before the baby comes, right?

Life in the Martin Household for the Past Week

Whew! It's been a busy week! Last Tuesday my parents came to town! They were on vacation and spent the rest of the week with us! Every day was packed with things to do. the first thing on the agenda was to get them to help us move Cayson's room to the bigger spare bedroom. Boy, was that a job! It took 2 days to finish, but we got it done! We still need to put the finishing touches, like hanging pictures, but I'm saving that for when we paint.

Thursday was Shaun's birthday. I had planned to write a post all about him, but it didn't work out that way. For his birthday, he wanted to go to the David Phelps concert at a church in Fort Smith. So we had ordered tickets about a week before. Here's the fun part: we didn't tell my parents about it. My mom is a HUGE fan of David Phelps. We thought it would be fun to surprise them. So we waited until Thursday at lunch to tell them about it. Boy, was she surprised! The concert was awesome, by the way.

Friday, we relaxed a little bit and went out to eat that night.

Saturday, we went to Fayetteville to the Red and White game. The day's activities started at noon with the game at 6. We got there around 2. It was pretty fun. It would have been more fun if Cayson was old enough to participate in everything. See, they had all kinds of jump arounds and games and stuff for kids. And it was all free! If you have kids, you should really bring them next year. Plus, there's lots of freebies. Several former Razorbacks were there to sign autographs and some even played in a 7 on 7 flag football tournament. And Hog Heaven, the souvenir shop, had everything in the store half off! My parents bought Cayson a jersey for $12.50. Even the game was free. We actually got to sit on the 50 yard line, about 8 rows back! It was a lot of fun, but I really don't know how I was thinking I was going to be able to handle all that, being pregnant and all! We walked around so much! And those bleachers were not very comfy!

Sunday, we all went to church. We had such an awesome worship time. It was one of those days where everything just clicked. And one of my Sunday school kids got baptized!

All in all, it was a very good week!

Holiness

Sunday nights at our church aren't "typical". (Although, in this day in time what used to be "typical" may not be anymore!) Anyway, we are in a spring semester of Disciple University. This is where several classes are offered on Sunday nights and everyone chooses one to attend. Shaun has been teaching one on parenting teenagers. I am taking a class on discipleship called "The Next Step". It was actually written by our teacher. This week's lesson was on Holiness. Man, it was awesome. The illustration that David, our teacher used was so simple, and, yet, I'd never thought of it that way.

He had a wedding dress displayed. This was a wedding dress belonging to our church pianist. Her husband is in our class. He started out talking about what makes a wedding dress special. Some of the answers were: it's white, only worn once, symbolizes purity, etc. Also there is a ton of fabric that goes into making a wedding dress. It's not a dress we would wear on a normal Sunday morning!

So then, David proceeded to pour about 2 ounces of grape juice into a cup. He said he hadn't gotten permission, but since there was so much fabric he was going to pour a little bit of grape juice on it. Whoa! The women in our class immediately started objecting, even though we figured he wasn't really going to do it. He said that it would only make a stain about 2 inches. What's 2 inches going to matter? You probably wouldn't even see it! But we women know that even a 2 inch stain on a wedding dress would ruin the whole thing. That would be all anyone would look at! (He didn't pour the juice on the dress, by the way.)

About halfway through this demonstration I was hit with what he was getting at. It gave me "God bumps". The lesson is that we are supposed to be holy...pure and white and unblemished. Kinda like a wedding dress. But when we sin, even just a little "2 inch" sin, we are no longer pure. I am so thankful for Grace, because without it I would be covered with stains. But because of Grace, do I get a free pass to sin all I want, as long as I ask for forgiveness? No. God still wants me to strive to become more and more like Him. That means that when I sin, I have to repent and not do it anymore! But boy, is that easier said than done! Especially with those things that seem to constantly be a struggle. And with the "little" sins that I sometimes shrug off. It's so easy to think that because I don't kill anybody, or steal, or cheat, or even tell big humongous lies, I'm doing ok. However, a sin is a sin in God's eyes.

I know I have a lot to work on. How's your wedding dress?

So I was Tagged

Jennifer over at Raise Mine Ebenezer tagged me for this.

The Rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I have had 2 surgeries in my life. One was my c-section when I had my first son. The other was when I was a junior in high school. I had torn my ACL while snow skiing spring break. Fortunately, cheerleading tryouts were the week before my accident! But, I was supposed to be an archbearer for graduation and I had to miss that.

2. I have a bachelor's degree in music, with an emphasis on flute. I almost had enough hours to have an emphasis in vocal music, as well, but I didn't want to have 2 senior recitals. And they wouldn't let me combine both recitals.

3. I used to get terrible warts. It all started when I was in 2nd grade-right after I had meningitis. I only had one at first, and we had it removed. Then it came back. So we had it removed again. And it came back. Then it started bringing friends. They were all on my left elbow for a while. We'd remove them and they'd come back with a vengeance. Then they started showing up on my hands and legs. Last summer, my mother-in-law told me she had read that taping garlic to the wart for 24 hours would make it go away. It was supposed to blister and then fall off within two weeks. Well, it did blister, but it stayed. However over the next 6 months, I noticed that the wart I tried it on was shrinking. It eventually faded to nothing. As well as ALL my other warts! I wonder if I had a garlic deficiency or something. Who knows. I'm just grateful they're gone! It was kinda neat being able to say Shaun married me, warts and all. LOL.

4. I teach 1st and 2nd graders in Sunday school. So far this year, I've had 4 kids from my class accept Christ! I didn't have a part in actually leading any of them to Christ, but I can say that I helped to plant the seeds.

5. I played fastpitch softball in high school--and I was pretty good at it. I started my sophomore year, but then I had to quit my junior year because of my knee.

6. I performed in several operas and musicals in college.

7. My husband is about to turn 30! And I have about a month or so left before I'm 25.

Ok, so I'm tagging:

1. Suzanne over at The Joyful Chaos
2. Mandy at Peace and Craziness
3. Lee Ann at Sunny Side Up
4. Lou at It's My Wonderful Life
5. Rob at My Little Corner of the World
6. Sean (not my hubby) at Sean Mills H2O
7. Jeff at Notes from the Trail

Ok, It's Gettin' Serious

Who wants a FREE puppy???
I still have 3 to give away. Plus, I'm holding one for a friend and we're keeping one. So that's FIVE puppies and their mother that we are supporting right now! Come on people, I have a baby comin'! They are as cute as they can be! All the ones that I have left to give away are girls and they are black, like the one in the first picture. They are now about 10 weeks old. Their mother is a half sheltie, quarter lab, quarter golden retriever. We're not sure about the dad, but their mom has been an awesome dog!

If you want one, please let me know! Also, please keep us on your mind. If someone you know is looking for a puppy, tell them about us please! Even if you live in South Arkansas, as many of my readers do, I can arrange to deliver it! We'll be heading that way a lot in the next few months!

Rough Night

We had a bad night last night. I knew it was going to be pretty bad, but I didn't expect so much. We got home from church like normal and I fixed some sloppy joes and french fries. I was ready to watch Idol Gives Back and relax. Instead, we were under a tornado warning. We got things ready to go in the bathroom and finally Cayson and I did. Shaun watched the weather. I was pretty scared, especially because Shaun's never actually made me go in the bathroom before. It's never been bad enough since we've been married. I called my parents as a distraction and Cayson played basketball with his tub basketball and goal. At one point, it began to hail. It was so loud! I don't think I've ever been in such a bad hailstorm! Finally, Shaun let us out and I thought we were in the clear. Well, It wasn't too long after that, that we were under another tornado warning. By this time Cayson had fallen asleep in my arms so Shaun moved the rocker into the hallway. This one wasn't quite as bad. Then we got the all clear. Then a little later, we were told by the weather people that there was a lot of rotation in Greenwood. So there was another tornado warning. This one wasn't in our path, though, so we stayed in the living room. I'm just glad we don't live in Lavaca anymore. Our place in Lavaca was right next to the tornado sirens! It was soooooo loud!

Anyway, we're all safe, just a little bit tired. Thankfully, Cayson slept 'til 9 this morning.

By the way, speaking of Idol Gives Back, did anybody get to watch the end? I didn't last night because of the radar, but I heard about it this morning and caught it on youtube. The top 8 sang Shout to the Lord! It was so awesome!

Baby Update

I know I haven't written too much about the baby this time around. It's so different when it's the 2nd pregnancy, especially when you have a busy toddler running around. The first trimester went by so fast that sometimes I forgot I was pregnant! Then the baby started kicking. I felt it earlier this time. I guess because I knew what it felt like. And now, we've finally been able to find out the sex of this baby I'm carrying. It finally feels real now. We are having another boy! Bryce David Martin is going to be his name...unless we change our mind between now and then. I've really kicked things into gear now. Shaun has been given a list a mile long of things to do before he gets here! The boys are going to have to share a room, for now anyway. The baby will be in our room for a while, anyway. We're giving them the larger spare bedroom and Cayson's room will become the spare bedroom. I'm a little worried about sleep schedules, but I guess we'll work it out. I think it's neat that they will be so close in age; I hope they'll be really close. Our church is going to be overrun with boys! Just like when I was pregnant with Cayson, there are several pregnant women around here. And so far, they are all boys, except for one! So within the past 2 years there have been 6 baby boys born with 3 more on the way. My friend Megan is going to find out in a couple weeks. She has a son that's just a couple months younger than Cayson so it's neat that our kids are all going to be the same ages.

Now for a Cayson update. He is talking so much! He will attempt to say just about anything. He's just so sweet, too. Sunday night, after our slime time event, we were all so tired and hungry that when it was time to pray for our meal, we didn't hold hands and gather around his high chair like we normally do. Shaun just sped through it. Well, Cayson started crying and saying, "Pray, Pray, Pray!" What a lesson we learned from a 19 month old! We promptly got up and held hands and Shaun really took his time and prayed, instead of just going through the motions. I love that we're raising a son that wants to pray! He also loves going to church...probably because that's his second home!

I've also figured out that he does have a "security blanket", so to speak. It's his sippy cup and my hair. Yep, you heard me correctly. He loves to crawl in my lap, drink his drink, and play with my hair! On the way to Warren last weekend, he wouldn't be happy unless I laid my seat back and he could touch my hair.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'll try to get the ultrasound pictures scanned and uploaded soon!

Super Slime Sunday 2008

Sunday night our children's ministry hosted an event called Super Slime Sunday. It was a fun event, also meant to be evangelical. We had over 100 kids in attendance, with at least 4 making salvation decisions. The kids played games, sang songs, and got SLIMED! The more friends they brought, the more chances they had to get slimed. The game I liked the most was one that Russ Hill, the speaker, used to demonstrate our need to be saved. We had a red team and a blue team, and from each team there were 3 kids who were rescuers. They each had a rope. The rest of the kids had to sit and close their eyes and raise their hand if they wanted to be rescued. The rescuers had to go over to them and help someone grab onto a rope and lead them to safety. The team that rescued all their teammates first won. Russ told the kids that sin is like being covered with yucky, sticky slime. And heaven is so beautiful and perfect that sin can't be there. So we have to get rid of that slime. And the only way to do that is through Jesus.

This was a very successful event that I hope we do again next year!

Our only family pic from Easter

Thanks to our pastor's wife, we ended up with a family picture from Easter. It was taken during our churchwide brunch, between the two morning services. Thanks Cheryl!

Little Man

Here are a few pictures from our Easter! Cayson wasn't too keen on taking pictures, he just wanted to play with his ball!

Pics of the Set