There is always something there to remind me...

I'm sitting at MyTime for the fourth day in a row with Molly and getting to be on the internet for no purpose but to browse. That doesnt' seem to happen to often and there is some crazy stuff you can find when you are mindlessly looking. Ella is at basketball practice and I'm waiting her out so I can then take her to soccer practice. She loves to be overly active and we are enabling this need for her this semester. Two sports, two-four hours of practice or games or both four days a week, and the rest of the family being good members by rooting her on and painting our faces for games and Grant taking off his shirt at games and dancing crazy...well, that hasn't happend yet, but it will! Grant's birthday is next week and we are celebrating this weekend at the local mini-golf place. He has an eclectic guest list ranging from family, his teen-age friends, and his married college friends. I think he wants some competition and maybe having two Tyler Kings there will bring the heat.

The kids and I all start school next week and we are regretfully saying farewell to sleeping in until 11:00 am every day. I used to think this was a dreadful habit, but when my body just kept sleeping and I was delightfully happier with 11-13 hours of sleep a day, I decided its not laziness, it's healthfulness. Yeah, everybody should be doing it. When other moms found out about my habit and scoffed I would tell them I didn't want to interrupt my kids sleeping and if they would sleep until noon I would let them. That seemed to get them off my back some. Anyway, we are missing that and haven't figured out a way to get in bed by 7 p.m. to keep the habit going, so we will forego this until next summer, or at least Labor Day morning.

Speaking of sleeping, Big Whirl was asleep in the shade across from Long John Silver's on the bypass this morning. My kids were freaking out and saying things like, "does he know he's in the middle of town?". There is really no reason to mention this other than it goes along with my sleeping notion. Maybe he's trying to get 13 hours a day too!!!

Some people's blogs have mentioned things that are going great in there lives so I thought I would do that too:
1. Kings Island tomorrow
2. My semester of college paid for because I got the teacher's scholarship form KHEAA
3. John and the kids are healthy and we laugh a lot at home at night! John and the girls should go on the road with there Paramore interpts they perform.
4. Friends are fulfilling God's call and seeing God move in there lives. Amazing
5. John and I are doing well, and that feels good
6. Life, although we're still in total disarray, is panning out some. We're learning patience and although that can be hard, it's a teacher that you can only learn from through experience.
7. Good friends are blessings.

Love Yall

It's five o'clock somewhere...

A lot has happend since the 24th post. Lots of great stuff. John and I didn't go to the creation museum but instead got invited to camp and hike the Red River Gorge last weekend, which was so fun! Our tent didn't have poles we discovered when trying to set up camp in the dark with head lamps on (grrrrrrr) so Seth York hooked us up with a really fancy lean to and we slept on the hardest ground on the Earth. That was not the fun part. We headed back to the car at 4 a.m. and slept until morning where we had coffee on a gorgeous morning and hiked the rest of the day. Awesome. And we smelled even better. moving on...


Julie Lasslo came home from her summer in Peru and me, John, and the kids got to visit on Monday night over dinner. We even did smores on the front porch! It was so good seeing her and she brought me back some cool earrings! She needs to start blogging to share her story, so Julie, as you read this, start blogging.

We also saw a bunch of movies this week. And ate a lot of popcorn and diet coke. We are carb addicts. Especially if the carbs are movie theater popcorn. Ella asked me this morning what makes movie popcorn better and I said, "Fat". Her face snarled and she said, "I like fat then". Oh yeah, Grant asked me this week why the middle of corn on the cob is so hard by sticking a fork in it and saying, "Huh, so what's in the middle of corn on the cob mom, Wood?" He will win a Pulitzer Prize for an invention or writing something amazing, you watch and see.

I also got to have dinner with some of my favorite Waco teachers last night. We ate way too much and laughed way too loud (that's always fun). We all know school is less than two weeks away and we're all trying to seize every moment.

My favorite thing that is going to happen in all the summer is KINGS ISLAND this Friday. Just like the commercials for the amusement park say, I am a ride warrior. Bring them all on. And the cherry Icee's, and funnel cake, and the best Skyline Chili(which is not as good as Gold Star, but is close) that I've ever had. I cannot wait and John is good at taking pictures while we're riding the coasters so that should be fun to look at!

I think it's good to be thankful for small moments like these. They're God's blessings and we should recount them and be thankful. Like the song, "Count your blessings". It helps one not to always be downcast and focus on the things that are wrong in our lives. Movies, camping, having legs that will let you hike, friends, jobs, people who love you and you are able to love them back, kids who ask crazy questions and play guitar hero for 24 hours straight, that's good stuff. all gifts. And I, for one, am very thankful!

I told you I would post this...

Today is my 15th anniversary! We are going to go the the Creation Museum in Northern KY on Saturday as a continuation of the staycation, but last night we dropped Grant with his amazing great grandma and headed to Movie Tavern for eats and a movie, then off to a local Lexington coffee shop, Common Grounds. Oh, that's sweet you might be saying. Well, as Grant is my witness, here is how our amazing evening conversation started:

Jenn: You know John, I need to start weight training again instead of just running.
John: Yes you do (silence...)
Jenn: (assimilating the silence...) What is that supposed to mean?!?
John: (in his head, "i didn't mean how that came out")I'm just saying you don't have to be so hard on your body to stay slim. You won't have to run miles and miles...
Jenn: Are you saying my body feels flabby?
John: You are perfect! (actually he didn't say this but this is what I thought in my head :-)

oh, i gets better. Now mind you we had a good laugh out of this but I will end this blog with a moral...
(in the car)Jenn: You know for our 20th anniversary I want to get Rejuvaderm for these lines in my face (pointing around my mouth, don't point them out when I see you)
John: Don't you mean ReBOOBaderm (as he laughs at himself because the word association is so close, NOT)
Jenn: What is that supposed to mean? (didn't I already say that just 30 minutes before? Yep.)
John: (Still laughing) I don't mean that, I just thought it was so close sounding, so similar...ha ha ha ha ha (and he says again, "Get it,ReBOOBaderm")
Jenn: (silence)

15 second delay of laughter by John and now Grant

Jenn: Grant, please take note that when you are married 15 years, do not make jokes about the size of anything on your wife. You will remember this interlude today in the car. That is the moral Grant, don't make fun of your wife ON her anniversary, no matter how true or funny.
Grant: I'm not getting married.

That's another blog.

Seriously, we laughed and all was well. John, when you read this, one of the reasons I wanted to be married to you is because you are funny. You make me laugh and are a comfort for me to be around. Growing old with you is going to be hilarious...now let's go to Cracker Barrell...WEEEEE!

house for sale

since our realtor can't seem to sell our house I thought I would advertise it on my blog. There might be 7 or so people who read it, and albeit they are homeowners, they might have a friend who isn't and lives near Soddy Daisy, TN. I would like to officially start my life in KY with a home and can't do that until it is sold. So please, all seven of you, start advertising.

Summer, think harder because you said you were going to WILL it to sell. Create more WILL.

Jeanne, call one of Jim's ag people and tell them that there are no cows in Chattanooga and they need more.

Everyone else, just pray. In all seriousness, it's the only thing we can do and I need that chapter to close. God knows that though, and so I wait...


I saw the Dark Knight with John and Seth and Candace York and Heath's mouth sounds almost killed me during the movie, but he was amazing. Worth the movie ticket.

Heading off to Historic Casa Cafe again, so get crackin' on the whole house thing!!@!

I've got two tickets to paradise...

Oh Eddie Money, what happend to you? So I continued the "staycation" with Jeanne and her boys and Grant yesterday at the famous Paradise Cove of Lake Reba. It was going well, and by well I mean Grant and Kirt and Jake hanging out with me and Jeanne while we tried to run them off to the slides of death, and I thought, "Staying in Richmond ALLLLL summer isn't so bad." Out of nowhere the whistles blow and we are all asked to evacuate the pool. Why? Someone stooled in the pool! Seriously. Agian. For like the 4th time this summer. We watched them net "it" out of the pool and did they close? No. They shocked the pool and we had to stay out for an hour. MMMMMMMMMM. We bailed out and left because a Legends Game was waiting on Jeanne and her family via me that night.

P.S. Those free tickets scored Jim winning round trip tickets to Chicago. Like they haven't vacationed enough this year...(He "earned" them by beating a woman from California throwing toy planes through a hula-hoop. Wouldn't it have been great if he would have had to actually hula-hoop, do the Cupid's Shuffle, run the bases? If you know him, you can appreciate this)

I'm in MyTime doing homework for my finals week and wanted to plug something I found on the internet. Pandora radio is free internet radio. You get to make your own radio stations and rate your favorite music. I LOVE it.

John and I are going to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary this week. I think that's awesome. Thank all of you who have supported us since we've been back. We're excited about it this week. Grant has asked to not be included in the festivities. What's wrong with him? We are so the coolest to hang out with...

think of the summer's of the past, adjust the bass and let the alpine blast...

If you know the song of the above forementioned, then I applaud you and your taste! I have some pictures now of some of the stuff we've been doing this week. A lot of it was fun and some was just an attempt to "staycation" here in Richmond at the local free events. Last Saturday we went to a send-off celebration of a dear friend of ours, Amanda Bolin, as she embarks on an adventure of a lifetime. She is going to teach Kindergarten in Brazil. Her party was fun and all of our old youth group from John's first two churches were basically there. That is always a kinda weird thing. It's like two worlds colliding. It was a great time and she is going to be dearly missed. She coined the term "crackhead" to me. I would see her right before Sunday School at Red House, when I taught high-school girls, and she would say things like, "What's up crackhead" or "Don't act like a crackhead". I told her its now a term of endearment to me.


She is a crackhead!


We went for a hayride too!



We also took some time to visit the free concert series on Tuesday nights at the park. Some guy named, I don't even know now, was there and he really was good. The really awesome thing was that every person there was like 60 and above. The kids played in the park and I sat and waited on John to come from work. I saw my old aerobics boss there and we talked about his knee replacements and cycling. Then John came and we hung out while the sun went down. The music was nice, not like a Guns-N_Roses concert or anything, but peaceful and relaxing.




So I thought, we should do the free Richmond Historic Downtown walk on Thursday nights to keep this free gravy train rollin'. Well, it was much more fun because Grant and John were acting like crackheads and making all sorts of jokes about our historic town. John once said, "Jenn, I'm afraid someone is going to drive by and be like, dang they weren't gone that long, have they forgotten where they live..." This was basically like a Civil War reenactment but not. Like a play on the streets, but not really. Like a tour of White Hall, but no, not really. We finally left after we hit 1st street and Cassius Clay was telling us of his life and decided we would visit the amazing historic site of Casa Cafe. The historic site of Tsing Tao was too busy for our blood. If you are interested in going, it's every Thursday night at 7 p.m. I don't paint a great picture, unless the art you're thinking of is like Picasso, then it's right on the mark...


I liked her dress!


Did women suffragist wear mini-skirts? In Historic Richmond they did...


We will continue our "staycation" this week with Grant and I going to the pool with Jeanne before she travels the world again and I will be revisiting my favorite vacation spot of the summer, EKU library.

Oh yeah, I did change my hair color this week. That's exciting news. Well, for me. And the geometry test went well. And the midusmmer's night run is in two weeks. So there is plenty of action going on in the Martin house. The girls are in Myrtle Beach with grandparents and its just me, John, and Grant. There is no telling what might happen.

school's out for the summer...

well, in one week anyway. i'm not finished studying for an exam in math, but found some old friends to put in my post. you can check out their blogs in my friends section. amazing people, they are. John, the kids, and I have been doing some fun stuff lately so I'll throw some pics up soon of that. in the meantime...off to talk of geometry and assessment...weeeeee...