Saying Bye to Daddy

Emma has become quite the early bird most days. We think it has a lot to do with her wanting to see Martin before he heads to work. She loves to blow kisses with Daddy, and wave to him as he drives away.

Watching Daddy's car (her hand is over her mouth doing a kiss)

Blowing her kiss.

Sweet girl!

4 Years

Usually poetry doesn't do much for me. This particular poem by Anne Bradstreet grabbed me in high school, long before we ever met, and its always been my favorite.

To My Dear And Loving Husband

by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay.

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persever

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

The Sights and the Eats

We kept things really low key going into our trip, with no real plans. Our innkeeper gave us some suggestions, and since we know Chestertown, we stopped by a few familiar places.

We drove around a good portion of Kent County, including a road called Lovers Lane. So Martin pulled the car over and picked me some lovely lilies from the side of the road!

We enjoyed lunch at Play it Again Sam's  in Chestertown...Avocado BLT and Roast Beef and Brie sandwiches!

Dinner at Waterman's with a beer and seafood...

On the way home we stopped at Lockbriar Farms to pick blueberries and raspberries.

A few of the sights: St. Paul's church Kent, dating back to the 1600s.

 A look inside:

In Rock Hall we found this vacation home that looked like a lighthouse!

Such a great trip!

Getaway!

Today we got back from a two-night stay at The Inn at Michell House, a bed and breakfast on the Eastern Shore - an early anniversary celebration! Many thanks to Omi, Pap-Pap, and Grandma for staying with Emma and Will so that we could make the trip and have the time on our own.

The view across the pond by the Inn.

Our room was beautiful! A canopy bed, fireplace, paintings and period decor...it was great.

There was a wedding under this arbor over the weekend.The Inn is in the background.

We had amazing weather the whole time. It was perfect for sitting outside and reading.

Enjoying the hammock and time with each other!

Family

This is a cute one...

But really, I like this one way better!

(Just a little closer to reality, right?)

January 7, 2007

On a warm, Sunday afternoon in a graveyard in Chestertown...

some jewelry was exchanged :-)

Fathers Day 2010

Scripture Memory verses

It took a while, but I was able to track down the PDF list of the verses that Martin and I memorized last year. You can get it here.

One of our favorites from the year was Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose."

A Major Accomplishment

At the start of last year, Justin Taylor posted a list of 52 different passages from the Bible, with the goal of memorizing one every week for all of 2009. This sounded like a great idea; a manageable way to learn Scripture, and yet challenging because every week there is a new passage. Some of the verses were short while some were longer passages, and even all of Psalm 1.

I started off strong the first few weeks, and then Martin decided he would like to try to memorize along with me. He had some catching up to do, but made his goal to learn them at a faster rate so that he could go back and review. Well, we both did it! I don't think that either of us could do every single one perfect at this point, but having each other to review with has been a huge help in committing these verses to memory. We also worked hard to match each verse reference with its passage, cause what's the use of knowing a verse when you can't find it if you need it!

This year we are working on a memorization plan that we have made ourselves. Some of our favorite verses from last year were the longer passages, so we are focusing on longer ones all this year. Instead of having a verse every week, we going to do a new one every 2-4 weeks, depending on the length of the verse. We are starting out with Psalm 130, which is shorter. I am very excited about our plan for this year, especially now that I can look back on all that we accomplished last year!

A few more pictures

from Pizza John's for Martin's birthday.



Martin and Oma have the same birthday! Sharing blowing out the candles!

And of course Munchkin loved her pizza!

Happy Birthday Martin!

Martin's birthday was Friday and we celebrated by having lunch at Pizza Johns with family! We all enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful gifts and helping to make our celebration special!

Daddy's girl already

Disclaimer: Emma may or may not have had assistance getting into place at the right time. Nonetheless, she was adorable and Martin enjoyed it.

Bath Time

What a cutie! (and Emma looks cute in her towel too!)

Pizza Johns

You may remember when Martin received Pizza Johns pizzas for Christmas last year. Well those were not the real Pizza Johns, that we only visit about once a year (because it is located in Essex, MD).

The last weekend in July we were going to be close to Essex to go to a wedding, so Martin saw the perfect opportunity to introduce Emma to Martin's favorite food EVER.

We took the obligatory picture with the Pizza Johns pizza man:

And ordered (do you see the delight on Martin's face?):

Pizza Johns:

Martin grew up eating the crust at Pizza Johns before he had teeth, so our plan was to give Emma some crust as well. She was anxious to get her hands on it:

So much so that even the menu looks tasty!

Finally! The moment she had been waiting for:

Well she loved it! (not that we were surprised at all!) And can't wait to go back:

from Father's Day

I took this on Father's Day and forgot to put it up. I was getting ready in the morning and Daddy and Emma bonded -- don't they look so much alike when they are sleeping!?!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to both our dads! And Emma has a special surprise waiting with her when Daddy got her out of her crib this morning - a Father's Day card!

We had a great day. Busy at church this morning with set up for Martin and me playing the drums. A relaxing afternoon (though Martin did mow the lawn since it finally stopped raining for a few hours!!) watching the Orioles finish a 3-game sweep of the Phillies. I grilled hot dogs for dinner, followed by more relaxing! After such a busy week, it was good to have some down time to recharge. Monday, here we come!

Poker

Last Friday evening, Martin took part in a charity poker tournament through his work. His company paid the entry fee and encouraged employees to take part in the poker tournament - including prizes for the top 5 players.

Martin volunteered to go from his area. After we found out the date, however, we almost decided that he would try to get out of it because it was the same night as our small group meeting at church. Since it would have been short notice, he decided to go ahead and go to the poker night.

We are so happy that he went - Martin won 3rd place! (out of over 50 people)

And his prize:

Dinner for two at the Hotel duPont in Wilmington! This is an amazingly gorgeous place and we can't wait to use our gift card!

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the 4th be with you.

(Martin sent this to me this morning)

Home Ec

I had a homemade day yesterday: laundry detergent, banana bread, and deep dish pizza.


The laundry detergent had been on my list to try for a while, especially now that we are cloth diapering. You can't use "free and clear" detergent on CDs because it leaves some sort of residue...and a few weeks before we started with the cloth I had just bought free and clear detergent. I had researched making detergent at home several months ago, but never got around to doing it. I bought the ingredients on Friday: a bar of soap, Borax, and washing soda.


It was really simple, and the cost is less than a nickel per load! First, I chopped up the bar of soap:

I had read that many people used Fels-Naptha soap, so that's what I bought. I've heard that any kind works, even those small bars you get in hotels...now that would be some cheap laundry detergent! My bar of soap was $1.19.

Then I put the chopped up soap, 1/2 cup of Borax, and 1/2 cup of washing soda in my food processor. I have a mini one, but it was the perfect size for one batch of detergent. I also read that putting a damp tea towel over the food processor keeps dust from poofing into the room. That worked well.
Volia! My laundry detergent. It only took about 5 minutes to make!

I bought the Borax and washing soda at the grocery store, right in the laundry section. You only need a tablespoon of this powder per load (or 2 T. if the clothes are especially dirty). I have a HE washer, and this homemade stuff is actually really good for those types of washers because it doesn't bubble up as much as store-bought.

Pretty slick and pretty easy.

The banana bread turned out better than usual, and unfortunately I'm not quite sure why. I use a recipe from a church cookbook that Oma gave me. The amount of sugar is not given in the ingredients, so I guesstimate when I make it. Apparently I guessed well yesterday because Martin paid me the Supreme Compliment (and not a bases loaded intentional walk). He said my banana bread was better than the banana bread from the Dining Hall at Washington College. Normally, telling someone their cooking is better than the DH is NOT AT ALL a compliment...but the one things WAC could make was banana bread. They would always give us loaves to take for away games for softball, and teammates would hide banana bread from each other - no joke! So wow, better than WAC banana bread...that's a big deal!

For dinner we had homemade deep dish pizza recommended by The Frugal Girl. It is a-maz-ing! (like better than you can buy in a restaurant amazing) And the secret ingredient: potatoes! I've also had it made with tater tots :-) This is some good pizza. I doubled the recipe, so we have dough for 2 more pizzas in the freezer. It took me a while to make this time since it was new, but I think next time I will be able to do it without looking back at the recipe every 5 minutes! The recipe is here, complete with instructional pictures!

(his and hers pizzas!)

Pizza Johns!

This week we made the first of Martin's Pizza John's pizzas for dinner. He was hilarious to watch because of how EXCITED he was while it was in the oven. This picture is of the Pizza John's happy dance after putting the pizza in the oven:

And then he couldn't wait for it to come out, so we turned on the oven light so that he could check to see if the pepperoni curled up and formed a little pool of grease just like it does at the real Pizza John's. The verdict: yes it does! (to Martin's great delight)

We have 4 more pizzas left, so perhaps there will be more pictures as we enjoy the symphony of flavors that is Pizza Johns! :-)