Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Things at the Martins are great.  We had a wonderful Christmas with Rod's family.  The boys loved seeing their cousins and Elizabeth was a lot of fun watching her play with her new stuff from Grandma and Papa.  This week has been a catch-up week.  Hoping to get everything ready to go for school and basketball to start again. 

God has blessed our family so much this year and we are looking forward to starting to serve Him at our new church in new ways in the New Year.  I am training for a marathon that I am hoping to run in April.  Sometimes I think that is just crazy; but it seems like the next thing to do in my training plan. 

Have a great New Years.  Keep praising God and working for His kingdom.

The Martin Craziness

Quick update.  Elizabeth turned one this week.  We had a ball celebrating her birthday.  She is walking a lot now; but still resorts to crawling when she must go super fast.  She is beautiful and has such a funny personality.  Her brothers, dad and mom are really enjoying her.  The boys are doing their Christmas program a week from Sunday.  The both have small speaking parts and are excited.  They have settled into church nicely and are enjoying it. 

Most of life is dedicated to Jerod's basketball with a little Andrew basketball as well.  Rod is coaching Jerod's team.  He is playing on a Jr. High team and so the time requirement is much more this year.  He has improved leaps and bounds since last year and is really starting to enjoy it.

School is going good.  We are planning on doing the fun stuff for the next couple of weeks and then take Christmas break.  We are headed to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate the many Dec. birthdays in our family.  It should be fun. 

I am still running and I am hoping to run a marathon in April.  I have a long way to go.  I finished the Turkey Trot (10 miles) in 1 hour 24 minutes 53 seconds.  I was 8/25  in my age bracket and 149/352 total runners.  Not to shabby.  I just have to keep working at it and getting better. 

Miss all of you and hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Hello, all.  A quick post from the Martin clan.  Jerod had his last football games today.  We won 1 and lost 1.  I am glad that football is over since basketball has already started.  Jerod is playing for Jr. high ball this yearand him and Rod had a father son game Friday.  That was fun.  Andrew is doing a basketball clinic/game thing for the next few weeks.  He is having so much fun and scored 5 baskets this week.  Rod is busy working, getting too excited watching Jerod play ball and trying to keep up with Jerod in basketball practice.  Joshua is everyone's biggest fan as long as a drink and a snack come with the game. I am getting ready to run a 10-miler next Saturday.  Of course Elizabeth is precious.  She is walking a little here and there but not giving up her crawling.  She has her brothers wrapped around her finger. 

It is a blast buying cute little girl clothes.  I bought her a really cute outfit for her..  We are going in for family pictures this week.  She is starting to watch Barney and clap and dance with the songs.  It is so funny to watch.

We are headed out to St. Louis for Thanksgiving to see Rod's brother.  I hope that all of you have a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving. The boys are also going to be in the Christmas program at church.  Practices start tomorrow.  It should be fun.  School is going well and time is flying.  We miss seeing your wonderful faces but enjoy keeping up with all of you and your xanga sites.  We love you.

Just thought I would let everyone know what is happening with the Martins.  We returned from a vacation to Arizona on Tuesday.  We had a good time enjoying their warm weather.  The boys enjoyed the hike our hike in the desert and Jerod got to see the Cardinal/Kansas City game.  They played all kinds of things with their cousins.  Andrew and Joshua especially loved the time on X-box with Lego Starwars II.  Aunt Tricia bought it for their Gamecube.  They were very excited. 

We got to stay in my sister's beautiful new house.  The boys enjoyed the pool table and the swimming pool.  The pool is awesome.  My brother in law designed it.  They brought in their new trees to landscape the back the day we left.  I am looking forward to seeing how that all turns out. 

It was great watching my nephews play ball. We had never been able to do that before. My oldest nephew had an awesome baseball game on Tuesday.  Their team is undefeated.  Then we got to see my younger nephew play his first football game. 

I got in about 25 miles last week.  The running was great, except I headed out most mornings by 6:30 to beat the heat.  That sun is intense. 

My sister and I had fun shopping and buying cute stuff for Elizabeth for this winter. It was also alot of fun to watch my brother-in-law, sister and nephews get such a kick out of Elizabeth.  The flights there and home went really well.  We were all glad to be home.  I am pretty sure that Elizabeth was the most happy she crawled all over and played and played.  Hope everyone is well and great things are happening with all of you. 

God bless.

Cool things are happening at the Martins.  First of all Jerod's team went into overtime this weekend.  They lost; but that same team beat Haysville last year 20 to 0.  Even cooler the coach for the other team use to play linebacker for the NE. Cornhuskers and he told Jerod that he had never seen anyone play middle line backer as well as Jerod did Saturday and he told our coach "That number 56 is a player".  Our coach just agreed with him.  Jerod was disappointed but so excited about the compliment.  His coaches theme is "When we work hard, good things happen to us."  I told Jerod good things do happen. Even though they lost, the other coach noticed how tough he played, that really made his day.  Although like his momma he really would have liked to have the win.

2nd:  I ran my first 1/2 marathon.  My goal was 2:00 to 2:10 minutes.  I ran it in 1:59:51.  I met my goal.  It was totally cool. I finished 304/515 and 18/38 for the women in my age bracket.  So I have room to improve; but I can enjoy that I accomplished my goal. I just have to figure what to shoot for next year.  The next race for me is the 10 mile Turkey Trot on November 18.  Depending on training, I am hoping for around a 1:25 or so.  Maybe my aggressive goal will be a 1:20.  Anyone care to join me? 

Don't forget See You at the Pole on Wednesday.  I miss you guys.  I love you.  Hope you all have an awesome week.