Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday

 

To my complete dismay, Palm Sunday services were canceled at our church yesterday. My family knows that this is one of, if not my very favorite, Sunday of the year. It brings me such JOY to watch the children waving palm branches while the whole church sings Hosanna! themed hymns.

This Sunday, while we were all still in our pajamas, totally bummed about the lack of Hosanna! in our day....we came up with the glorious idea to make our own palm branches and wave them. My crafty Kate had four green construction paper branches in no time, and we spent the next 10 minutes parading and dancing around the house to praise music.

Hosanna!



 

Upstairs

What a weird way the computer uploaded these pictures. Here are some pics of our upstairs....Pink Minnie Mouse room is Jane's. Purple room is Kate's. The ginormous lime green room would be Tess's. I also included a picture of the bonus room, which is a complete bonus AND blessing to our lives. The girls play, do crafts, watch movies/tv, do gymnastics, store their crap, and have sleepovers(4 so far) in this room. It is the size of our garage(s) with the third car part being a huge storage closet off the side of this room.
Upstairs there is also a double sink bathroom and a computer area. However you would picture these areas looking, is how they look...thus, no photos....BUT you are welcome to come see the place in person any time.

Food is Good

Hawthorne Elementary held a student-led food drive to benefit the Kearney Food Pantry during the week of March 4.  Fifth grade students Justine Ambrosio, Tess Martens and Hannah Yarc planned the drive from start to finish.  They put together a proposal, promoted the drive to students and organized food pick-up.  Students and staff donated more than 700 pounds of food!  All students who donated had the choice of wearing pajamas on Friday to celebrate.  Ms. Anders' 5th grade class and Ms. Lacy's 2nd grade class donated the most food items and earned an ice cream party. (this is the article and picture the school counselor put in the Kearney Courier)

I pray every night for the good Lord to help me raise Confident, Compassionate, Christian women...that isn't too much to ask, right? Some days, I think it is a lost cause. They are snarky, self centered brats (which is TOTALLY normal by the way) and I just wish they could appreciate how good they have it.

Then they go and do something like this.
God is so good.
I've got another braggart moment on Kate that I will have to share tomorrow.
People kept asking me when I would start posting again....be careful what you ask for..

 

Pictures!

Here you go! Pictures of the house. The second picture is the morning room and is right on the other side of the bar in the kitchen. Andy and I have found this to be one of our favorite rooms of the house. So casual, so comfortable, perfect location to sit and talk about our day while one of us is cooking. The dining room is something that is a product of my imagination. Each person in the family got to pick out their own chair. Kate is the purple velvet(has the lacy pattern on the back) Tess is the Zebra print, Jane is the bright pink flowers and Andy is the manly looking chair. I picked a whole dining bench. This dining room furniture is brand new to us, really the only new furniture we have bought so far, and the big table is just so awesome. Can't wait to get some more things on the walls. Pictures of the rest of the house to come soon, especially now that it is still light out when I get home. Thank you DST!

These Girls

These girls are my life and I have a crazy, good life.
Jane is 4(and a half!) and wishes she had school every day. She loves her new room and will just close the door and hang out for hours without a peep from her. Her room is messy and she loves it. Finally,no big sister is telling her what to do with her stuff . Some of her naughtiness is getting "not so cute" anymore and we are pretty sure Kindergarten is going to be a wake up call for her stubborness. Although, I think she probably follow directions from teachers waaaay better than she does from her parents. It has been a trouble free year two years at preschool, so she must be doing something right. I do still love this child's sense of humor. Her newest thing is to want to kiss on the lips. She will kiss long and hard and then afterwards say "did you feel that little lick at the end?" 
Kate is such a super student and a super great kid. So stinking smart. Waaay too emotional. She is quick to anger and even quicker to feel sorry. This poor child had the roughest first few days in the new house. The first day we moved in she dropped an entire jar of salsa on the kitchen floor. It exploded all over the floor and my white cabinets. She was devastated. Then one of her closet doors came out of the track and she was pretty sure she had broken it beyond repair. Poor thing just cried and cried. Kate was the one of the three that when we moved in just said "see ya later!" to the rest of us and went to her room, closed the door, and enjoyed her new space. She is loving having her own room, her own reading light above her bed, a Hot Wheels race track on her wall, and lots of room to do crafts.  Next month she will participate in her first ever dance recital, as a gymnast though. When I read to her the hair and make up requirements she about lost her mind. This girl just wants to flip and tumble. She enjoys the class but is ready to move on to the next level. This summer she will play machine pitch baseball. Here's to hoping her hand-eye coordination stays amazing and she can feel the joy of letting one sail over the infield.
My Brogan Tess missed having someone in the room with her the first couple of nights. She hasn't had her own room in so long that being alone felt weird she said. Of course that feeling is long gone and is loving her big new spacious room...bigger room than even her parents! She continues to love volleyball and we love watching her and the team. They have come so far since the beginning of the season and I look forward to this group of girls staying together through the years and continuing to improve. They have talent, they just don't have experience. At the end of the month we take her to Des Moines to participate in a History Bee sponsored by the History Channel. It is a jeopardy style format that she had to qualify for through a series of tests at her elementary school. Darned if she didn't pass all the tests and get to move on to the regionals. While I have no thoughts that she will make it past this round, we are super proud of her. What an accomplishment. Tess continues in piano lessons and Liberty Youth Chorus as well as volleyball.
These girls keep us so busy, and our sweet baby Jane hasn't even gotten to start any activities. Our life is busy, and expensive, and hectic and FUN.

Why we built this house

This house was built to welcome our family, our friends, and yes, any strangers(angels!) who might grace us with their presence. While we loved our home on Bluebell Terrace, we just didn't have enough room. The girls had to share bedrooms, there was no play area for them to spread three girls worth of stuff, and when we wanted to have family over it had to be in shifts. People had to sit on the floor. We would pray for good weather so we could have people sit out on the deck.
I found a floor plan online that fit what we liked and I wanted, then we took it to an architect and had it custom draw to really be what we wanted. Today I look at the house and think how thankful I am that it actually happened. I love this house and don't regret too many things about how it turned out, and what I don't love about it, I can tolerate. Most of all, we built a house for people to gather. It is thrilling that I have two baby showers and a bridal shower already scheduled for this spring and summer.
While at the house on Bluebell we started what I hope to be a long long tradition of celebrating the "second Sunday" of each month with a lunch after church at our house. Anyone, family or friend, was invited to eat and fellowship. Unfortunately, we only had room for immediate family at the time. It is with great excitement that Andy and I are planning our first Second Sunday in our home for our entire family. I can't wait to see how many people we can fit into this house.

Anybody Home?

It is with great excitement that I announce the Martens family is finally HOME! After six months in a two bedroom duplex, and then another month in my parent's basement, we are thrilled to be in our own home...with our own stuff...and our own space! I know it has been over a month since I last posted but I won't even try to catch up. Just going to start fresh from here.

Isn't this "home plate" doormat adorable? Perfect house warming gift for this baseball loving family from my MIL and FIL.

After a delay with our carpet, then Snowpocalypse one and two, and eventually a paperwork error at the mortgage company, we were able to officially say we were homeowners again on March 1st.
We love, love, love the house. It was definitely worth the wait.
Andy and I were talking about the home selling and building process leading to our "dream" home...when we realized this dream is actually 13 years in the making...not just 7 months.
When Andy and I were first looking into home ownership 13 years ago, we tried to build a house. It was a slow, drawn out and very frustrating process, so a month before our Brogan Tess was born we just gave up and bought our home on Bluebell Terrace. While it was a let down at the time, I can only imagine the differences between that potential home and what became our reality. For starters, our decorating style is SO much better now! Not to mention the size of the home, the location of the home, and the "extras" we were able to afford would not have happened 13 years ago. Last, but not least, we would have not met our beloved West family!
God is so good.
I promise to post some pictures soon. Right now we are busy unpacking things that have been in boxes for over a year and a half (from the first time we put our house on the market in July 2011). The girls are having a blast setting up their rooms and I am totally enjoying my new palate to decorate. The color change from basic brown undertones to gray undertones has been awesome and I am thrilled with the challenge to find exactly what I want instead of just buying what I find...kind of a new concept for me. Spending money on new things is fun for a while, but at this point I am wanting to bury my money in the yard to keep it from being spent! There is always something to purchase...hopefully we will get most of the bigger expenses done here soon and we can sloooowww the debits down a bit.
Stop by 1714 Cambridge Circle any time. We have no blinds yet, so it won't be hard to tell if we are home!