The Beach Report

Several people have asked me how the Bishop's retreat went, so consider this my official report: IT WAS FABULOUS!!!!! There's so much to tell, I'll try to condense it a little. We stayed at The Sailmaker's Place in Perdido Key, Florida, which is just minutes away from Orange Beach, Alabama, where Aubrey and I usually stay. We weren't right on the beach; we were on the intercoastal waterway. That meant that we had access to a jet ski and a boat. The boys played on the water and the girls soaked up the sun. Olivia absolutely loved the beach there. She could play in the water without getting pushed over every five seconds and see all kinds of water life. She chased fishes and terrorized the hermit crabs.

We got to the place Thursday night and had dinner at a really great little restaurant. Olivia didn't go to bed until 11:30 p.m.!!! Her normal bedtime is 7 p.m. It was an exhausting weekend for her. Meetings didn't start until Friday night, so we had all day Friday to play. Olivia got a couple of good naps in, which helped her survive our meeting that night, which didn't end until 10 p.m. Another bishop's wife put her to sleep during the meeting (she was VERY popular this weekend). During the meeting, we had great training on working with personalities from Pres. Archibald (a counselor in the stake presidency and my old Institute teacher). We all took personality quizzes and it was soooo much fun. Then, Pres. Smartt (our stake president) talked to us about what bishops needed to teach to their wards/branches and the direction the stake and the church as a whole would be heading in the next year or so. It was very informative.

Saturday morning, the guys ate breakfast together and had a meeting and the girls ate breakfast together and had a meeting. The guys got awesome training and we had a really nice "non-meeting". Sis. Smartt was in charge and she led us in a discussion about being a bishop's wife and what to do to cope with it. It was wonderful and exactly what I needed to hear. Having to serve in a different unit than your own is difficult. I feel very isolated and lonely sometimes. But top that with being a branch president's wife and it can get pretty crazy. Sisters said it over and over again, "You just don't know unless you've been a bishop's wife." And they are so right. Friends are good to have for support, but the bottom line is they just don't know what my family goes through. It's quite a burden and responsibility and it's difficult for others to understand. I really enjoyed getting to know others in the stake and now I don't feel as alone or forgotten as I once did. It was a total morale booster!!

So, that's it in a nutshell. I took pictures of where we stayed, which was incredible. The unit that Aubrey and I were in was three bedrooms and three bathrooms and bigger than our Nebraska house. The townhome unit was bigger than my Alabama house. The penthouse was INCREDIBLE! I actually didn't take pictures of our unit, I took them of the penthouse. All of the units had granite countertops, top-of-the-line appliances, a wet bar, flat screen HDTVs, travertine tile flooring, and very nice furnishings. My intention was to post pictures with this post, but I just heard Olivia wake up. I'll post them this afternoon. Promise!

Beach Bound Again!

Well, we're off to the beach...again! Aubrey and I (with Olivia in tow) are going to the Florida coast for a Bishop-Wife weekend retreat. We'll spend a day on the beach Friday, have training that night and Saturday morning and then have Satruday afternoon to ourselves. We're pretty excited about it, although I'm not sure how much I'll get out of the training with Olivia. She is a pretty well-behaved baby, so maybe it won't be so bad. Our stake president has a jet ski and a boat for us to use and I think Aubrey's taking his fishing pole. Olivia will no doubt spend most of her time in the sand. Oddly enough, there are three couples from our home ward in Tuscaloosa going. Of course there's the Tuscaloosa bishop and his wife and then some friends of ours who are serving as branch president in Fayette (45 min. north of Tuscaloosa). We're good friends with them all and I haven't seen them or spent time with them in a really long time, so I think it will be fun to reconnect. We'll leave the beach to come home Saturday and go to Aubrey's parents' house. It's a couple of hours closer to the beach than we are and only 45 minutes from the Greensboro branch, so we'll save the driving time and go to church from there. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get back. I know a lot of you are curious to see what the property looks like!

Happy Father's Day!

Well, today we celebrated Father's Day in the Martin home for the first time. Aubrey insisted that I didn't get him anything for Father's Day, so I made him a gigantic version of one of his most favorite things...an ENORMOUS pizza-sized chocolate chip cookie with #1 Dad on it. And Olivia gave him a card. We're also having chicken fingers and french fries for dinner...another Aubrey favorite.

At the risk of sounding schmultzy, I totally want to brag about Aubrey. He is the absolute best thing since the Jr. Bacon Cheesburger at Wendy's (remember, Tracy...mmmmm...) and he is an incredible father. When I was pregnant, some people told me that he wouldn't be as much help with the baby as I thought he would be because dad's just don't know what to do. Totally bogus. Aubrey admits that he was scared to be by himself with Olivia (I slept a ton while I was in the hospital), but he jumped right in because Olivia was his daughter. She was almost two weeks old before I even changed a diaper. The one time I tried to change it in the hospital, he made me get back in bed and he finished.

On the rare times that Olivia woke up in the middle of the night, Aubrey went and got her, changed her and brought her to me to be fed. I only remember getting up to get her twice...once because he wasn't home and once because he was dog tired and didn't hear her. Then, if she wouldn't go to sleep right away, he came and got her and sent me to bed. Did I mention that he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to go to work at 6:15 a.m.? On the weekends, he still gets her in the morning.

Aubrey also gets Olivia ready EVERY Sunday morning, including breakfast. He loves picking out her outfits and making her look pretty. He also plays with her all the time. He takes her outside with him to pick blueberries (which she loves), to water the garden (she likes to play in the hose) and to walk around the yard and play catch with Sammy (she thinks it's the funniest thing ever to see him chase the ball). All of this time together has resulted in a wonderful bond. Olivia absolutely loves her dad. In fact, she said Dada before she said Mama. When Aubrey leaves for work in the morning, she's heart broken. When he comes home in the afternoon, she almost hyperventilates she's so excited. He never raises his voice in anger and never is impatient with her.

So, Aubrey, thanks for being such an incredible husband and father! I know you deserve way more than a cookie (even if it has frosting) and chicken fingers, but if you keep it up you get to be with us forever! That's a pretty awesome reward. Olivia and I love you so much and we're so proud to say that you belong to us! Happy Father's Day!

Between two worlds

So, I'm not much of a people picture-taker. I like to take pics of Olivia, but to be honest, it's not my most favorite thing. There are so many things you have to take into account from background to posing. My real true love is outdoor photography. I found these two pictures while I was organizing my photos. They really illustrate my two worlds. The tree is in my parents' pasture in Nebraska. Notice how bare the horizon (and the tree) is. The beach, of course, is our yearly haunt on the Gulf. Sometime I'll post and Alabama tree picture so all you out-of-towners can see just how beautiful it is down here. Two very different pictures, but they both evoke fond memories and show the different kinds of beauty Mother Nature paints for us.

An update of nothing

Well, nothing's happened since my last post. I'm only writing so that you all will know that I'm still alive. Last Friday (the day of my beach post) was my birthday. I turned 28 years old. As you are all aware by now, I'm not fond of getting older. Ironically, it's not the gray hair (I've had it since high school) or the wrinkles that get me (I have Dick Clark genes courtesy of Grandma Rex). It's the thought that that much more of my life is over and I still have a ton left to do. Although sometimes that thought is rather exciting. Aubrey can't wait until we're little old people shuffling around the house. I'd rather be chasing little young people waddling around the house. Oh, well. My birthday was great. As is tradition, Aubrey got me an ice cream cake. This one came from TCBY and it was OK, though not as good as the DQ. They closed the DQ here years ago and I haven't had a decent cake since. I'm very bitter about that. He also got me a beautiful stained-glass window pane (that's the only way I know to describe it, though you could call it a giant sun catcher) made by a local artist. The design looks like it could be a dragonfly, though it is technically abstract. Downtown Northport is full of unique shops and art galleries. It's a really neat place. Anyway, the piece is purple so that it will go with my office, once I get it painted. Yes, Tracy, I'm painting one of my rooms purple! Albeit, a light lavender. The gift was quite a concession on Aubrey's part!

Besides that, nothing spectacular has happened, although Olivia did stand by herself without support yesterday. In ag-related news, parts of our garden are really having a rough go of it. We're not sure if our beans will make it...we think the dogs ate them...and one of our squash plants shriveled up. I think we'll do well with potatoes (we've already harvested about 20) and hopefully corn. We've been able to have some squash already, so that's good. Olivia could eat her weight in squash. Also my blueberries are HUGE this year. I'm so excited about them. I hope to get at least 8 gallons this year.

Well, like I said, not much has happened. I know I haven't posted anything about the reunion yet, but I'll get around to it. I don't have time right now to download photos from the camera and then post everything on the blog. But don't lose faith! It's coming!