Engines that go Vroom!

What is it about boys and equipment with engines? I can remember stories of Tim driving Papa Smith's tractor at a young age. Hunter has enjoyed riding the lawnmower since a toddler - be it with his dad or granddad. The four wheeler and tractor have had the same allure. Now, we see the same excitement in Walker. Hunter is having to learn to share the lap and time with his brother when moments with Dad or Granddad present itself.

Terrific Kid for Hunter

Today was a great day for 3rd Grade recognition. Hunter got to stand proud for being on the honor roll and also received an award for being a "Terrific Kid". He seemed excited, except for when his mom went to give him a congratulatory hug....."Ewww! Yuk, Mom!"

Day of Geocaching

Today, I went Geocaching with a friend of mine in northern Moore county and southern Chatham county.& Ronnie Emmons is a nurse I work with in CVT. He and I have been talking about geocaching and he wanted to give it a try. I am always looking for an excuse to go, so I arranged to meet Ronnie and to cache north of Carthage. We picked a beautiful day and took off around 10 AM. We go the first couple of caches in Carthage and then moved north to the House in the Horseshoe.



Ronnie is using the name, Lazy Scrub as a geocaching moniker. He and I found 8 caches over a wide area, finally ending up in Pittsboro at the Jaycee park. No doubt, the most interesting cache we found today was the Camelback Bridge near Gulf. It is a beautiful little park over the Deep river. The pictures here are of the park and a picture of Lazy Scrub on the bridge near the cache site.



After finishing up caching, we went to Elizabeth's Italian restaurant to eat. We called Brittney to come join us for lunch, but she was in class. All in all, a great day.

Help with the housework

I thought you all might enjoy seeing this picture of Joy running the vacuum cleaner with a little help. Seems as this is a commonality to all of our children - they like vacuums when toddlers, tractors and lawnmowers when preschoolers and neither when they are teenagers!

This picture (it is Brittney) is no different than what you might see around the house now with Walker or what you might have seen a few years ago with Hunter. Walker even got his own vacuum for Christmas and has used it a lot, although he certainly prefers the real thing. Anything that makes a lot of noise or is outside seems to interest him. The boy would live outside.

Hunter also likes the outdoors and would spend as much time as possible there. It seems that we have a hard time getting him there. Just yesterday (he is out of school this week), we had planned a day at Badin Lake but were unable to go because of the nasty, cold weather. We did end up going geocaching in the rain. We had good luck and quickly found three, but got completely soaked in the endeavor. Took a trip to Biscuitville to warm us up!!

www.wherethehellisbritt.com

Brittney on our recent trip to Vermont, dancing over a frozen Connecticut river.

Great Job, Brittney!!

10 Year Honeymoon Anniversary Trip

Ten years of bliss is upon us. Yes! Tim and I have been married 10 years. We escaped to Ocracoke Island to celebrate – leaving all three kids in the loving hands of their big sister Brittney. She did a wonderful job especially with Walker who spiked a temperature of 104 one night.

We left on Wednesday the 4^th of April, with no time limits or agenda – other than to get to our destination. Even signing our taxes and paying the Government didn’t dampen the mood. We were on the road by noon and rather than being stressed to get to the ferry on time, we elected to drive down the OuterBanks. We listened to an old cassette we both had made when we were dating called "Reply". It was fun reminiscing. I would record a special song, then he would get to listen to the surprise song/words, interpret them as he wished and then reply with his song. And then we continued back and forth. It was fun remembering what we intended to say in each song. Really quite romantic -young love. Now, ten years later, the "Married with Children" series doesn't seem so funny, only real!

We arrived at 9:10PM to a wait time of 50 minutes till the ferry to the island arrived. Our first night out was spent enjoying a picnic (in the truck) by flashlight! It was nice and cozy inside – it was cold and breezy outside!

Our nice little studio suite was cute. We – well, my husband, searched and searched for “free” – well, borrowed – wireless Internet. We didn’t miss the TV nor the DVD player nor the phone ringing all the time, but we did miss the Internet. He did find it, but only if you were out on the balcony – in the breezy, cold weather. We did enjoy the fire! (free standing, enclosed gas logs), but the romantic image was still there.

The Island was surprisingly busy for this time of year, but I guess Spring break and Easter vacation brought all the visitors out. We drove on the beach, we walked through the village, we found the coffee shop – shut down for remodeling, we found a “hippy, Busch-bashing, love child” store. We laughed and had some “oh my” moments too while shopping there. We enjoyed eating out too. One place was called the “Flying Melon”. What a name! And their décor was colorful chickens and roosters – not melons. I couldn’t help, but ask what the name stood for and the response was that the co-owner had a melon-head, thus the Flying Melon seemed to fit. Hmmm?? You have to wonder about some of these “island folk”.

It was a delightful trip, just enjoying each other and the quaintness of the island. We left on Saturday – with bad weather canceling the Cedar Island ferry and a long line waiting for the short ferry to Hatteras. While on the ferry, we were dusted with sleet and even saw some snowflakes. We missed a geo-cache though. Darn! If we had just been paying attention to the pieces of wood in the ocean? The drive home was long, but we did some Easter bunny shopping and we arrived home safely. “Finally!” was Brittney’s sigh!

The Big Fish!

This is no Fish tale! A fish tail, yes! Brittney, being the daughter of a hard core fisherman – braved the waters of Baden Lake, as did Hunter, to set out a Trot line! (A long rope like thing with hooks bated with yucky stuff and left to sit in the water, waiting for some dumb fish to take a bite) Kind of takes the fun out of real fishing, but anyway! Midnight comes and a need to check the lines is noted. “We were just riding along the lake, enjoying the moonlight. We slowly pulled up to where we had our line placed. And out of the peaceful water jumped this huge creature. It was splashing its tail in the water, ‘bout made me pee in my pants. I jumped up, screamed and started to clammer to the back of the boat. I could hear dad yelling “Brittney settle down. Your about to rock over the boat, not to mention fall out.” But dad, it’s like the creature from the black lagoon!” Dad calmly stated, trying hard not to laugh, “Brittney, I need your help.” The determined tone and covering of the laughter seemed to calm her down. I’m sure the boat engine could hardly handle dragging in such an enormous catch! They brought in the “creature” by placing it in a net and dragging it to shore. Two grown men had to carry it up to the campsite. What a commotion in camp. Lights from cameras were flashing. Whoo Whee’s ! were heard from all who were awake and even from others who got woken up from all the commotion. I slept!

The following day I did gasp and awe at the catfish. However, as stated previously, my support and love for my husband and his hobbies does not include cleaning, cooking or eating his catches or kills! This 35-40 lb mammoth of a fish would find another kitchen sink and stove! Very exciting though, if I do say so myself, as he was bigger than Walker! Quite a contrast to the Neon Tetras he caught for our fish tank at home.

A Martin Family Sunday in April

Recently, Gloria and Tyler came home for a few days to visit for spring break. We all gathered for a fun filled family time. THE food was great for lunch, snack and supper. The intense kickball game revealed quite the competitive spirit of the males in our presence! Lots of fun by all. Everyone got to see and play with the newest addition –Baby Harper! He’s a cutie!