Hello! It's been an eventful week over here, how about you guys?
Eamon and Maggie went to a Steubenville Youth Conference for the first time and said it was "life-changing" and "words can not describe it" and "so so beautiful". The bus ride was 14.5 hours each way (yikes!) and they still only had great things to say. I went to a Steubenville East youth conference back in 1997 and Phil went to four Steubenville Youth Conferences as a high schooler, so this is a such a treat to see our kids have the same wonderful experience.
Eamon was asked to give a witness talk on stage in front of 2000+ teenagers and handled it like a champ! He talked about the importance of confession and according to the MC of the conference, there were 400 teens in line to go to confession on the first night, and after Eamon's talk the next day, there were 1000 teens in line for confession. Could be a total coincidence, but no matter what it's an amazing number of kids lining up for the sacrament!
His short witness talk is here, filmed by Maggie, if you are interested:
Here's my Maggie (blond) and one of her besties, also named Maggie (brunette) walking on Franciscan University's campus. How cool if this is a foreshadowing of them in three more years.
Andrew was supposed to go to a soccer camp at Franciscan this week, but it got cancelled due to low enrollment. So he used his time off and took a ferry to Block Island for the day. Block Island is sort of like Rhode Island's Nantucket.
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| In front of the Martin House |
Andrew went with his girlfriend and they rented a moped to see the whole island. I remember doing this with Phil on Nantucket back when we were dating and being so scared sitting on the back of the moped that he was driving for the first time. Like father like son!
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| In front of St. Andrew's |
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| Dinner at Oaks |
Our niece got engaged!
She is the first of our 32 nieces and nephews to get engaged, so we hopefully have many more engagements and weddings to go, not to mention our own seven :)
I took Declan and Brendan out on a dinner date after their last day of YMCA camp, which they loved. They are just growing up too fast.
This week they are at our town's camp and they got to go to Water Wizz on a field trip yesterday. They had a blast!! They're already asking when we can go as a family.
Water Wizz was where the movie Grownups was filmed :)
July 12th was the feast day of The Saintly Martins:
The non-saintly version of The Martins went for an early morning run together and then out to dinner to celebrate.
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| It was already so hot at 6:30 am |
I also had my annual physical that day, and it was fine. I always get so worked up about weighing in, and usually do a month-long diet before I go. This year I even cancelled and rescheduled my physical three times because I kept wanting to lose ten pounds before I went, but had no actual willpower to do it. Finally I just decided to go as is and guess what? I didn't even have to weigh in! The medical assistant asked me if I weighed myself recently or did I want to weigh in and I said I had weighed myself that morning and told her my weight. To be honest, I did subtract one pound because I was wearing some clothes so I think that's fair :) Anyway the doc didn't even mention my ten pound weight gain and said I looked great and my blood work was great and that was that. Why do I stress about this stuff so much? Not worth it!
Lucy got her hair did like the fancy girl she is:
Speaking of hair, Phil must have been desperate for a cut because he let Eamon cut his hair:
I only had to touch up around the ears and neck, he's hired!
Cousins had a sleep over and lots of sugar was ingested and the Super Mario movie was watched:
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| Summer Martins, Summer Not |
And last but not least, I made my favorite summer salad - a BLT salad. It's even better with croutons, but I had a quesadilla on the side instead. Now I just need to get my lobster roll before the summer is over. What is your "summer meal" that you need to have or summer didn't truly happen?
I hope you all have a beautiful summer weekend, unless you live near me because it looks like rain and storms :(
I have never had a lobster roll or BLT salad but now I feel as though I am missing out! I have to imagine that a lobster roll on the East coast is a lot tastier than a Midwest version however. I am glad Maggie and Eamon had a good time at the youth conference, God surely has big plans for them both. I know logically Andrew has graduated and is a legal adult but in my head he's 12 so renting a moped and having a girlfriend blows my mind yet. Thank goodness for little boys who love water parks!
ReplyDeleteYes thank goodness for the little boys is right! Andrew told me yesterday that he leaves for college in a month and I had to bite my lip to stop the tears from falling, they grow up too fast!
DeleteWow, this is very busy. So much going on. I'm so glad that the kids enjoyed the camps. Reg and Curly are headed to Notre Dame's Vision camp on Monday with our youth ministry group. I can't wait to hear about their experience. Mini keesp saying that she cannot wait for the cousin weddings to start. There are loads of cousins and they are all pretty close in age. Once the cousin weddings begin, I think it will feel nonstop. I'm off to watch Eamon's witness. You must be so proud. I'm guessing his talk certainly influenced his peers.
ReplyDeleteThat ND camp sounds great, I hope you can share about it. I feel like once the cousin weddings start it will be nonstop and then all the babies and baptisms, so wonderful!
DeleteGreat post! Loved your son's Confession talk. One out of our nine graduate FUS a few years ago. : ) And, that is a lot of nieces/nephews! How many grandchildren do your parents have?
ReplyDeleteThank you! My parents have 22 grandchildren and my in-laws have 24 and still growing on that side :)
DeleteWell, now I feel like I need to go to confession! Great job, Eamon! He sounded so poised and relaxed and gave such a great talk about getting to confession. The benefits definitely outweigh the stress but even as an adult...UGH!!!! I never want to go.
ReplyDeleteI have gained 35 pounds in 3 years and not one of my doctors has ever mentioned it. I have even talked to my gyno about it several times and it's always met with well, eat less, exercise more, you are in menopause, this is to be expected...BLAH BLAH BLAH. Nothing is helpful because I feel like I don't eat that much and I try to prioritize protein, fiber, etc. and I try to exercise daily - granted I'm not running but my knees can't do it.
Anyway, I'll quit complaining about MY problems on your post. You are beautiful (I don't even see an extra 10 pounds on you), your family is beautiful and I always enjoy your weekly wrap ups!
I hope you guys have a restful weekend and I hope the rain doesn't keep the customers away from The Cottage!
Beth I know we understand each other on this topic so well, and it's just such a bummer to feel like we are trying so hard and yet the weight keeps creeping on. There's days it really bothers me and there's days where I can accept it and not care, hopefully those days will grow as I get older.
DeleteWhat a fun week for everybody!! The thought of that 14 hour bus ride to Steubenville makes me feel old because I know at their age I would have thought it was (mostly) fun and now I can't even imagine :D I actually experienced a pivotal moment in my conversion journey at a Festival of Praise at Steubenville when I was a college student at Duquesne (in Pittsburgh where we still live). During Eucharistic adoration, when everyone else knelt during the Exposition, I stayed seated in my chair thinking "it's idolatrous to kneel in front of an object!" And then realized, "If that truly IS Jesus the way that they all believe it is, I should be kneeling too -- or prostrate on the ground!"
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like the rest of your kids had an awesome week too. And I'm glad your physical went well! (I always tell my own patients I'm less concerned about the number on the scale than about their general health -- if you're active, exercising, eating healthfully most of the time and your blood pressure and bloodwork looks great, I'm happy! I HATE the BMI with a passion, haha.)
"Summer Martins, Summer Not" You are so punny!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your kiddos going to and enjoying the Youth Conference. I don't know that I'd be able to get up in front of all those people and speak so well; bravo to your amazing boy!
Yes, you worry too much about the number on the scale. You are healthy. You are busy. You are blessed!
The salad looks ahhhmazing.