Trace the Gecko Slayer

Let me preface this story by saying that Texas has geckos.  It freaked me out the first time I saw one, because they come inside houses and crawl around on the ground and wall and stuff.  However they actually play a very helpful role in the house because they eat little bugs!

Anyways, about 2 months ago Trace, Justin, and I were just hanging out at the apartment.  It was a typical day, Justin was studying, I was doing who knows what, and Trace was playing in the kitchen.  He was going through a pretty drooly stage in his life (and he still is... when does that stage end?!).   And it was not uncommon for us to find random puddles of drool around the house marking the places where Trace had spent more than 10 seconds.  Well, he played in there for a while and then crawled on to find  more exciting trouble to get into.

Later on Justin went into the kitchen and looked down to find a poor little gecko barely moving, sitting in an abandoned pile of drool... WHAT?!?!?! SICK!!!

So pretty much this is how I see the whole thing going down...

The poor gecko is just scuttling around minding his own business eating bugs when all of a sudden out of no where a little 7 month old Trace comes crawling around the corner.  The gecko decides it should probably take off and starts to run away, but Trace has spotted him, and somehow manages to catch him.  How that happened? I have know idea because Geckos are pretty fast and Trace was not the most coordinated crawler at this point.  Anyways, after he catches the Gecko he does what any normal person would do and stuffs it into his mouth because maybe it will taste good.  But the gecko will not go down without a fight and starts wiggling around, startling Trace who spits him out onto the floor, makes a weird face, and crawls away thinking, "that was not food!"

That's the most likely story... but I personally like the version that Jenae came up with.  The gecko was sprinting across the kitchen floor and slipped in one of Trace's drool puddles and broke his legs so he could not move which is why he was still lying there when Justin walked into the kitchen.  That version makes me feel better as a mother.  I'd rather not think that my son had a reptile in his mouth.  Who knows what sorts of things were living on it... sick...

Anyways, I have made up a little song to warn any other geckos that might be still living in the apartment... feel free to sing along as you read it!

It looks like we have a gecko slayer in the apartment!
He's crawlin' round your floor,
snatchin' your geckos up,
tryin' to eat them,
so you better hide your kids,
hide your wife,
hide your kids,
hide your wife,
and hide your husband cause he's eatin e'rybody in here!

I know, it's a pretty good song... I bet if we made a youtube video out if it'd go viral!  I'm just sayin'!  Well anyways, this was a true story, and I just wanted to write it down somewhere before I forgot it.  We sure do love the little guy, and we are so happy to have him in our lives!  :)

We Did Not Buy a Zoo

This past Saturday we went to the San Antonio Zoo with our friends the Ence's!
  It was so much fun, and we were really impressed with all the cool animals!  We saw hippos, lions, a huge turtle, and some impressive snakes.  And of course we posed with a bunch of bronze animal statues (because you can't go to the zoo without posing with bronze animal statues).
  We love zoos!  Both of us for different reasons, Justin loves to see the animals and try to mimic their noises, and I love to watch Justin try to mimic their noises!
Anyways here are few pictures from the day.

Trace and his friend Austin posing in front of a pair of large hippo bums!
Austin is 1 day younger than Trace, but 5 pounds larger than him!
(And for  little babies, 5 pounds goes a long way!)

Bears!

OK, this snapping turtle was HUGE!
I thought that putting trace up would help show how big the turtle really was, but that was an epic fail of an idea... So you'll just have to imagine!  But in this picture trace is 3 feet away from the glass... it was the biggest thing I've ever seen and I'm pretty sure it could eat me, whole!

Trace posing on a Komodo Dragon!
I am already impressed with Trace's ability to really become one with the bronze animals.
He's a zoo picture posing master in the making!

Anyways, it was fun to take a brake from school, and teaching, and do something fun in this awesome city!  Thanks to the Ence's for inviting us to come!  

Life Life Life

Wow!  Have things picked up around our little apartment lately!  Approximately 1 month ago I was offered a job to teach 7th Grade Science at Harris Middle School!  After a lot of prayer and soul searching I decided to take the job.  Without going into all the details I will just say that the decision to  work outside of the home was a hard one, but it is the best decision for us right now as a family.  Anyways, Last week was my first week and I absolutely LOVE the students I get to work with this year!  I can already tell that they will be a fun group!
Ever since getting this job however, our lives have become quite a bit crazier!  Since I am working we have put Trace in a local day care (which I am pretty sure is the same day care I attended till I was 4 years old!).  Putting Trace in daycare is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do...  and the first day we dropped him off I was (as my sister-in-law Kindra likes to say) "a hot mess!"  I was crying when we dropped him off, and crying when I thought about him there, and then I was crying again when we picked him up!  And there have been some tears since as well.  But I am so pleased with how well he is doing!  And a lot of the ladies there that watch him have expressed to me how much they love him, and that is very reassuring to hear!
Anyways, today I came across this poem that kind of sums up our lives right now!  Even though our apartment might be a little messier than normal, and our lives are so busy, I truly feel like I am able to appreciate the time I have with Trace so much more!  The few hours we get to spend with him each day are by far the highlights of our lives right now.  Those moments are what get me through from one day to the next, and I am so grateful for him and for Justin, and the true joy and happiness they bring to my life!

Mother, oh mother, come shake out your cloth!

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing and butter the bread,

Sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking!

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(Pat- a- cake, darling and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew

And out in the yard and there’s a hullabaloo

But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look!  Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.  Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby.  Babies don’t keep.

1958   Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Trace at 8 months old!

White Coat Ceramony

So I have officially lost my Husband for the next 4 years... sigh... :)

This past Sunday we attended Justin's White Coat Ceramony which signifies his entry into medical school.  The parts of the ceremony that I saw were very impressive!  Unfortunatly Trace did not find them as entertaining as I did, which is why I spent most of the ceremony out in the hall... 

This was who I got to hang out with while the ceremony was going on!
He played in the grass for the first time! and subsequently ate grass for the first time...

But I was able to see the important parts before Trace freaked out!  Justin and the rest of his class walked in. Then later he walked up on stage and got his white coat (the symbol of a healer), and after that they all took the Hippocratic Oath and promised to help the world!

Justin walking down after recieving his white coat!
Thanks to Justin's Mom for taking these great pictures!

Justin's parents took time off from their busy, busy post mission lives to come down and celebrate this happy day with us!  

Trace still has not mastered looking at the camera and smiling..

Trace loves his dada!

And all in all it was a great day to celebrate Justin's achievements thus far! Good luck on the next 4 years Justin!!

Justin? Where's the truck?!

Last month we moved to San Antonio!

Oh ya, if you haven't heard, Justin got accepted into UT San Antonio for medical school!  So after 10 minutes of deliberations over which school we should attend, we decided to go to San Antonio instead of El Paso!

So anyways, at the beginning of June we moved down to San Antonio.  We were way excited as you can see in this picture.

Packing for the move was pretty easy since we had been living in Justin's parents house and really hadn't had to unpack any of our stuff from our previous move.  So the only new stuff we had to pack was Trace's stuff.
Side note:  I was shocked at how much stuff we accumulated for Trace!  Goodness Kid!  Babies add so much stuff to your life... clothes, diapers, furniture, it really is crazy!

The actual move was awesome!  I had to drive alone with Trace in the car to San Antonio while Justin drove the truck, and due to prior experience I was fully prepared to listen to whining and crying the whole 5 hours.  But a small miracle happened that day (with a little help from my best friend, Baby Tylenol) and Trace slept for the first 4 hours of the trip and then cooed happily for the rest!  Thank goodness!

That night we unpacked the entire truck with some help from our new neighbor Jessie who was kind enough to come down, introduce himself, and then offer to help Justin with all our heavy furniture.  I mean, I was fully prepared to use my insane upper body strength to aid Justin in moving all that heavy stuff, but when Jessie came down I figured I would let him and Justin have some male bonding time.  I know, I am such an amazing wife, right?! ;)

The next day we spent the whole morning inside our apartment unpacking and when we came out to take our handy dandy Budget truck back to the dealer it was MISSING!  As in, the parking space where Justin parked it the night before was empty!  We quickly visited the front office of the apartment complex and found out that it had not been towed, therefore someone had STOLEN it!  what the?!  Who steals a moving van?!

So Justin called the police who sent out an officer to our apartment and while we were talking with him we got a call from an apartment complex about 20 minutes South of us saying that they were going to tow our truck if we didn't move it out of their parking lot soon.  I think they were expecting us to be bummed about possibly being towed, but we were just elated that they found our moving truck!  So we asked them to hold the truck there, we through Trace in the car, and went down to reclaim our stolen truck.

I guess someone had just been looking for a moving van and when they saw ours they decided it would work! They popped the locks and then took a screw driver to the ignition.  Since it was stolen Budget didn't charge us for any of the damages, and they even came and picked up the van and towed it back for us!  So, all's well that ends well!

I'm not even mad really.  I think it's a funny story!  But I still wonder what the truck hijackers were needing to move so badly?  A really big dead body?!  Toys stuffed with drugs?!  Stolen art worth millions of dollars?!  The possibilities are endless really... let me know your theories!  And come visit us in San Antonio sometime!  Though we can't promise your car won't get stolen... :)

My first official Mother's Day

So, this year was my first official mother's day.  And I just have to say that who ever decided we should have a day solely devoted to celebrating mothers should have a monument made for them... or something.
I have always loved mother's day anyways, (because I have pretty much the best mother EVER!  And I am pretty sure that my mother in-law, and sister in-laws, and grandmas, and aunts, and friends, and friends mom's are some of the most amazing women on earth!!).  It's so fun to celebrate your mom and treat her like the most amazing person in the world, because she is!  But now to be on the receiving end of mother's day celebrations, to actually get to cash in on this great day and all that goes with it... well it's like having a second birthday!  And you could say that I am a fan.

So anyways, since this was my first mother's day Justin went all out.  I'm talking, roses, a funny card, breakfast in bed, cleaning the house, watching Trace so I could sleep some more, making dinner, and tickets to a Ranger's game!  (I know, I know, I have a pretty amazing man!)  

Here are some pictures of the festivities...

Thanks for the card and flowers Trace!

Um look at Trace's face when we lit the candle... can you say future Pyro?!

Justin humored me by taking some family photos before the game.

Yu Darvish was pitching.
YUUUUUU!

My two guys!
This is one of my favorite pictures of them.

Rangers stadium is so beautiful!

The game was the following Wednesday, we played Oakland, and we won!  So you can't be upset about that!  Anyways, all in all it was a fantastic mother's day/second birthday.  Now I just have to plan for Justin's first fathers day... he has set the bar pretty high!  If you have any good ideas let me know!

Justin speaks Parseltongue...

For those who don't know Justin and his brother Jerry have a snake breeding business!
Apparently Justin grew up with pet snakes, and about a year and a half ago Justin convinced me that we should get a ball python.  Being a science teacher in training I thought it would be fun to own a pet that I could maybe take into class with me some day.  So we purchased a little ball python and named her Zeus.  (Yes, Zeus is a male name... we thought she was a male for about a year before we found out she was in fact a lady snake!  But by then it was too late to change, so poor Zeus will just have to live with her masculine birth name for forever!)
Around the same time we got Zeus Jerry bought a ball python and then he bought a couple more and decided he wanted to breed them.  At first Justin was just giving Jerry "advice" in his business.  However one day much to my surprise the discussion turned from "Jerry's snake business" to "Our snake business".  And that was the birth of JMBP's Since then their 2 snakes have turned into 15 SNAKES!

Their logo that Skyler Thiot helped them make

Here are some of the snakes!

Bengal the Ghost Het Carmel Albino Ball Python

Daisy the Albino Ball Python

Sahara the Desert Ball Python

Carmen the Carmel Albino Spider Ball Python
(Justin's Favorite!)

And here is the URL to their website: http://www.jmballpythons.com/

No worries, they are all locked in their cubbies upstairs, and no snakes have escaped since we installed the locks...  

So the first comment I get when I tell people about the snakes is "Wow you are a great wife for letting your husband do that"... and to that comment I respond "do you think I have any control over Justin and what he does?!"  haha no!  No, Justin is his own man, and in most things he takes my opinions into consideration.  But if he really wants something... he'll get it!

The next thing they ask is"what are your feelings about the snakes?"  The answer to this question is that I am indifferent.   I don't really mind the snakes, mainly because they don't take up a lot of room, and they are upstairs so I don't ever have to see them if I don't want to.  Also, I don't have to clean or feed them, Justin and Jerry do all of the dirty work.  And the business does actually have the capability to earn quite a bit of money in the upcoming years if Justin and Jerry go through with it!  But I do get some funny looks when I tell people my husband is a snake breeder... haha oh well!

So if you are ever bored check out the website!  Hopefully the first eggs will be hatching this time next year, and we'll see where this little business venture of theirs goes from there!  

July through November 2011 catch up...

I eventually want to print out these blogs to use as a sort of journal, if you will... so in order to better remember our families history I have a few things i need to write about in a little catch up blog from the second half of last year.  

JUNE

At the end of June we moved to Plano, Texas.  Surprisingly I have no pictures from this move which is unfortunate because if was a pretty memorable experience.  Especially breaking down in the middle of the desert and having to get the van fixed up in Monticello, UT... good times with the moving van!

JULY

In July we headed back West for the annual Lake Powell trip where we lived "On the Edge of Glory" for a week with my momma's side of the family

    My awesome siblings (minus karly who is hiding behind me!)

After this Justin headed back to Texas and I attended the Robison family reunion up in Island Park Idaho.
After the reunion I flew out to LA to attend Jerry and Sara's wedding in the LA temple!  It was fun for us to be able to visit our temple again as well!  The wedding was simple and beautiful and we have LOVED having Sara in the Martin family!

What a great looking couple!

My nephews Josh, Dallin, and I asleep in the van on the way home from the Temple

AUGUST

At the end of July my amazing Grandpa Robison passed away.   Justin and I were fortunate enough to be able to travel to Idaho to attend his funeral with all of my family.  It was an amazing experience to be able to celebrate his life!  We miss him so much.  But I am so grateful for the atonement and the hope that it gives that we will see him again soon and be with our family forever!

On August 20th we celebrated TWO years of marriage!  That is crazy to me!  We experienced so much in those two years and grew so much closer as a couple!  It seemed like they just flew by because we were so busy and having so much fun!  Anyways... for our celebration we spent a couple days in down town Dallas!  Here we are feeding Giraffs at the Dallas Zoo!

Here is Justin touching the hungry giraffes!

 Side Note:  Justin is probably the funniest person to go to the zoo with because at every single exhibit he attempts to mimic that animals sound in order to get the animals to come closer to him!  I tried to record him but he caught on to me pretty fast and refused to make the animal noises until I stopped... so I did because it was way more fun when he did make the animal noises.  Anyways... I hope that everyone gets the experience of attending a zoo with him at some point in their lifetime.. it's just one of those things you have to experience!

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER

In September and October we were pretty busy with work and being pregnant... that is to say I was busy with being pregnant and Justin was busy with dealing with me being pregnant.
I got a job at REI in Dallas, which for me was like working in Heaven.  And Justin got 2 jobs, one at the PGA superstore, which for him was also like working in Heaven.  And the second was doing dry cleaning delivery with Brother Bickmore in our ward.

Also I got a crazy skin rash on my legs and found out I was allergic to Neosporin which is LAME!  ... haha who is allergic to Neosporin?!  I am apparently!

Here is me with swollen ankles and my skin rash...  ridiculous!

NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER

In November we said goodbye to another grandparent.  Justin's Grandma Johnson passed away on November 2nd.  Luckily I was not too far along to fly so we were both able to make it out to Moab for her funeral.  It was amazing to be able to learn about her life and the amazing legacy she left behind. This was the first time that Justin and his siblings had all been together since before Justin's mission!  It was awesome to be able to see all 8 siblings interacting together!

The Martin Clan

The rest of the year went by so fast!  Kindra and Niel and their kids came out for Thanksgiving which I again have no pictures of (I am slacker with the camera some times I guess).  I stopped working at REI on the December 9th and then we had Trace on December 13th!

All in all 2011 was an amazing year.  But so far, because of Trace, 2012 has been even better!  

BEST. DAY. EVER!

So, the big news in our house as of late is that Justin was accepted into medical school!  We will be moving to El Paso, Texas in May and he will be starting med school at Texas Tech in July!  We were so excited, relieved, and grateful when we found out!  And life has seemed so much brighter ever since!

Here is Justin with his acceptance letter!  

Justin and Trace celebrating (notice how Justin is wearing his scrubs)!

For those who don't know, this was the end of a long journey for us and I am going delve sort of deep for a bit and write about some of my feelings from the past couple years.  The process of applying to medical school is so stressful!  I am so amazed when I look back over the past 2 and a half years that Justin was able to accomplish all that he did.  There were a couple semesters where he was balancing 16 credits at BYU, volunteering at the Provo hospital, job shadowing, doing research, working, fulfilling church callings (some of which were pretty stressful like ward financial clerk),  studying for the MCAT, taking the MCAT, playing basketball (this was his stress relief), and of course being an amazing husband to his crazy emotional wife!  Then there came the application process with its essays, deadlines, fees, and interviews which always seemed to be offered at the last minute leading to expensive plane tickets and frantic schedules.

It was pretty hard when we did not get in the first year.  We went into the process with such high hopes and then those dreams were put on hold.  I think I speak for both of us when I say we spent a lot of time asking why we had not gotten in that first year.  We did not understand, we had done everything the schools had asked, we had applied early, we had spent money for new suits for interviews, and all those plane tickets, and we had been trying to live our lives right.  I definitely had a couple "woe is me" pity party moments after which I was reminded of 2 sayings.  First, "life's tough, get a helmet", and second, a saying that my mom always says, "If this is the worst thing that happens we'll be ok!".  And so we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and with hope and faith that everything happens for a reason applied for year #2!

Now looking back I can truly say that I am so grateful we did not get in that first year.  Yes it was hard to not know where we would living, and yes it was hard not be able to make long term plans.  For a while it felt like we were living in a sort of post BYU Limbo having no idea where we would end up.  However, there were things that I needed to learn about myself and there were lessons that I needed to learn from my Father in Heaven during this time that I would not have learned otherwise.  These lessons are priceless to me and I truly think that I am a better person because of them.  Also, in moving to Plano for the year we have strengthened many friendships, and made so many new friendships that we never would have had otherwise.  There were some hard times in the past couple years, but overall there was also a lot of joy in the journey and I am so grateful we experienced all we did.  We both grew individually and as a couple.  All in all, I am just reminded that everything happens for a reason and that our Heavenly Father is always mindful of us and knows exactly what we need even when we don't!

Thank you to everyone who prayed and fasted for us, we are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family!  I am so proud of Justin and the fact that he worked so hard and achieved his goal, and we are so excited to start this new chapter in our lives!

We will enjoy beautiful sunsets like this for the next 4 years in El Paso!

Trace's Hair

So, Trace was born with a lot of hair! We get comments all the time on how much hair he has, and how it is always sticking straight up!

I love it so much, especially because it reminds me of Justin's hair! Just like his dad's hair, Trace's hair has a mind of it's own... I used to be able to control it and comb it down... but now that Trace is moving around a lot more it just gets all messed up and ends up sticking up all over the place no matter what... kind of like his dad's hair :)

Here is a funny video of Trace when he was 3 weeks old...

We love your hair Trace! Please don't pull it all out! :)

He's Getting HUGE!

So I don't know when or how it happened but suddenly Trace looks GINORMOUS to me! I'm pretty sure that he is just going through one long growth spurt since he was born. I am so excited that he is growing and that he is learning new things. But at the same time it makes me sad because i feel like it is all happening so fast! But here are some pictures to show you what life is like for Trace since he was born 7 weeks ago!

1 day old Trace

He is already getting a million picures taken of him!

2 days old

Bringing him home and of course he is fast asleep like he was for most of his first few weeks!

The poor little guy had Jaundice so he did some serious sun-bathing!

This him sitting in the sun pondering the meaning of life.

He is the most popular person in our house!

Justin and I have facetimed/skyped more since Trace was born than ever before. And it's not us people want to see, it's Trace!

Here is Trace with some of his Aunts!

He poops a TON!

This is Trace next to the poop log from the Diaper Genie!

Trace watches a lot of Basketball games with his dad.

This is Justin and Trace on Christmas Day watching the Mav's vs. Heat game.

Side Story: The first night we had Trace in the hospital Justin took him in his arms and said, "Trace, important people to know are; first, Jesus Christ, second, Lebron James!"...

haha! there were more people on the list after Lebron but I forget who they were... This shows us all where Justin's priorities lie, first to God (thank goodness), and second to Basketball.

Yes I sure hope Trace will enjoy watching/playing basketball because that is what his dad loves to do most! :)

Trace makes a lot of funny faces!

Trace get's a lot of lovin' from his mama!

(He doesn't get the whole look at the camera part of pictures yet)

Trace get's some pretty cool hair styles!

A personal favorite of ours is the fohawk

Trace has finally decided that he doesn't have to scream during his entire bath!

(He still does not look to excited... but trust me, this face is an improvement!)

Here is 6 week old Trace!

11 lbs and 24 inches tall!

Yes, Trace is a cutie, and we are loving having his funny little personality in our family!

Oh Baby Baby!

Once upon a time 6 weeks ago we had a baby! On tuesday December 13th I went in to the doctors for a simple check up. While there I was told that I was indeed going into labor and that my blood pressure was a little high. So Dr. Gebert told me to walk myself on downstairs and check myself into labor and delivery and he would be there shortly to check up on my progress! So I called Justin and told him to grab the hospital bag, then I called my mom and told her to get on the next flight to Dallas, and I waddled myself on down to labor and delivery!

So I checked into the hospital at 11:00 am. My water broke at 12:00 pm. I got an epidural at 3:00 pm. My mom made it to the hospital room by 5:30 pm, thanks to Jerry's fast driving (and of course having the Camero helped as well)! And at 6:53 pm our lives changed forever when little Trace Justin Martin came into the world at 6 lbs 7 ounces and 18 inches tall!

Justin and I at the hospital!

My dad on facetime before the delivery!

Trace came out screaming!

Our first family picture!

Justin is one proud dad!

I just love my little man!

Jerry and Sara helped us out so much! We owe them big time!

Here is a picture of Trace and his Uncle Jerry!

(a friend of ours commented that Jerry is holding Trace like a football... haha)

I was so relieved that my mom made it there in time! I'll tell you that nothing makes you appreciate your mom more than having a baby...

Trace and his Grandma Robison!

We just love "The Baby Trace"

All in all the pregnancy was fine... a little uncomfortable in the end... but fine. Delivery was a piece of cake! Seriously though, thank heavens for modern medicine and epidurals! And the first two weeks after were AWFUL! ya... people don't really prepare you for that... BUT, every time I hold Trace and look at his cute little face I just think about how it was all worth it! We love him and we are so happy to have this handsome little man in our family!