Wonderful Weekend

Well, this has been a wonderful weekend and we have enjoyed it from beginning to end. Friday was my sister Lis' birthday... Happy birthday Lis!!! It started it all out with me taking some time off in the morning to run around with Stephen for a few hours. We "made freedom count" and went to vote early. Now you can be sure that if the wrong person gets into office that I will be sure to be the one complaining. I figure you can't complain unless you vote, if you vote you can complain all you want, right?





Friday evening we spent sometime with the Law... well the in-laws that is. We had a wonderful dinner at Don Mateos in Roanoke. Yum! I think that our favorite thing to do is eat and hang out with each other. And we are so good at both!












Saturday morning started with getting the house ready. Since Stephen will be gone for a while he feels the need to get everything done for me that I might not be able to do. So his dad came over and we made a fun trip to Home Depot. They have so many fun items! As you can see here I thought these items might be nice ear muffs. Apparently the guys were not as enthusiastic as I was with this find. They are actually covers for the outside faucets that I will need to put them on in the winter when it gets cold - well that is their main purpose... luckily I have a great imagination! Well we got a lot of items marked off on Stephen's honey do list. So it was very productive. And I love productive days!













Then there was another great Red Socks game which they won again!















Later that day we all gathered at Tiff and Marc's for the Pumpkin carving party. There were some serious looking pumpkins out there. We took on a tough 100 piece puzzle and we won. Fall is in full swing!




















Today we took it pretty easy... well at least I did. Stephen had breakfast with the guys in our home team at I-HOP. And he was so sweet and brought me home some yummy harvest nut pancakes. I told y'all he was sweeter than sugar. We made it to church this evening and went through Luke 15. What a great word! We followed it up with dinner... of course! We had a great dinner at Patrizio's. Me, Stephen, Mom, Dad, and Nicci chowin' down. It was all good... I know because we rotated plates so that we all could have a little taste. I think the waitress might have thought we were nuts! Then topped the whole thing off with dream bars from Potbellys and coffee from Nestle Toll House Cafe... yes we hit all the main spots. And man was it good. The weather was perfect and the company even better!


Praise the Lord for birthdays (again)! Praise the Lord for Pumpkins (again)! Praise the Lord for family! Praise the Lord for good yummy food! And Praise the Lord for versatile tools at Home Depot!

Happy Monday!

This morning was extremely hard to get out of bed! This is Stephen’s last week at his current position so the motivation to get there is at an all time low. I think I literally kicked him out of the bed this morning. I was so enjoying the fact that the dog was at the vets this morning. We decided to board Liberty, our 6 month old puppy, this weekend so that I could take a weekend off. And boy was it nice. She is part lab and part monster. No, really she is going to be a great dog… she is just struggling with A.D.D. right now (Annoyingly Destructive Dog Disorder). She just loves to get into everything, and I mean everything. What I enjoyed the most this weekend was the sleep. You see, Liberty is a morning dog. Every morning without fail she whines until I let her out – so no sleeping in for me. All Stephen has to do is stick his good ear in the pillow and he goes right on sleeping. (The whole being deaf in one ear seems to be a little too convenient at times like this.) I guess this is just one way God is preparing me for children… but then instead of dropping them off at the vet we will be dropping them off at their grandparent’s house. Ha!


We had a successful birthday week for Stephen! He actually said that this was the best birthday that he has ever had. I take full credit for this, but as I think about it- I think he may just be saying that so that I won’t have another one of my emotional explosions… and probably a smart choice on his part. Thursday night (his actual birthday) we went to Ranchman’s for dinner, one of his new favorite spots. He got to enjoy some yummy mountain oysters or calf fries… if you know what these are you will never try them (I did not) but apparently Stephen loves them. (Yuck!) And we found out that some soap is made from cow fat… seriously! That puts an entire new spin on clean!













It was another fun family weekend! Friday night started it off with the celebration of Tiffany’s birthday. And she got the neatest gift, a cricut (pronounced cricket, not cry-cut) machine, which I am hoping that she will be willing to share with her loving sister-in-law. Saturday morning started off with dropping the dog off at the vet… this was the top priority of the day! Then we headed on to John Austin’s baseball game. Which they won! It was a great game and probably the closest one that they have had all season.
Saturday we enjoyed going to the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound! Some of those pumpkins were huge! We took a hay ride and got some kettle corn. Scratch that we got a ton of kettle corn. If you know the John Stephen Stadlers of this world, you know that they don’t do anything in moderation! And two of them together is quite the experience… but I love them both so much! That night we went to church, which was a great message that I needed. We leave every weekend thinking… I wish one weekend I wouldn’t feel like he was speaking right to me… but that has not happened yet- and for good reason.















Sunday we had some people over and grilled out. Unfortunately, I did not get one single picture. So you will have to use your imagination… Lots of family, lots of food, lots of fun… can’t you just picture it? We then ended the day by cuddling on the couch watching The Unit (this is actually one of the military shows that I enjoy).

It was a great weekend, but sadly marked the “I only have two weeks left with my husband before he leaves” weekend. I should be saying “I only have 54 weeks until my husband is back home weekend.” Positive thinking – see I told you that I was working on getting myself under control. Actually, God is working on that, but I sure do interfere with it quite often.

Praise the Lord for Birthdays (again)! Praise the Lord for family and friends! Praise the Lord for pumpkins! And Praise the Lord for the Roanoke Animal Hospital!

3 Weeks

Well, this weekend marked the “I only have three more weeks with my husband before he leaves” weekend. I am becoming more and more sensitive each day – which is not amusing to Stephen what so ever. It is all so silly too, but I can’t control it for some reason. He will do something like open my door and I start to tear up. Seriously! How sweet is he to be doing these sweet little gestures and I get all emotional because in my mind I am thinking I won’t be able to enjoy those sweet acts for an entire year! How selfish am I? He is probably being extra sweet because he wants to enjoy this time and really he is just feeding this flame of my emotional mess! Slowly I am getting my self under control, I think.

We had a fun weekend of family events! Hayden and Davis had their party yesterday at Pump it Up, which was so fun. I just love getting to see all the kids run recklessly through that place. John Austin had two great baseball games- Go Red Socks! And Saturday there was a surprise 35th birthday party for Tiff and Marc. Anyone that was there, I will go ahead and apologize for my behavior… I proved that I cannot handle wine. You would think that three glasses wouldn’t cause too much damage, but apparently I don’t apply to that assumption.

This week is Stephen’s birthday week, and since we like to celebrate things big this should be an exciting week!

Praise the Lord for birthdays! Praise the Lord for family! Praise the Lord for forgiveness! And Praise the Lord for the next three weeks!

My name is Martha; I am now a blogger…

Yes, it is true… I have jumped on the band wagon and I have officially become a blogger! Initially, I thought, nah maybe later on when I have kids or something, it’s not really my thing. But for those of you who have not heard… my darling husband will be leaving for a year to be in Iraq… AGAIN! So I thought that this would be a great way to document it all and keep everyone informed (including Stephen).

I do currently, obsessively, read other blogs – amazing blogs! I am not setting my expectations too high, so I suggest you do the same. I am NOT at all great at writing; English was probably my worst subject. And that is why I am currently a Budget Specialist and loving it. So hopefully no one will feel the need to “red pen” my blog.

I am still trying to cope with the fact that he will be gone for an entire year, but am trying my best to not be selfish about the situation. He will get to come home a time or two and we should be able to talk and have much more flexibility than we did with the military. He will be going with his company and he is very, very excited about it. That’s my Stephen! The heart of a Solider! You can take the man out of the military, but you can’t take the military out of the man! (We are actually watching the military channel right now – don’t be jealous.)










(Stephen is the one in the middle.)










(Isn't that smile amazing!)

I honestly never thought that I could ever love someone as much as I do Stephen. He is an amazing man of God who is loving and caring and oh, I could go on forever… He is so intelligent and creative, compassionate and genuine with a smile that is unforgettable! We have been married for almost three years now and it has been the craziest, strangest, happiest, most wonderful three years of my life. I remember before Stephen and I got married my wonderful mother-in-love (future at the time) told me “It’s going to be an adventure!” And boy has it! But I am at the edge of my seat to see what happens next!














We would love if you could please keep us in your prayers during this fun adventure!