life is so busy...

Ok, I have fallen off the blog bandwagon this year. I can make a ton of excuses about why I am not updating but I have only one that I will share here... I am tired.

I will say that I love to blog. I like putting my thoughts down, so I can go back later and reflect on where I was at that moment in my life. I have just ran out of time to blog. I don't work in a job where I have time to take breaks and dispel the thoughts in my head, most of the time my head is spinning.

I have had a few things happen recently that are worthy of some blog posts. I am reluctant to wait any longer before the thoughts leave my head, so here is a summary and maybe I will get time to go into greater detail.

Cool things this summer:

We took a trip to Nashville. We enjoyed a leisure walk to the Parthenon. It almost ended with divorce and 2 kids hoping for Dad to get a taken out by a drive by shooting... thank you Nashville Transit Authority for the ride back to the hotel. All in all, a nice little getaway.

The band had an opportunity to open up for Big Daddy Weave. This was big for us. We had a great time, and i feel we did our best to represent for our friends, families and our community. The Paramount Theater was amazing! The crowd of people who came out to support us was very exciting and a bit humbling to say the least. The Jason Lovins Band were fantastic and really went out of their way to accommodate the band. We felt very welcome on the stage of the Paramount...2 songs later and a Standing O...i am sure can thank "the mfer's" for that one! (Note to self: from this day forward NEVER refer to the fans and friends of "the mfe" as "mfer's" :) )

A few weeks ago, Jen took a trip to NYC! A girls weekend away from the family. I got to spend a ton of time with my kids. Just the three of us...sort of. In the life of Marty, you often have "other" family members that tend to frequent our presence when Jen is away. Maddie, Caroline and I had a great weekend... with Luke, Trent, Jordan, Carter, Val, and Jon Mark. What can I say, I tend to travel with an entourage. We spent the better half of Saturday cleaning out the new Band Van...code name Vanzilla! We played at Firefest which spent most of the day trying to recover from all of the rain. We nicknamed it Smolderfest, due to all of the rain. We finally played around 6:30 before Day of Fire took the stage. We grabbed dinner with the gang and then crashed at my house to organize the van. Kids only 2 hours late for bedtime...CHECK.

Sunday was a day to ourselves. Swimming all afternoon. Good times. The storms came again. So we camped out on the screened porch and watch the rain. it was dark. No lights on so we could watch the lighting. I started telling stories about doing the same thing with my Grandparents as a kid. I watched many a storm from my Grandparents porch. For the next hour or so, I told Maddie and Caroline story after story about their Great Grandparents. They sat and listened so closely. It was dark, we could not see each others faces. I think I cried through most of the stories. The girls cried too. They wanted to know all about them. Every detail. This moment was so precious to me. I will never forget what Maddie said, "Dad, I didn't even know them, but I love them so much. I can't wait to see them in heaven." Caroline chimed in, "I love them too. I miss Grandma Perky." It took me a minute or two to recover from those words. I too, miss Papaw Lewis, Grandma Rosemary, Pap and Grandma Perky. I have faith that one day, Maddie, we will get to see them in heaven, too.