Oh Ya, I have a Blog

Hey, remember me? Geez I am getting so bad at this blogging thing. We've been so busy lately, its been hard for me to find the time to do it. We have been partying it up with so many friends and family. Every night we're out doing something. Its been hard for me to motivate myself to finish my last two summer classes before we leave on our 3 week vacation next week. It seems like just yesterday I had 3 weeks and now I'm down to one! Ahhh! Time to really buckle down. Anyways here's a little of what has been going on the past while. I've tried to be diligent in taking pictures of everything, but I haven't been very successful. Oh well. There's still a TON of pictures. Enjoy!

Ray and I had the amazing opportunity to go to my all time favorite musical - Les Miserables! It was such a good play. I was a little disappointed in Jean Valjean. He had a gorgeous voice but he couldn't belt out the high notes. Overall, it was SO good! Thank you KayLa for such a wonderful birthday present! My boss also gave us tickets to two more plays - To Kill A Mocking Bird and Scapin. The first one was a little slow but it was still good. Scapin was so funny though. I was laughing so hard I started crying. Oh, man it was so good!

Summer Games! Our friends Kylee and Paul were in the ultimate frizbee tournament and we decided to go support them. They did awesome! They won third overall. I totally think they would have won first if it weren't for the wind. It was brutal. But we still had a lot of fun watching them! Maybe next year I'll join their team.



Mady and Dori are so cute together. They LOVE playing with each other and get so excited when they see each other. So adorable. I just happened to snatch this cute picture just in time. They were watching a movie and were so snuggly and cute together. I'm so glad Mady has good friends her age to play with.

Remember how I said we had been doing things every night? Yep, well sometimes we stay up a little too late and then put on a movie and this is what happens. Haha best picture every. This is Aaron and Taylor Remer, this is usually what happens when we turn on a moive late at night. Its been so fun hanging out with them and eating dinner at 9-10pm at night just so Ray can eat with us. Haha love it!

So I had to post a picture of this. Ray and I were in the other room when we heard a huge crash. We ran in to find this. We had a large vase full of coins sitting atop the toilet. I know perfect place huh? I have no idea what made it fall but my favorite vase is no more. I was a little sad over it. Of course, before I just cleaned everything up and put the coins somewhere else, I had to count them to see how much we had saved.

$98.59. Ray and I had always said that when the vase was full we would go on a big trip. Yeah we didn't even get 1/4 of the way. But oh well, I'll just have to buy another huge vase and keep going.

The 4th of July was way fun with all our friends. I was a little bummed out when I found out Ray had to work and my plans for going to Ephraim to celebrate went down the drain. But it was so much fun being with our friends and hanging out with everyone. We all got up early and went to the parade, which was ok. Nothing fancy.

Poor Mady was so scared of all the loud firetrucks and police cars that went past. Paul was kind enough to try and plug her ears to make it more bearable.

Mady and Dori had so much fun with Paul in catching the candy and stuffing it in their mouths.

We then grabbed some luch and went to the lake for some sun tanning and cooling off. It was a perfect day to play in the lake. Mady had a blast in the water. Dori was a little scared after he took a spill and went under water. He just stayed on the beach after that.

All the guys - Dion, Paul, and Ray

All of us girls - Ada, Shay, and Kylee

Oh and can't forget little Baby Boy Munk. Isn't her belly so cute! Makes me miss it.

Dori and Mady playing in the sand.

Such a cute couple, no?

Ray had to leave to work as soon as we got home, so he missed our big BBQ. We had all our friends come over and eat some delicious grub and play some games before fireworks. It was so much fun!

Because of the fires, Cedar was only allowed to do fireworks at five different spots around town that had big parking lots. We didn't buy any fireworks for ourselves so it worked out perfectly because we just mooched off of everyone elses. Mady didn't like the noise too much and sat in my lap the whole time but she loved watching the "pretty lights". Ray also got off at 9:30 just in time to watch the big ones the city puts off.

Paul and Kylee had some sparklers that we let the little kids play with. Mady was entranced by them.

Ray was so sweet this year. He suprised me the day before my birthday by packing a bag for Mady and I and whisking us away. I had no idea where he was taking us, but when I woke up in Richfield, I realized we were going to my house. I was so excited! My family was waiting for us at my favorite restruant - Snow Dragon where we had a delicious lunch. We then did some shopping where my Mom had me pick out my favorite meal. I decided a nice taco salad with fruit sounded delicious.

I really wanted to go visit my Grandparents and play some games with them. So we had dinner and cake with them as well. We also did presents. It was so much fun!

We had some delicious icecream snickers cake with oreo icecream and then a strawberry lemon yogurt cake I made. It was all so good.

I love this man so much! He does so much for me! Thanks for such an amazing birthday! I love you!

Don't I have the cutest family alive? I think so too.

The next day before we left, my family took us bowling. It was a lot of fun!

It was Mady's first time bowling, and she loved it!

On our way out of town, we stopped by the Temple for Mady. She is so obssessed with Temples, its so cute. She was just in awe over the Manti Temple.

I was ready to get back to Cedar and to get things done. However, I didn't know Ray had something else up his sleave. But we left EPhraim a little too early, so Ray drived 60mph the whole way as well as made some stops. We were listening to a book on tape so I thought Ray was just enjoying it and wanted to go slow; which I was fine with. Mady and I slept most of the way anyways.

We also stopped at Cove Fort and decided to do the tour. At first I didn't want to go, I just wanted to get home. But I"m glad we took the time to do the tour. It was so nice there and the Spirit so strong.

Of course, we had to take a few pictures. 

And some more

Don't we make such lovely pioneers?

These are the gun holes that surround the Fort.

I really liked this room. Our tour guide told us how the Pioneers wouldn't wasted anything. She told us about how the bed sheets in the corners would be used until they were worn out. Then they would be made into pants, then pants to socks, then socks to yarn, then yarn to rugs, then rugs to burn in the fires, then the ashes would be used to make soap. I may have missed something in there but isn't that amazing? Makes me think of all the crap I throw away could potentially be used for somthing else.

We left Ephraim at 4:30pm and go to Cedar at 8:30pm. Ray made it take four hours for us to get home. And the reason being is because all my friends were waiting to have a birthday dinner with me, but they couldn't do it until 8:30. So Ray had to buy us some time. Haha thanks so much you guys! I love you all! Best birthday ever!

I stayed up last night doing until two in the morning doing my homework, watching some chick flicks, and making these lovely meals. I'm so excited to try them out. I made 8 crockpot meals that can be frozen and then just thrown into the crockpot when we want them. It'll be so nice when I'm too tired or lazy to cook something up. Thank you Pintrest!

Well there you have it. I may or may not have time to post before we leave for three weeks. I have ALOT to get ready before then. I have to have all the stuff done for my classes, Mady packed for three weeks. Me packed for three weeks. I need to pack for Girl's Camp. I need to finalize my devotional for Girl's Camp. And so much more! Until next time!



Update Overdue

I'm so sorry I have been MIA for the past month, there has been so much going on. Most of it can be due to me thinking of better and funner things than blogging. But anyways, here's a little bit of what has been going on, in no particular order:

1. Cooking, Cleaning, Entertaining
To be honest, I feel like I am going through that "nesting" process that happens during pregnancy. I can't stand to have a messy house. Not to mention how much I have enjoyed cooking....sweets that is. You know how I wanted to loose weight? Haha well I'm not gaining, which is the good part - thanks to running and working out everyday, but I'm definietly not helping myself loose it. And what better way to have an excuse to make the sweets than to entertain. It has been so fun to have big BBQs and have great friends over to eat, laugh, and play. And what better than to have people over and not feel embarrassed cause my house being a disaster? Lovin this "nesting" feeling and so is my hubby....lets hope is stays awhile. The picture below? One of my favorite meals right now - stuffed peppers....oh man my mouth is watering.

2. Wayman Reunion
Every year my Dad's side of the family goes to Palisade Lake, right outside of Manti, and camps. Since I've been married, Ray and I haven't been able to attend, until this year. It was so fun, even though we only stayed one night. It was wonderful to see everyone and Mady had a blast. She was in heaven having so many kids to play with, not to mention the lake and pools we had set up. We didn't even try to put her down for her naps. She didn't do well in the night because of the wind. Unfortunetly, Cedar City's wind followed us. Mady woke up quite a few times saying, "Mady's scared! Mady's scared!". Poor girl. She slept really good the next night, in my aunts house. Hopefully we'll be able to make it next year.

3. Stake Youth Conference Trek
I had the wonderful opportunity to go with my awesome girls on a trek. It was a quite stenuous, difficult, emotionally draining, fun trip. I am so glad that I was able to go with such amazing youth and be able to experience something that was a little too real compared to what the pioneers really went through. I am so grateful for the chance I had to become closer with my girls as well as my leaders. We had a lot of fun admist the circumstance. And I'm so grateful to get to know and become friends with the other youth in our stake. We have such strong youth in our stake and I am so grateful to them for their faithfulness, love, and compassion that was shown. It was a trip I will never forget. Below is a picture of my family. Brother Rose and I were the Ma and Pa of one of the biggest families. We had 13 children - 6 girls and 7 boys.

This is a picture of the girls in my ward. Aren't they just as lovely as ever? From right to left - Jamie, Morrigan, Tori, Tabby, and me.

4. Playing Endlessly with Mady

Mady has been so funny lately with everything she has been doing. She keeps us constantly on our toes, while making us laugh endlessly. She is always watching us, to where we are starting to have to keep her out while we do things. Case and point - she loves putting on deodorant uder her "ampits". And due to my carelessness, I have had to put my tampon box way out of her reach. Due to her trying to use one while sitting on the "big potty". She loves to try and feed her fishy. And don't even mention the fridge. She loves getting her own food and drink. She's been really good and eating things but not finishing them. She eats a couple bits then she's done. Then she brings us something else she wants to eat, again and again. She is getting really good and counting to ten and saying her ABCs. I also love that she says please and thank you to just about anything you give or do for her. I just can't get enough of her! Love love love her!



I had to share this picture, it just cracks me up how funny she is. She wanted to go outside, but I told her not till she got dressed. So her way of getting dressed was to put on her pajama shirt, pink panties, and her boots.

Mady has also started to sit through movies. She loves sitting in her princess chair and watching whatever show. Dora the Explorer and Yo Gabba Gabba is what she will sit through episode after episode. I know, such a bad Mom for letting her watch them. But there are somedays where she does not want to go outside and play, and I have laundry, homework, cleaning, work, or cooking to do - sometimes all the above. So I think I'm entitled to some "Bad Mom Days". Don't you?

5. Friends

I can't even begin to describe how lucky we are to have such amazing friends surrounding us. In the past year we have grown so close to so many amazing people. The Munks, who have been there for us for quite sometime now, who are so amazing in every way. We are so sad we won't be able to live next door to them come next month, but we're glad that their only a ten minute drive away. I don't know what we would do without them. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to the two cutest pregnant ladies I know, Kylee Dowse and Ashley Whetman. I love the girl time we have just hanging out outside while all three of our babes play. Mady loves playing with Maddox and Ty. And I love my girl time. We have loved getting to know our newest neighbors - the Burnetts. They are seriously such an awesome couple! Not only are they so fun and make us laugh constantly, Mady is in love with them. She is always asking for "Paul? Kylee? Where are they?" It is so cute. It has been so much fun hanging out with them. We love how active and full of energy they are, which makes us go out and have fun. Geez does that make us sound old? We love hanging out with them. Also I have to give a huge shout out to Ray's awesome Nursing buddies! We have gotten to know two couples who we absolutely love - Tricia and Joe, and Aaron and Taylor. Seirously these are the most amazing people ever. And don't even get me started on my besties Alicia and KayLa. These two girls are like my sisters. I don't know where I would be without them.  How lucky are we to have such awesome people to hang out with? So blessed!

6. Early Birthday Presents

Man this year I have been SPOILED! My Dad has been working on Ray and I's birthday present for a couple of months now. Just last week my Dad brought down the finishing project. Isn't it amazing!? We LOVE it! Best present ever! We love how we have a place for all our important papers, our bills, coupons, paychecks, homework papers, and so on. It has been wonderful! Thank you so much Dad! You did such an amazing job! Love you!!



As you see from above, I said "Present 'S'. Yep, that is plural. My bestie, KayLa, bought me a present that ties the best present ever. She bought me tickets to my favorite musical - Les Miserables!!!!! She is sooooo awesome! We go this Wednesday and we couldn't be more excited. I have seriously been counting down the days. Thank you so much, KayLa! You are seriously the BEST!!! Oh PS - have you seen that their making a new Les Miserables??? I am so excited! It comes this December!! Go HERE to watch the preview. It may or may not have brought tears to my eyes.



7. Glitter Toes!

I've been wanting some cute toes FOREVER now that it has been summer. So one day I decided to do something about it. I was a little skeptical, but thanks to this awesome girl and her amazing blog, I was able to make my toes look FANTASTIC! I wish I had gotten a picture of all of my friend's toes, but mine will have to suffice. I love love love them! 

8. BOOK!

I finally found a book to read that is not a textbook! And man, it has been so hard not to just be consumed by it and forget the world. It is SOO good! I've heard about the Wheel of Time series back in highschool, but I never read it. Thanks to my neighbor, Paul, I am sucked into it. I haven't even been watching any of my tv shows - which is saying something. And to just think, there are 13 books in the series. I'm nervous for what this means for me come fall when school starts and I'm taking 15-18 credits worth of Master classes. I don't see any good coming from that. Hopefully I will be able to manage my time between it and school. Or maybe take a break all together. With me luck on that one. 

9. Job Offers

I feel as if I have been so blessed lately with potential job opportunities. Remember when I told you about my job interview I had with a firm in SLC? If not go here - Item number 2. Anyways, I haven't heard back from their firm if I have or haven't gotten the job. But the more I have thought about it over the past few weeks, the more I am completely fine if I don't get it. Even though it is exactly what I want and the pay would be nice as well as benefits and most of all the experience, I feel it would be very hard on my family. In the meantime, I have met with two other firms, both of which has offered me potential jobs. One in Orem and the other in Ephraim. We haven't decided anything yet, but we are so grateful for the opportunities coming our way and know the Lord is looking out for us.

10. Horseback Riding!

I can't even begin to explain how awesome today was. It was the BEST DAY EVER! Seriously, I was in Heaven! Our amazing friends, Taylor and Aaron, invited us to their Grandparents farm just outside of New Harmony to go horseback riding with them. Their Grandpa had the most beautiful land I have ever seen with the most gorgeous log cabin house, backyard, arenas, barns (yes that's plural), and everything! He has over 80 acres of land! I wish I had taken pictures of his gorgeous house. It was like I was living my dream. It was sooo beautiful. The house was big enough for their whole family to come stay for reunions and such. They had so many rooms, great rooms, kitchens, bathrooms galore, game rooms, and so on. It was amazing. And their horses were so pretty. He has about 10, I think, maybe more. Next time I'll take pictures. Taylor invited me to go riding with her more. Oh, how I have missed it! I can't thank them enough for making today the best day ever for me! It was so much fun! Here are a few pictures of the day: 

Well there you have it. Most of what has been going on at the Martels. I promise I'll be better at updating. If I'm not, feel free to bug me about it. :) 

A Dramatic Turn of Events

I have been thinking long and hard over if I was going to post this or not. I wrote it all down hoping that it would help me get it off my chest and mind. And seeing how this is kind of my journal it was written here. Much of this is very personal and maybe a little too detailed. But this will be printed and added to the rest of my blog books that will be passed down. So this post is for me.

June 8, 2012
Today is a day I will always remember. I think I'm still in shock from the days events. Today I had a man die on me - in my arms.

It was the second day of our Stake Youth Conference Pioneer Trek. We were out at Three Peaks, just fifteen minutes west of Enoch. The day before we had gone four miles, it was quite hard on the kids and even myself. The sun was so hot. We were told that today was going to be even harder and longer. We had planned to go around eight miles through very rough terrain and up steep slopes. It was very trying. Luckily we had the wind blowing, making it more bearable than yesterday. Of course it meant more dust in the eyes and mouth, but I think everyone would take that over the heat.
We had gone about four miles when it happened. It was around 12:00-12:30pm. We were about a forth of a mile out of our designated lunch stop, when a man, I would know later as George Kaczmar collapsed. I saw him trip and try to get up but fell again and didn't move. I rushed over to try and help the other leaders. We flipped him onto his back and I immediately grabbed his legs to elevate them, as I assumed it was heat exhaustion. I yelled to have everyone back away and give us space. When I looked down again, his face was dark bluish/purple and his body began to spas as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. I knew then this wasn't heat exhaustion. I knew he was suffering from a major heart attack or stroke. I thought heat stroke and yelled, "He's having a stoke!" I yelled that we needed the nurse who had come on this trek, now. He husband responded to me saying she had gone home sick the day before. I felt my stomach drop. This man was going to die if we didn't get medical help soon.
I knew enough that we needed to start CPR and started asking the leaders around me if they knew how. Everyone was panicking and I realized then that if we were going to save this man's life we needed to act quickly. Two weeks ago for our Young Women activity we had CPR training on dolls and a pillow girl. We mostly let the girls preform CPR while the leaders watched. I will be forever grateful to Bonnie Imlay, our teacher. without her telling us everything about CPR, I wouldn't have been able to do what I did next.
When I saw that people were ignoring me and were trying to push him over onto his side hoping that would help him breath, I started yelling, "Stop! We have to do CPR! I need someone to help me do CPR, do you know how? Ok, good. You start the compressions, I'll breath. I need someone to count for me! Is someone calling 911? We need shade!" And on and on I went. Finally, people started to calm down. As another Brother and I switched off doing compressions. We kept checking for the pulse that was never there. And after a few minutes of CPR, we did get a few breaths. But they were far apart, about 15-20 seconds in between each breath.

As I heart the man on the phone with 911 trying to describe our location, I knew we needed coordinates. Just the night before, Kristy, one of my other YW leaders, had used her smart phone for GPS. I looked frantically through the legs of the people around me to find one of my youth. I spotted Morrigan Kelly and yelled at her to get Kristy. She must have heard me because when I felt a hand on my shoulder telling me to take a break, it was her.
I kept going. It had been at least twenty minutes from the last time we had him breathing his shallow, short gasps. I had remembered from Bonnie, that you could not stop until the EMTs arrived, nor did I want to stop. I could feel myself breaking his ribs as I did my compressions. I saw his mouth foam as I tried to breath for him. I saw his stomach blowing up as we pumped more air into him. I remembered soon after those twenty minutes had passed, I knew he was gone. I could just feel it, somehow. I had someone switch me out at this point as I started crying. I was glad Kristy was there the comfort I desperately needed. I remember looking around seeing that all the youth and other leaders were gone. I was glad they weren't there for this. I remember looking at the small group around me thinking, "Do they know he's gone?" But as they worked, I still hoped. I was no nurse; my knowledge of the medical world was very slim - Ray was the nurse, and I helped him study, I watched videos with him, and let him practice on me. But in reality, I knew next to nothing. I could be wrong. He could still come back. We just have to hold out until the medics get here.

We were told life flight could not land near us and we would have to take him to the shooting range, which was a mile or two back from where we came. We moved him onto the trailer hooked to the Rhino and continued our CPR. We stopped a little ways down the road when we were told life flight could land just above us on the hill. About 5-10 minutes later, two EMTs came running down the hill and took over. They got a D-Fib into him and started him on EPI by drilling into his shin. They shocked him twice to restart his heart, but he was still flat lined. About ten minutes of them working on him they said they would need to call it. All I remember thinking was that he's dead and his wife doesn't even know. The few leaders around me all started crying as we all hugged each other for the support we needed. I couldn't stop crying. I didn't even know this man and I felt like everyone had given his life to me to save. I had failed them. I had failed him.

We split up - half going back to the youth and half going with the body. I opted to go back with the youth. I didn't want to face his family and friends. We had decided not to tell the youth what had happened. We would go straight back to camp, pack up, and go home. We took a detour, which made it so we were only a mile away from camp. Once everyone got there, we all gathered around the Stake Presidency, where we were told that he had passed away and that we were all to pack up and go home. All I could think about was getting back home to Ray and Mady. I needed their love and comfort.

My mind keeps replaying the incident, trying to find something I missed; knowing I must have done something wrong. He would have lived if only I had did something differently. I just know it. I must have missed something that I could have prevented. I think that's what I'm scared of. That even thought I"m not a nurse and don't know very much about anything that way, and I know I did everything to the best of my knowledge right then, I could have saved him if only I had known this, or maybe have remembered this from when I was helping Ray studying it or something. I was the leader in trying to save that man's life. Everyone was looking to me and listening to my instructions. And I feel as if I have failed them.

June 14, 2012
For the past  week, I have received call after call from people who was there beside me helping me save Brother Kaczmar's life. Each of them telling me how amazed they are by me, how exceptional I was to take charge in such a crisis, that their life is changed because of me. Oh, how I hated these calls. I do not feel exceptional. I do not feel amazing. I don't know why when everyone around me was panicking I stayed calm. I don't know why I took charge so quickly and yelled out instructions, when I hardly knew what I was doing myself. I couldn't have done it without everyone there.

I went to his viewing. I was told it would help to get closure. I guess in a way it did. I'm glad my mother came with me. I don't think I could have done it alone. The line was so very long. His wife, Linda, came out of the room to talk to people because it was so long and they had to start the funeral service soon. When she came our way, my mother thought that she should tell her who I was, since I wasn't going to say anything. When my mom told her, she just looked at us, nodded her head and moved on. Her reaction crushed me. It just added to my fears - that she looked at me in a way that said I didn't save her husband. I failed her. I had been trying to get over those feelings and she brought them to life. I just wanted to leave. But my mother made me stay to walk through the rest of the line with his children and then to see him in the casket. I didn't want to do either of them. I didn't want to tell the kids who I was either, because of their mother's reaction. So when they asked me who I was, I just said I was on the trek with him. However, my mother opened her mouth again. Their reaction was different though. They all hugged me so tightly and said thank you. I think it was because of his six children's reaction that I have felt more peace about this whole thing. It was hard seeing him and when I did, I couldn't help but sob. Being reminded of everything that had happened when I have been trying ever to hard to get rid of the memory.

Now that all is said and done, I'm glad I went. I think it was the closure I needed. Most of all I'm glad it is all over. People aren't calling me anymore, no talk about his funeral coming up. Its over.