Saturday, November 28, 2009

Various pictures from the week Papaw went to Heaven.

Not in any order.....

Dad hates Mayonaise...
Me & Kelly
Kelly & Kaine
Kaine wearing Papaw's Navy cap

Everyone playing games. (Bobby & Dad were playing too.)

Aunt Deb and Kaine making a scrapbook of fall leaves.

Mom & Marlinda
Nathan & Kaine playing together.
The family eating dinner after the funeral.






Me & Pete after the funeral
Wes & Kelly

Doesn't he look good in his suit!!
Ken & Gracie before the funeral
Gracie on the "Martin Grandkids Tricycle."

This is one of my favorites....

After the visitation, Becky&Jim, Pete&Kelly, Josh&Amy and Wes & I went to Outback.




Dad, Me and Uncle Chris

Grandpa Ken is training his Grandkids early... She knows how the remote works.

After church on Sunday, we ate at McAllisters.


Running Group Photo....

Here's a picture of my running partners... Tim Irvine and John Johnson. Tim and I run together on Tuesday's & Thursday's. John joins us sometimes. John and I do our long runs together on Saturdays.
John and I did 15 miles today. I had to get a new Nike+ sensor because on Thursday, my sensor died in the middle of the run. I calibrated it yesterday, and then this morning when I tried to use it, it didn't work. I think the receiver is messed up. Bottom line is that my counter is now 30 miles off (10 from last month, 5.6 from Thursday and 15 today.) I bought a new receiver and sensor today. Hopefully that will fix it. Perfect timing for it to die one week before the race. Anyway, I feel really good about the race and my training. John and I had a hug after our run. We were pretty proud of ourselves... :)

Memphis, here I come!!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

8 DAYS!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.... I'm at work.. ARRGHH!! Wes & I went to Quitman to eat with his Aunt's family. Then I had to come to work. Mom's on call and since everyone was here last week, they are enjoying a quiet day today. We're going shopping in the morning!! :) EVEN WES!!!! Well, kind of. He'll probably go to Sam's and that's it.

This week's been pretty busy. Pete left yesterday. Bob & Kaine left Monday. We had lunch at work on Wednesday. Through all the funeral and Thanksgiving activities, I've managed to keep up with my running schedule. Ran this morning with Tim. Our last trail run before the race. I'm running 15 on Saturday with John. 8 days away!!!! I am so excited! I can't wait.. After I made it through that 22 mile run a few weeks ago, I wasn't nervous anymore. I'll try to update Facebook while I'm running. I'll be texting Mom & Wes throughout so they can meet me along the race route a few times.

Tomorrow, Mom & I are doing the Black Friday thing, and then we're meeting Josh & Amy for lunch. Then back to work, unfortunately! BUT, the good thing is I'm getting holiday pay for Thursday AND Friday!

I have lots of pictures from this past week to post. Some are on Facebook. I took some while everyone was here for the funeral and then some today. I'll try to post them all this weekend.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Martin Family Reunion in Heaven


Papaw joined Mamaw, his Brothers and Sisters, his parents and Jesus today. This morning around 8:45 am, Papaw took his last breathe. Mom, Ken, Virginia, Paulette, and I were with him. He went peacefully into the light and took a healthy deep breath of fresh heavenly air.

I never intended to be there when he took his last breath, but somehow, I felt comforted by being there. I honestly didn't think I was strong enough to handle it. I underestimated myself. When Mamaw died, I wasn't there. I grieved a lot. It took me a long time to feel peace. Today, I felt peace almost immediately. I cried and prayed, but it was a praise cry. A thank you God cry. Not that I wanted him to go, but I knew that he would be in a much better place, with many loved ones. Breathing easier. (I hate smoking).

Everyone pulled together today. While Mom, Ken and I were taking care of funeral and cemetery arrangements, Pete, Kelly and Wes went to the nursing home and emptied Papaw's room. I don't think it was something we had to do today, but it's done. The room is empty (actually someone else is already moved in it). I think this was the best help that happened today. There's no rush to move furniture or go through clothes. I took care of the obituary (I've been working on it for a few days). Others are working on picture collages and things like that.

Because Bobby cannot get here until tomorrow evening, the visitation will be on Thursday evening. The funeral is set for Friday at 10:30am. Thanks to everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers. Mom and Ken are doing okay. I think they are both relieved that Papaw isn't suffering anymore. Virginia is still having a hard time. We'll all be grieving in our own ways, but I think the peace is felt throughout the family.

Here's the obituary.

John Paul Martin
Christian Husband and Father
US Navy Retired

Funeral services for John Paul Martin, 80, of Meridian will be held on November 20 at 10:30 am at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home. Mr. Martin died Tuesday, November 17 at Riley Hospital, Meridian. Burial with full military honors will be at Forrest Lawn Cemetery. Robert Barham Family Funeral Home, Meridian, is in charge of arrangements. Mr. Martin was born March 4, 1929, in Vardaman, Mississippi, to Addie Mae Harden Martin and Michael Carol Martin. He attended Vardaman High School. He married Mary Inez Long of Blaine, Mississippi on July 30, 1949. They were married for 53 years, until her death in 2002. He married Virginia Stewart on November 22, 2003. He was a faithful member of Northcrest Baptist Church, where he sang in the choir and served as a deacon for many years. Mr. Martin earned the rank of Senior Chief in the US Navy, and served his country for 26 years. During his career, he served on numerous ships, and retired as a recruiter in Meridian in 1975. After retirement, he worked for Irby’s Optical in Meridian. He will be remembered as a beloved Father, Husband, Grandfather, Great Grandfather and Brother. He is preceded in death by his parents, his wife of 53 years, Mary Inez Martin, six brothers; Manley, Wayne, Felix, Charles, Mike Jr., and James, and three sisters; Bernice, Pearl and Ann.

Survivors include his wife, Virginia Martin; three children, Kenneth Paul (and Debra) Martin of Vicksburg, Robert James (and Masayo) Martin of Kaneohe, Hawaii, and Sheila Gail (and David) Kowall of Enterprise; two stepchildren, Travis Stewart and Paulette Buchanan, both of Meridian; one brother, Dale Martin of Leland; two sisters, Bonnie Naron of Vardaman, Mary Ruth Johnson of Woodland; seven grandchildren, Becky (and Jim) Dennis of Vicksburg, Laura (and Jay) Knight of Brandon, Evelyn (and Wes) Watkins of Meridian, Pete (and Kelly) Kowall of Charleston, South Carolina, Joshua (and Amy) Martin of Pearl, Kaine Martin and Daichi Martin of Kaneohe, Hawaii; and two great-grandchildren, Nathan Knight and Gracie Dennis.

Pallbearers will be provided by the military. Honorary pallbearers are Pete Kowall, Josh Martin, Jim Dennis, Wes Watkins, Jay Knight and Andy Martin. Visitation will be on Thursday, November 19, from 5-8pm at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home. The Revs. Malcolm Lewis, Max Burris, Danny Lanier, and Paul Davis will be officiating.

The family requests memorial donations to be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (http://www.cff.org/) or the Boomer Esiason Foundation (http://www.esiason.org/).

Monday, November 16, 2009

Papaw.

Papaw is back in the hospital. He was only out of the hospital for about 12 hours. We went back to the nursing home last night, but this morning, his breathing became very labored and we went back. He's unconscious and the nurses are keeping him comfortable.

It's only a matter of time. Please pray for us.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

stuff

Papaw's back in the hospital again. He has pneumonia. again. His weight has dropped significantly also. Please remember him/everyone else in your prayers... Spent a little time up there today with him. He was confused, as usual. At one time, I stood next to his bed and he looked at me smiling and said "Look at you, you're a big girl." I laughed and asked him what he meant. He said I was growing up. I asked him how old he thought I was. He said "5 or 6." He was smiling at me like I was a little kid again. It was nice to see him with a genuine smile again.

Running 22 on Saturday... So far this week hasn't been as "hellish" as the schedule claims... (It is week 13 btw) Ran 8 on Monday, 8 on Tuesday and 6 today. Resting up for Saturday. This is the last "longer" run till the race. The next two saturdays are both 13 miles each, which is nothing to me now. It's weird to say that... a half marathon is easy! :)

Pete's in Norfolk this week for "processing" and should be going to Indianapolis in the next few days. He'll be at Camp Atterberry for training until February. The training he'll do is real-life training, where they are in a dessert setting, eating MRE's and learning their job's risks. Kind of like survival training I guess.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Lots of news this week...

Lots of new things this week. Not much of it is good news though...

We learned this week that Pete will be leaving for Afghanistan the second week of February. What's new about this is instead of being there for 10 months, he'll be there for 22 months! A LOT LONGER than originally thought! Pete's excited about it.. Everyone else, not so much! This time, he'll actually be on land instead of on a ship like the last deployments(or cruises as they're called in the Navy). Something else for me to lose sleep over.....

Dad's surgery has been cancelled. He was supposed to have it next week, but they are looking at new x-rays and will call him back soon. Not sure what the deal is with that.

Grandmother (Dad's mom) is having back problems. She had an MRI today. Not sure what the deal is there either.

Next week is going to be the toughest week for me training. Next Saturday is the longest run I'll do before the race (22 miles!) and the week's total is the largest out of the entire 16 week training schedule (44 miles). I have a 15 mile run tomorrow. I missed yesterday's 7 mile run because I was sick on Wed/Thurs. I did 4 1/5 today, but mostly walked it because I was coughing a lot. I feel much better, just need to get rid of this cough and phlegm junk. Thomas has been out with his knee/IT band issues. He's been running a lot on grass (less impact) but has missed several long runs. Hopefully, he'll be okay for the big day.