Close To You: A Birthday Post!

On the day that you were born,
the angels got together
and decided to create a dream come true . . .

Not too shabby, eh?!?   ;p

I decided that since my parents were pretty much the major part of this day being a thing, I'd call them up and ask them to share one of their first memories of the day of my birth. So without further adieu, the story of me:

From mom: 

You were born in the afternoon and you were two weeks early. I was so surprised when I realized I was going into labor that I just packed a bag real quick and jumped in the cab wearing my pajamas and my hair rollers. It was like a Carol Burnett moment! And I gave birth to you in my pajamas and hair rollers too! You weighed 6 pounds. And we gave you your name—we had it picked out and it's the one I really wanted to give you. I wanted a little girl so bad and I got what I wanted! I was very happy to have you. You had jaundice, so I had to keep taking you back to the hospital for check-ups. I told the doctors that I'd keep bringing you back, as long as I could bring you home! I wouldn't trade you for anything in the world.  You were very smart, very cute, very everything we ever wanted.

From dad: 

The day before you were born, I was out in Stuttgart, which is almost 2 and a half hours away from Nuremberg Hospital. I worked that morning on the 2nd and then I went home to get some sleep. When I finally got home, my sergeant called me and told me to call him back. When I did, he said, "Hey boy, somebody called and said your wife is going to have your baby! You need to come home right now!" I was half asleep, but I went home, got packed as fast as I could through the snow, and drove to Nuremburg. I was so tired, I stopped all along the way at three different Gast Hauses to get some espresso to make it to you! I finally got to the hospital and asked if the baby had already been born, and they said no, and I was so relieved! After you were born, I was so excited to see my baby girl! You had a tremendous amount of beautiful black hair. You were so beautiful, my Mandy Pandy.

They also shared some other milestones with me and some of their thoughts of who I was as I was growing up. It really made me appreciate the way they navigated through my shenanigans. I have truly lived a blessed life full of ups and downs and I am looking forward to another year of wonderful milestones and memories!

Today's wonderful birthday wouldn't have been as awesome without hearing their stories, and without the love I got from ALL of my friends! Here are some other great moments from my special day:

 A sweet note from one of our work volunteers, Gale

 A fruit tray that Gale got me—she knows I'm doing the game on diet, so she brought me fruit with Greek Yogurt! Then she and my boss sat down and told me all of their favorite things about me and what they appreciated about me. :) 


Then I went over to Alisa's house and she treated me to pizza from my favorite pizza joint, Pagliacci Pizza! She also baked me a cake and invited some people to come over and join us for a nice evening before my big trip—PERRRRFECT!

My friend Maggie brought over this creative snack tray for me!

 This is the AMAZING cake that Alisa baked for me! It was yellow cake with chocolate frosting—my fave!! I had told her daughter that I was turning 4, so they got me a 4 candle to blow out.  ;p

 All my cards and my birthday balloon from the evening!

And I finished the night, coming home to
this sweet birthday message from my housemates!

Today, I truly felt celebrated! I'm looking forward to many more years of celebrating!

I Think I'm Getting Older

Today is my birthday! A little video blog love for ya! :D

Birthday Video Blog: I THINK I'M GETTING OLDER from amanda martinez on Vimeo.

It's my birthday! Help me celebrate the twenty eight!

PS: today we're going to pretend that I'm turning 27 okay?? :D yay! hehehehehe!
PSS: I failed math.

Also as a bonus today, I asked people to share a short/sweet memory that they have of times with me! Randomly throughout the day, I will post them here for all to see and enjoy! Thanks for 27 great years of memories and I look forward to more!

S.G. > Happy Birthday!! First thing I thought of was your Turkey Dance! Hahaha
M.W. > HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! And camp Rise and your suitecase and the stairs, so good. I have more :)
B.P. > :D bday!! Fav memory was def the 'we've got cookies!' night! Also, the family dinners, sat morning brkfast. ...too many to choose..
D.A. > Happy Birthday! and, via your request, cue the indian
K.M. > meeting in Seattle,while Mark & I were @ a conf. Protein Planet, shopping,that hippie stringed instrument store & the ?able marquee. Going 2 lunch with you for the 1sttime in Austin & getting 2 know you a little. I knew right away-I'd found an "adopted daughter
K.D. > Happy Birthday! One of my favorite memories of you - and this is a loooooooooong time ago, is all of your witty wise cracks from the color guard locker room, they were a riot! ...
One of my favorite( and obscure)quotes is "how can we miss you, if you don't leave?" ;) Have a great Birthday! :)
E.Z. > Happy Birthday!!!! Favorite memory??? How bout my entire first year! Snores-ville bunk-mate...LOVE YOU! Have a wonderful day!
A.M. > Happy birthday!!!!! My favorite memory has to be all of us acting a fool up in the prop room!
B.A. > Happy Birthday!!! :) I think to describe my favorite memory with you I just need one word.... BEENO! bahahaha I love you! ♥
E.A. > happy birthday! my favorite memory is the Portico Christmas party
J.C. > HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! remember when we worked at hallmark and you snuck out to get free burts bees stuff then our manager came down stairs.. I was scared, but we didn't get caught! :)
P.L. >Happy Birthday Amanda! Hope you have a fabulous day and maybe even get some Chick Fil A! =) My favorite memory I think has definitely got to be our summer trip this year....more specifically the "5", HAHA! Unforgettable! =)
L.C. > Happy Birthday!! TOO MANY memories! chicken bank, life lessons involving water & media track
C.C. > happy Bday! "My chicken bank won't put out!"
D.M. > happy b-day, left you a vm (I'm kind of a creeper in it). Best memory, wow, too many. Shober receipts, HOF flyers, slapping Jordan, your music video, Let's Get It Started, dragons & HSM tattoos, your sweet MCA jeapardy games, & French fries @ McDonalds

Hammond Song

My birthday is about 4 months away. . .and I think I discovered a wondermous birthday present:

On Nov. 3rd (my b-day), the U.S. version of HOW TO BE will be released!! wheee!! I love it! :D









Okay so really i love Rob Pattinson, but hey it counts. It's a really fun movie :D

Real Life Fairytale

Yesterday was so much fun! 

The morning started off a little rough... I got on the wrong bus. :(
(the blue shape is my house, the red shape is where I went at first, and the green shape is where I needed to go.)

You see, I use the online metro transit site to navigate my way around here, but when I typed Meridian Park into the destination line, I guess it never occurred to me that there was not only a Meridian Park in the Wallingford neighborhood, but there's also apparently a MERIDIAN PARK neighborhood in Shoreline, which is the COMPLETE opposite direction of where I needed to go. :(  who knew...

Anyway, I finally made it to the party and had a great time helping Christiaan Vodegel celebrate his FIRST birthday! :D  




And if it's possible at all, I think I've actually fallen head over heels in love with a park—MERIDIAN PARK!  It was so whimsical and all the playground equipment was just...the bee's knees! seriously!  All of the decor was centered around storybooks.  And there was SO much to do! I WISH this stuff had been around when I was a kid...it's seriously so innovative!











Then after the party, I headed over to Soundview Playfields in Crown Hill for a DOUBLE HEADER game! We didn't win either game, but we had a whole lot of fun just playing and cheering each other on and laughing so hard.  :D Unfortunately, we were short on players so I didn't get to take a whole lot of pictures, but trust me, it was fun...

...Unless you count the umpire, who obviously didn't know what was going on. First of all, he was calling really bad calls. But what's worse is that he would call it, and then be like, "I think it was a...." (REALLY??!!??) And then when he would make calls, he would kind of say them under his breath so we had to constantly ask him to repeat what the call was. And playing catcher, it was so creeptastic because he was all up in my area and i actually accidentally pushed him against the back board because he was so up on me that it was a natural chain reaction.  In my head I was like, "Look, H-Umpire... ease up off."  Aside from the umpire madness, it was a great time!  :D

This is My Birthday Song...It Isn't Very Long.... (but in reality it kinda is)

Okay, so now that I've won the award for longest blog title, let's move on!

First of all, a great big huge THANK YOU to everyone who made my birthday special! From the phone calls to the texts, to the cards in the mail, to the FB and Myspace comments...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Even if you were a day late or a few days later, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I am realizing more and more how truly blessed my life is because I have all of you who are such an important part of my life! :D

Well, I must admit, for not having all my friends and family around, this birthday was pretty amazing! I actually had a spectacular birthday weekend & day!

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS>

Friday was Halloween, and Westside Church hosted an event called CANDY ZONE for all the neighborhood families...and it was so much fun!! I dressed up as a nurse/doctor and worked the Welcome table with a new friend named Anna-Karin Roo! She dressed up like a Hershey's Kiss and it was so cute! I got to talk to Vanessa on Halloween, and she was putting on her Cinderella Costume...and she goes, "What are you going to be for Halloween?" and I was like, "I'm going to be a doctor." and she was like, "A doctor?" and I said "Yeah, a doctor" and she goes: "I want to be a doctor for Halloween!" so cute!!! But since I had sent the money home for them to take her costume shopping and she had all her Cinderella stuff, I said, "well, maybe next year. This year you can be Cinderella, okay, my pretty pretty princess?" And she said okay! I LOVE THAT GIRL!! :D Candy Zone rocked! It was so fun to be around all the kiddos and make them smile and it was awesome to connect with new people at Westside! And, as I was waiting for the bus, thinking about all the crazies that ride the bus on Halloween night, Deborah Siers (the worship pastor's wife) pulled up to the stop and gave me a ride home!! We had such a great conversation! I love her!
This is a pic of me and Anna Karen:



SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER>


One of my birthday presents from my Aunt Olga was a $25 gift card for Barnes and Noble, so Saturday, I went downtown and watched a movie and spent hours at Barnes and Noble! And bought some new books: Twilight, Sybil, and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas! Yes, I know, all movie books! hahahahahahahaha! While I was downtown, I also got some new stuff from Old Navy and Urban Outfitters...including...a new rug to go in my room!! And it's lime green to match the decor!! woot!

SUNDAY MORNING>


Sunday was such a great day! I had some a sweet quiet time at Loyal Heights Elementary while I was walking and praying through the park. :D Then I got to church and got to sit next to Annie, who is amazing and one of my coolest new friends at Westside! The message was really good and I was glad to get to see everyone...and some of the kids from kids church came up and gave me hugs before they went downstairs for kids church! so sweet! Then, I went home and made some lunch and got ready to head downtown for my big BIRTHDAY PRESENT to myself: THE MISSY HIGGINS CONCERT AT THE SHOWBOX down at Pike Place Market!! I had soooo much fun!!! And I got to meet new people and laugh all night at ridiculous concert commenters!! Joshua Radin opened...and he has such a good voice. :D And Missy and her band rocked the night!! Here's come pics and some video from the night...it's all borrowed cause my phone didn't capture the best footage and pics due to the crowd noise levels and the lighting. :D Enjoy!








And here's some video footage! She seriously is one of the most beautiful, talented singers/songwriters I know! And her stage presence is amazing! I got to stand at the very front of the stage...it was AMAZING!!!

Missy Higgins: SCAR


Missy Higgins: SUGARCANE


Missy Higgins: WHERE I STOOD


Missy Higgins & Joshua Radin: LONG RIDE HOME (cover of Patty Griffin song)
*by the way, the person filming this was right behind me...i'm the one with the dark hair with all the bobby pins standing in front of Joshua Radin!


Overall, it was such an amazing night! I got a new Missy Higgins shirt and a Joshua Radin tank top! So fun! I went home smiling so big and just replaying it all in my head!


MONDAY, MONDAY>



Was my actual birthday!! And, the first call I got that morning was from....MY DADDY!!! all the way from Iraq!! It was soooo good to talk to him!! He told me my birthday present was dinner at Cheesecake Factory on his Check Card! So that's where I'm going for lunch this Saturday! :D Then my mom called, a few more friends called, and I even got to talk to P.Dizz my Nizz for a while, which made me super happy! My facebook was flooded with well wished and it was just a super awesome birthday!! My boss even got me a CACTUS-GRAM for my birthday! And so far, it's still alive! :D And I got some great birthday cards and other gifts that were so amazing!! It was such a fun day!! And then, to top it off, I had small groups at Westside that night, and we had a fellowship night and everyone wished me a happy birthday and Kim Normand baked me a cake!!! And everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and the Vodegel's gave me a ride home!! What a blessed day it was!!!


Again, I am just so thankful for everyone who is a part of my life! I probably don't say it enough, but you guys are all such amazing people and I'm so glad you're part of my life!!

So now I'm 27 and though I am older, I still feel so young at heart and so happy!! It's been an amazing journey so far here in Seattle and God has blessed me in so many ways through it all! Love you guys! Until later...peace out!