Baby Powell

We are already 23 weeks pregnant! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going! I know it will go even faster when school starts and things get hectic and crazy ( in a good way). We had a baby gender revealing party on July 23rd and are excited to welcome a baby girl. Many names have been discussed and the one I believe we have decided on is... Harper Lynn Powell. Now that we know the gender, nursery planning, etc has been put into motion! We also decided to do cloth diapers, HOWEVER there are many new cloth diapers on the market that are much more modern and convenient than the old school cloth diapers that were folded and pinned with a clothes pin. We are excited about GDiapers which give mommy and daddy the option to insert disposable or cloth inserts depending on the situation. We are also excited about Fuzzubunz, Thirsties, and Charlie Banana cloth/reusable diapers (all of which can be ordered online at Target). We are currently registered at Babies R Us and Target. We look forward to bringing home baby Harper in early December and starting this new journey in life and parenthood!

This week Harper has been kicking and moving around like crazy! Our trusty pregnancy bible (Pregnancy by Dr. Laura Riley) mentions she will be more active this week than ever, her brain will be growing, and most major organs will be fully developed and working hard! Mommy will be forgetful (nothing new) and a bit more fatigued than normal. Surprisingly, my energy levels have been doing well. Next week with Vball double workouts and classroom preparation may be another story.

Pictures of the gender revealing party to come soon!

Lately...

... Two things!

I passed the CSET Subtest I!!! Woohoo! Two more to go. I am thinking that I will try and take them both at the same time in Novemember! The next test date is September 11, but there are so many festivities going on in September for us, I figured I would be more motivated to study for the November test date. However, once I pass those tests, I only have two more courses and my TPA's. I will then, officially be finished with school! Just have to wait for approval on the student teaching waiver, and I will be a credentialed teacher with a Master's in Elementary Education! The countdown is on!!!!

Next, my wisdom teeth extraction went well! I was so drugged up I was telling the dentist to just yank harder and the teeth would just come out! Apparently, I was ready for them to be out of my mouth! LOL! Even though I was awake through the entire surgery and remember pretty much the whole event, I was on a lot of sedation pills that made me quite loopy! KJ came to pick me up for the surgery an hour and a half after I took the first set of sedation pills, and I did not recognize him. I was asking how he got into my house. Once I finally remembered who he was, I was extremely difficult. I was all over the place and saying crazy things! This, I don't remember. Nor do I remember my father picking me up from the surgery! My dad said that I was awake and slurring my words the whole way home, but I literally have no recollection of any of this. It is crazy how the drugs worked for me. I wasn't supposed to remember the surgery, but I did. I was supposed to remember everything before and after the surgery, but I didn't.... hmmmm.... let's just be thankful I don't have to deal with medication on a regular basis!!!!

Since the surgery, healing has been a slow go, but I had no swelling at all. I followed the dentists instructions and drank pineapple juice for two whole weeks before the surgery. It is really complicated to eat these days. I had the surgery over a week ago now, and I am still in pain here and there. Eating is complicated and painful at times. You would think I would have lost my appetite, but no, I am still loving food. I just take 10 times longer to eat than normal.

Done Housesitting for the Summer!

Although we thoroughly enjoyed all the housesitting that we have done this summer, it is nice to be back home in our own bed! It was such a blessing to be able to take care of people's homes and animals, especially in Chowctaw Valley where it is beautiful and peaceful. We didn't have the opportunity to take a summer vacation together so we kind of considered our housesitting adventures as little getaways.

After arriving home yesterday, I realized just how much I had been wanting to do to our apartment for so many months now. So, I took yesterday to finish decorating the guest bedroom, decorate some of the bare walls, and FINALLY got some frames purchased so we can get some prints of our wedding up on our walls. Redecorating, cleaning, and laundry took the entire day, but is well worth it. I love the smell and sparkle of a freshly cleaned home! I literally did every bit of laundry and after all this time, realized that we actually do not have enough hangers to hang all of our clothes if they are all clean at the same time.... back to Target we go.

Looking forward to Church today, especially since the Powell family will actually be complete. Dustin and Rebekah are home from their summer project in Tampa. I only heard Rebekah's stories, but it seems that God was moving in mighty ways in Tampa!

As much as I hate the dentist...

... I will be relieved once he yanks out my wisdom teeth!

Since Monday, I have been dealing with excruciating pain in the lower right wisdom tooth. I literally have been unable to function normally since the pain started. I was taking regular anti-inflamitories but they hardly helped. Ice packs on my cheeks as well as mushy foods were also only a bit of help. I finally decided on Thursday that I needed to see a dentist. I went to my dentist on Friday afternoon and he said, "WOW, that is really bad." I told him that I extremely dislike going to the dentist so it has to be really bad for me to even show up! The quickest they could get me in to do the extraction of all 4 wisdom teeth is August 4th! I have to wait a week and a half in this awful pain! In the meantime the dentist gave me vicadin.... I hate that stuff too. It makes me feel soooo gross, AND it only really relieves a small bit of pain as well! GOODNESS.. this is going to be a long week and half, especially considering that I will be teaching several of those days before the surgery.. :0(

Studying Woes!

I am supposed to be studying!

Instead I enjoy playing with my new quick pop maker!

For those of you who don't know, I am studying for my first of the 3-set tests for the CSET. I am soooo not ready and the exam is on Saturday! I am taking the english, language, and history set of the exam. I studied for several days and then took a few days off. Now I will be getting back into studying today through Saturday! The CSET is for my credential! I am really only about 15 credits short of my Master's of Elementary Education and Teaching Credential. This is exciting except for the fact that there are hardly any teaching jobs in the entire nation right now! :0(... well, at least I have part of a teaching job this year!

Summer Time = Summer Treats

Zoku Quick Pop Maker

I have been looking all summer for well-made popsicle molds! I remember being young and on 4th of July we would always have homemade ice cream (working on getting an ice cream maker as well) and my mom had homemade popsicles made for us all summer long! So as I was continually let down by cheapy Target or WalMart (no offense) brand popsicle molds, I knew there had to be something better out there! Alas! Our cousin Ginnie wrote something on her Facebook about the Zoku Quick Pop Maker and I was thrilled! It wasn't until I actually realized that we had a Williams Sanoma in Bakersfield that I made KJ rush me there and we bought the whole shabang!!! I couldn't wait to get some pops made so this morning, bright and early, as soon as KJ left for work... I began making my first batch of pops! The picture is the OJ-BananaBerry ones I made. They were my first batch and my most successful batch. I made a second batch that were BananaBerry-Vanilla Yogurt-TropiocalBerry... well those ones turned out alright, but the yogurt had air bubbles and didn't form correctly. Then my last attempt to make Kj something that he would enjoy was the layered HersheySyrup-Chocolate Fudgsicle. Well, just so you all know, Hershey's Syrup does NOT freeze... annoying! So anyway, the fudge layers froze lovely, but the chocolate syrup layers kind of just melted right off! As you can imagine they look awful silly but I saved two so KJ would at least be able to eat the fudgsicle part and not feel completely left out of my new pop craze!!!

New Journey in Life!

Again, another several months has passed since I have updated... I promise to get better at this, and you will soon learn why...

Since the new year, we continued to work hard and have crazy conflicting schedules that never really allowed us to have the desired household routine; go to work, come home from work, wife cooks dinner, husband of new wife smiles then says dinner is good and asks for more, lay down on the couch and watch tv together, go to bed.... (that would have been ideal)! It went more like, one of us was still sleeping while the other left for work, and then one of us came home from work while the other had already been asleep for hours :0(. NOT IDEAL FOR GROWTH IN MARRIAGE! However, many wise old timers told us to enjoy it for now.... (ugh)!

So, in the spirit of economical change, we are taking on a new pace in life starting this upcoming September! I had been praying for a while for God to reveal a way that my life could slow down. I was working over 50 hours a week and then coming home to do my own homework for my Master's and Credential (the degree that never ends) until late every night. It was killer! I was miserable and loathed my fast paced, never enough time in the day lifestyle! Needless to say, I was literally begging God to help lead the way toward a more sane lifestyle for our marriage. I have the desire to be at home more, taking care of the house. I have the desire to have the time and energy to make my husband lunch everyday for work just like my mom always did for my dad. I have the desire to look somewhat cute when my husband comes home from work and welcome him home with dinner on the table. And even though I know this is not so much of a reality for dual income households, I still have that desire. I love my husband so much and see his servant's heart and absolutely love all of the ways that he serves me and it just breaks my heart that I feel like I have not been able to fill my days with wifely duties that match my own standards of what wives can do for their families. In addition, KJ and I wanted to be able to spend more time in prayer together. We feel that this is so important for the spiritual growth in our marriage and we really have only been leaving a little prayer journal out for one another to read about the other's prayer requests. In addition, we have recently become members and Valley Baptist. It is our wonderful new church home! We have been praying for a church home and different ministries that we can give to monetarily and voluntarily.

So after months of praying God has answered my prayers.

I will now only be teaching part time at Heritage. With many changes that are taking place at the school due to the economy, one of them was that Sam and I will now be partner teaching one of the 2nd grade classes. God is good and has now allowed an entire half of a day for me to be at home! What a faithful God we serve! I am so excited for this because I really believe this is God allowing me to fulfill the desires of my heart! And even though our finances are literally chopped up by 1/3, we will make it through! It will definitely be tough, and our diligence will be tested daily, but we are still blessed to be able to stay living under our own roof! I am still praying that this will not allow for more things to come into my life that the things that are here will be less rushed and I can be more relaxed and dedicated/focused on finishing my degree (only 15 units to go) and being more of the wife that I desire to be.

KJ has also made some changes! The Lord opened doors for KJ to be a seasonal firefighter. This allowed KJ to leave Fellowship Baptist and move on from the church in order for us to find our own church together as a newly married couple. However, due to the state of California having a major budget crisis, his crew has still not been brought on and may never be brought on this season. He has been pursuing working with other crews, but in the mean time has taken a full-time job with Killian Pest Control since there are just no gaurantees right now with the fire crew. He is still with CVS and will probably stay on until our finances balance out after September. He has been so blessed to find these jobs as many people struggle daily for employment. I recently read in a news article that Bakersfield was listed as the highest unemployment rate in the nation, as well as the most impoverished city in the nation (not sure what this was all based on, but CRAZY!). So, needless to say, we are thankful for our income, no matter how little it may seem.

Thankfully we were able to meet up with a wonderful couple last night, David and Emily Rimestead. They are friends of KJ's from growing up and now my friends as well! Last night they allowed us to learn more about their upcoming ministry opportunity and have allowed us to join their support team! We believe that they are following God's calling for their lives in fulfilling the great commission! We are so thankful for the opportunity to be giving to such a great ministry. They are a wonderful team and we couldn't be happier for them!

One last tid bit...

There aren't plans for any babies yet. I know so many of you have been wondering and asking, etc. However, it is probably best that I get through my last 15 units of school and make sure that I can fulfill my teaching contract this upcoming school year. (Thanks for your concern!)