Preparing for Harper's Arrival

We have been excitedly preparing for Harper's arrival. It seems like almost yesterday that we found out we were pregnant, and now we have weekly Dr. visits that keep us on our toes! There has been so much involved in preparing for a new addition to our little family! I sometimes feel overwhelmed, but mostly, we are excited and can't wait to hold our little bundle of joy in our arms. I have been dreaming about how beautiful she will be and the last few nights, I have been sleeping better than I have this entire pregnancy. Possibly God has given me a peace and contentment that I need in order to prepare me for what will come.

Family and friends have helped us prepare for our time with Harper as well. I have been blessed and truly appreciate the other mommies giving gentle advice when asked, as well as family members sharing in our excitement. We have had two showers already and are preparing for a third this weekend on the coast. We have been so richly blessed by the gifts from people that have truly helped us attain the necessities in order to raise up our little girl!

Our hospital bag is officially packed! I was a bit stressed about this part, as I had no clue what to bring and looking online and in all the parenting books, every one of them said something different to think about. I finally just settled on what I think I may need to get through a couple days in the hospital.

Harper's nursery is pretty much complete, with the exception of her bumper pad and dust ruffle that my mom is currently sewing together for her. Her dresser turned out lovely and both KJ and I love that we both took the time to refurbish it for her. The crib and changer are all ready to go, clothes washed, diapers prepared, and pretty much all we need is our little baby girl to complete the room!

At my Dr. appointment today, I was told that she has turned in my belly and her head is down in my pelvic region. Harper has officially assumed the position required for her to be brought into this world. However, I was not dialated yet, so the Dr. felt pretty certain she wouldn't come into our lives this week. As much as I was bummed to hear that because I can't wait to meet her, I was relieved to hear it as we don't want her to be too small or premature, and we are planning on doing some traveling to the coast this weekend to see family and friends.

We took our maternity pictures with KJ's cousin Ginny and loved how they turned out, but honestly would rather have pics of us with our baby girl in our arms. Check out our pics and we will post again once Harper has arrived!

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!!!