We're back!

Okay I know it's been SO long since I've posted - most people wont even remember I have a blog - but here we go. :)

So life has been great lately. We had our house on the market at the beginning of the summer and decided after a month to take the house off and just stay in this house for a bit longer (probably another 2 or 3 years). We live in a small 2 bedroom 2 1/2 bath home - but luckily the bedrooms are large and we will be able to add another little one to our family and still be able to stay in this house.
Speaking of adding another one... we have decided to try for a third. This came on kind of out of no-where. We had originally thought of trying for another one in about 6 or 7 months - but lately we have both been getting the serious baby itch. You know how that works - your baby turns 2 and all of a sudden they lose all that babyness... their smell, their attitude, their life style... the list goes on. We had the joy of watching our little neice baby Kate for a few hours and we just couldn't stop talking about how much we both wanted to add another one to the family. After that night we talked about it for a little while and then not again - not seriously at least. Then we had a pregnancy "scare" (not that either of us were scared at all - we were thrilled...). We took a test and it had come out positive - we were overjoyed with the results - however about 5 days later God was telling me to take another test - I listened... it was negative, I took another and it too was negative. The next day I started my period (possibly too much information - but I don't care. :) ). We were pretty much devestated to say the least but this made us seriously talk about having another one. We are both game! :) Now we just pray that all goes easily and smoothly (I have miscarried before and that was awful - I don't want to go through that again - Oh God I don't want to go through that again).

Ok enough about that... so what else has been going on you ask... well lots actually. We have decided to homeschool our kids and I've started with preschool for Molly. It's been fantastic so far. We do "school" 2 days a week (Tuesday and Thursdays mostly). She is such a smart little thing - I can't believe how quickly she's picking things up. I look forward to seeing the growth through the years.

We have also joined BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) which meets Wednesday mornings. At first I have to be honest I wasn't too thrilled with the whole thing - it seemed a little boring and too strict for me - but as I've gotten more used to the whole thing I have really begun to love it. The study is challenging and time consuming - but all in a good way. I feel like I'm getting to know God in a whole new way - which is always nice. :) The girls LOVE their program too -their teachers are so wonderful and they are really being challenged. It's awesome.

Jon and I are also leading a Community Group through our church on Thursday nights at our house. It's been great getting to know our group and discussing God's word. Right now we are working through a book called "Breaking the Idols of the Heart" - its taking us through the book of Ecclesiastes.

We (the girls and I) also go to our Moms Group at church - it's wonderful - what a fantastic group of women and kids. We love it and look forward to it every week. We meet Thursday mornings at the church. We do a trade off of bible study and play group every other week. It's great.

Let's see - what else are we doing.... can we actually fit anything else in? Oh sure... there are 24 hours in a day... I'm sure we can fit something else in... I think Jon would disagree however. :)



I think I will leave it at that for tonight - I am tired and it's time to relax and watch a movie with my hubby.

Foxy Lady

Charlotte is dancing to Foxy Lady right now. Man she's cute!

Jon is playing with his new toy that we bought him for Fathers Day. We got him the iShuffle - it's just like an iPod without the screen - you just push play and it randomly picks songs to play. it holds up to 250 songs and is the size of a silver dollar. It's so cute. :) I figured he could take it to the gym with him and listen to it on the Max on his long commutes to and from work. I would have loved to have bought him an iPod but they are a bit out of our price range at the moment.... so the iShuffle is what he got! :) He loves it!

Well now the girls are dancing to some 80's rap song - not a clue who it's by or what the title is - but they seem to like it! I don't think they have the best taste in music...

10 Seconds ago.....


My Conversation with Molly....

Me: Molly do you want to go get your sister out of bed?

Molly: Is Charlotte on the ground?

Me: I don't think so, I think she's in her bed still. Do you want to go get her?

Molly: Is Charlotte in my bed?

Me: I don't know - probably not - she's probably still in her bed. Do you want to go get her?

Molly: Sure. Is she in her bed?

Me: I think so.

Molly: Okay

Conversation from their room (through the monitor)

Molly: Hi Charlotte.

Charlotte: Hi!

Molly: Did you sleep in your bed?

Charlotte: Yea!

Molly: Did you play with the shoes?

Charlotte: Yea!

Molly: Let's go downstairs.

Charlotte: Okay!

Charlotte and Molly come down stairs - Charlotte is wearing 2 different shoes - both not hers and has another pair in her hands. Molly says: Can I have a snack? Now I must finish my blog and get my gorgeous daughters their snack! :)

This is the randomness I get to look forward to daily! :) Pretty amazing right?

Still years to decide.



Well Jon and I have started discussing more seriously the idea of homeschooling our girls. I know they are only 2 and 3, but the school years are approaching fast. We started looking at different preschools and their curriculum and decided that I will just homeschool Molly for preschool - I think I can do just as good of a job as anyone else (I mean I was a preschool teacher for a while and all...). Now we are discussing what we are going to do from there.....

We are not overly thrilled with the classroom sizes and the horror stories you hear about from kids in public school. Does this mean I don't think you can get a good education at a public school - no - not at all - my neice and nephew both go to public school (along with many others) and they are extremely bright and well behaved children. One of the biggest reasons we are looking more seriously at homeschool is because of the lack of innocense the kids of today seem to have. I have a neighbor who is 12 years old and in 6th grade - she talks about how all her friends are already kissing their "boyfriends" and that some kids in her school have already gone quite a bit further and that even some have already had sex. I do NOT want my precious daughters faced with such outrageously adult issues. It sickens me to think that children are growing up so fast and having to deal with things way out of their grasp.

Our number one reason however is what is being taught as "fact" in public school. I do not want my children growing up "knowing" evolution to be "fact" and being told that they are NOT allowed to pray, talk about God or any of the other nonsense that is continually being forced down our children's minds. I don't want to brain wash my children into believing everything I believe but I strongly feel that they should be raised to atleast know Jesus Christ as who we believe Him to be and be surrounded by other people who cherish our beliefs.

This is a very touchy subject - many people have their own opinion on the matter - some HATE the idea of homeschooling, others LOVE it. I personally think it's up to each individual parent and child to decide this. I would love to hear your opinion, but please don't be offended if I don't agree with it. You might not agree with mine either.... we can all still be friends! :)

If You Don't Like The Weather, Wait 10 Minutes.....

Well we had the most amazing day Saturday. It was supposed to be raining with a chance of thunder and lightening - ha! I laugh in the face of the weather man. Only God could have delivered such a perfect day!

We had Charlotte's birthday party at 3pm at my moms house. There were 17 kids, 15 adults, lots of sugar, and NO alcohol to subdue the craziness. If it had in fact been a day full of rain and thunder and lightening it would have been awful - but instead of yucky Oregon weather we had the PERFECT Oregon weather. It was about 75, sunny with a slight breeze. We had an amazing turn out and had so much fun. Charlotte walked away with a loot. Molly however has been playing with everything she got - and Charlotte couldn't care less.

After the party we came back home - by the time we all got in the house and completely unloaded the car the first rain dropped - within minutes it was pouring! It continued to get worse and worse and as you all know we ended the night with an amazing Thunder Storm. How amazing - right?

For Sale!

Our house is finally on the market. We've been talking about selling for about a year now - we finally decided now is the time. Mostly because we want to get into something bigger and something with a yard! We are truely "itchin'" for a yard. Summer is coming up and having the girls play in the street is really starting to drive me nuts....

Keeping a house clean 24/7 - ready to show - with 2 toddlers is a full time job. I am so tired all the time. I have noticed in the week that the house has been on the market that I start cleaning around 8am and then try to get out of the house once we are ready.... sadly NO one has come to look yet. I feel a little like if I just jinx it and leave the place a disaster someone will come - too bad that isn't really how it works huh? So if you happen to know anyone that wants a very cute 2 bedroom 2 1/2 bath townhouse/condo have them come by! :) I am so impatient and I know that this is a slow market right now... hopefully the right family or person comes by soon!!!

I'm one of THOSE parents....


Apparently Super Nanny would be a welcomed annoyance to our family. We have used a couple of her tricks as of late and BOTH worked absolutely perfectly! The most recent one we used was the "PaciFairy". Molly is/was extremely attached to the pacifier and I was freaking out about having to take it away - I knew I needed to (awhile ago infact) but was really not looking forward to having to go through it.... well the other night we did it! She is a true BIG KID now! I can't even believe how easy it was. We had her put ALL of her pacifiers in a bag and she sprinkled some glitter on them and closed the bag then she put them by the door for the PaciFairy to come get them and leave a toy in it's place. Jon took the girls upstairs and gave them a bath and while she was in the bath - sure enough the PaciFairy came and left her a movie (Jonah - Veggie Tales) and a Disney Princess pop up castle (tent) - she even left a trail of glitter through the house. When Molly came downstairs and saw it she was so excited! I got it on video tape. Anyway at bed time we laid her down without her plug and she only cried for about a half an hour and not even that bad - then she slept through the night..... holy crap! Last night was even better - she cried briefly and again slept through the night until 8:30am!!!!! I can't even tell you how happy I am that she no longer has a pacifier and I no longer feel like a horrible mom! Now we'll have to work on Charlotte - but I'm not ready for her to get rid of her plug yet.... she's my baby....

What a good day!!!

Other than the fact that the girls woke me up at 6:20am this morning - this is going to be a good day... I can just feel it. I weighed in this morning and I'm down 23 lbs (I know I can't believe it either), it's another BEAUTIFUL day, my house is clean, I'm drinking coffee and a good brisk walk to the park with the girls is calling my name.... I love days like this. I couldn't ask for better - well maybe if the girls didn't have this nagging cold (it just keeps getting passed back and forth)....

Anyway - I hope you all enjoy this beautiful day as well!!! Get outside and enjoy the weather - it's not going to last long - we are in Oregon after all.....

He was injured....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8Ihsccknw

Again?


Another College shooting?
My heart breaks for the families and friends of the 5 students who lost their lives yesterday at the shooting at NIU. My heart also breaks for the family and friends of the shooter - who took his life as well without leaving any reason as to why he did it. His dad came out of his house to tell the reporters to leave him alone that this was a very hard time for him - he apparently threw his arms up in the air and wept - I can't even imagine how he must feel....
This kind of thing scares me so much. I remember the Columbine shooting - I was still going to highschool at the time and was SURE that our school was next - the first week back to school after that shooting I remember feeling so unsure about everything and everyone. Now school shootings are becoming a somewhat normal thing. There have been so many I can't even remember them all. It makes me want to homeschool and shelter my girls from any possible dnager (of course I know I can't). I just don't understand why these things happen.

-18

Yep that would be 18lbs down!!! That is all - have a good day!!!!! I know I will.

No Nap!!!

So today Molly decided she did not want a nap - I let her lay up there for about an hour before deciding to bring her downstairs (to avoid her waking up Charlotte). Now she is sitting watching Cinderella eating a snack and is going to play with playdough for the first time....

May I ask you other moms out there - at what age did your kids stop taking a daily nap? Isn't she a little young? I don't think she is DONE taking naps - but she is obviously NOT tired right now..... am I closing in on the no more nap zone??? I don't think I'm ready for that yet.....

Yippie!!!

15 lbs to date! As of this morning I am down 15 lbs and Jon is down 16. I am so proud of us!

Together we have lost a toddler - pretty disgusting huh?

Speaking of toddlers - Molly is hiding underneath a blanket singing and Charlotte is trying to vacuum the stool - both in just their panties and diaper - man I love them! :)

That is all for now! Love you all!

Pathetic Night....


So tonight is one of those nights that I would call pathetic. I am sitting at home alone, well that's not fully true - the girls are upstairs sleeping, but mostly I'm home alone. Jon is at James' show tonight and I'm home with the babes. Normally I wouldn't have any problem with it - however tonight I have a really bad headache, nothing is on tv, I'm not into a good book, and I have eaten all my calories for today - so no snacking.... So I'm online trying desperately to fill my time and watching American Gladiators.... that's a whole 'nother post.... I will probably end up going to bed very soon. Jon just called and said that the first band hasn't even come on yet and it's 10pm - James doesn't play until third - Jon wont be home until well after 1am - I am not staying up for him - there is no way.

Hey but on a very exciting note - I'm down 12 lbs and I haven't missed one day of working out - Wednesday will be 4 weeks! I'm proud!

Well that's all for tonight.

I'm pretty much positive I'm going to bed now.

Duh!

So yesterday morning around 5am - Jon was getting ready to leave for work and we had heard the girls stering a bit but knew that they would go back to sleep. I needed to sneeze and really didn't want to do it because I was afraid it might wake the girls more... so I held it back and by doing so when I did sneeze I jerked my head so bad that I ended up hurting my neck badly. I had a doctors appointment for something else that day and while I was there I asked the doctor to look at my neck - she ended up prescribing some muscle relaxers. They don't work as well as I would like - really they just make me tired... oh well I'm sure my neck will heal with time - I'm such a moron!!! I wish I could have had a cooler story behind it - but no... just sneezing!! Man I'm getting old! :)

I have to give myself a slap on the back though (if it didn't kill my neck to do so) I still managed to do my workout last night without injuring my neck any further. I was freaking out that my stupid neck injury was going to possibly put a damper on my workout routine - but it didn't - I sucked it up and worked out anyway - drugged and everything! :)

It's been 2 weeks and 3 days so far and I havne't missed a single day of working out - some days I've done it twice a day. As of Wednesday morning I was down a total of 7 lbs and this morning I was down 2 more!! My doctor is thrilled with my progress and I have to admit - so am I!

Anyway - I think I'm going to go lay down while the girls are napping and get a little shut eye!

I'm Back!!!

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything knew.

So what's new you ask? Well let's see.... We had an amazing Christmas. The girls got so many gifts we had to actually move our furniture around just to accomodate. The day after Christmas was probably even better than the day of. The girls walked down stairs and literally walked from toy to toy to toy beaming with excitement - it was so classic. New Years Eve was nice. We started the evening over at Angela and Zack's party at the "Money Pit". We only stayed for about an hour and then headed home (we didn't have a sitter). We went over to our neighbors house and hung for about another hour when Jon decided to take the girls home and put them to bed - he let me stay. My neighbor and I ended up sitting and talking for a while and got a bit drunk off of wine - it was fun. I continued going back and forth between Jon and my neighbors and Jon finished off the night over there with all of us - it was fun.
Jon and I made a New Years resolution to finally kick our butts and lose this weight. We are so tired of constantly complaining and doing nothing. For Christmas Jon bought me "The Firm" work out videos and step stools. I havne't missed a day yet - it is just shy of an hour work out - very intense and very awesome. I have found my passion! I love to work out! I actually look forward to working out - how crazy is that! I feel like I've been missing out this whole time. We are eating well again too - I just feel happy and put together (you know what I mean?).

Anyway - life is good in the Powell house.

I will try to post more often and respond to all your posts too.