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.

House Hunting on Pause

Well it looks like we will be staying in this house a little longer. For any of you that didn't know - we made an offer on a house out in North Plains last week - and after an entire week of still hearing nothing "official" back we decided that we just didn't want to deal with these people. It made us nervous the way they were handling everthing or lack of handling everthing... Jon and I are in no rush to move - when we find the right house we will know and we will move then... until then we are happy in our little home for now.

I'm kind of relieved that we are going through the process right now - it's nice to focus just on Christmas and this time of year. I love Christmas but ever since we started looking into another house we kind of put Christmas on hold - we almost didn't get a tree - thank goodness we decided to get one anyway.... once the house thing was put on hold - our Christmas spirits are back!!!

Well it's late and I need to go to bed - we have a long day/days ahead of us!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!!

Done!

I know you are all going to shoot bullets at me or atleast spit in my general direction - but I still have to tell you.... I'm done with Christmas shopping - - nenernenernener... other than just a few finishing touches - I'm done. I can't really believe it either. Jon and I had been saving money out of each check to put toward Christmas over the past year because we just hated feeling so tight last year. We cashed it out about 3 weeks ago and since then I've been in a shopping frenzie - literally. I basically have spent money every single day for the past 3 weeks. It's been fun. I feel so free to actually enjoy this Christmas season. I don't have to worry about rushing around with all the crazys trying to find that one last specific item that might be sold out or in that fat ladies hands and she wont give it up even though it's a barbie doll and she doesn't have any kids to buy for - she just wants it for her collection... you know exactly who I'm talking about - they are out there - at every store - some are men, some are women - but they almost always are fat and absolutely obnoxious..... Anyway, so once again to rub it in your face... I'm done!!! :) I will however offer to watch your chillins for a couple hours if you need to get out there and find some "santa gifts"!

Well now that I've made myself a target - I will go.

Dentist Visit....

So yesterday Jon and I both had dentist appointments. His was at 2pm and mine was at 3pm. The girls and I met Jon there to do the trade off while I had my teeth cleaned. Jon had just had 2 cavities filled and was a bit numb - he kissed me and I think only half of his mouth actually worked - it was pretty funny.

I only had one cavity - I was pretty surprised - it has been over 3 years since I had gone to the dentist. My cavitiy is in one of my wisdom teeth. You see - my wisdom teeth came in perfectly straight and I had a lot of room for them - however it's hard to clean them - and I am religious about cleaning my teeth - twice a day I brush, floss and gargle mouth wash - but I can't really reach back there to floss and the toothbrush it self barely fits... so after discussing my "issues" with the dentist he has reccomended that I just get them removed. So I am meeting with the oral surgeon tomorrow afternoon to discuss when they will be removed.... Am I strange to kind of want this? I've never been put to sleep and that fascinates me and everyone I know has had their wisdome teeth pulled - I'm one of those rare few that haven't gone through it - I'm kind of strangely excited. I know I'm weird.

The Awakeners

Oh my goodness. I've never finished a book so quickly. I started reading this book last Monday and finished it last night a little after nine. It was hard to put the book down. What an amazing story. If you haven't read the book yet - I strongly encourage it. I don't usually get into fantasy novels - but this book has changed my opinion.

Thank you mom for letting me borrow the book!

Now I need a new book - suggestions anyone?

5 birthdays, a baby shower and a Wedding.

Sounds like a movie title doesn't it? Nope - just my next 2 weeks wrapped up into a sentence.... We have 2 birthday parties and a baby shower this Saturday. Sunday we have a birthday party and are missing one birthday that happens to be at the same time as Lauren's (obviosly we will be going to Lauren's). Next Saturday we have a birthday party in the morning and a wedding in the afternoon.... I feel like I need to take a deep breath before it all starts.

On a related but seperate note - Sarah and I went to Target today and were able to get all 5 birthday gifts. I walked away very satisfied and happy with every gift I bought. We were also able to even get a couple of Christmas gifts while we were there. I couldn't believe how good my girls did - you all know how horrible they are when we go anywhere - but today they actually did really good. I actually felt a little relieved when I got into the car to go home - normally by the time we are leaving - both girls are crying - I am near tears and wishing I had never left the house - which I know is just not a possibility - most days I just end up not going anywhere because I dred leaving the house - I know they are going to be awful - but today made me see what my future might hold.... I hope I hope I hope!

Anyway - wish me and my family luck in the next 2 weeks. :)

Okay so we finally got some of the pictures - however they kind of suck. There are only a few that actually turned out. I sent some of you these over e-mail but here they are in case I didn't send them to you....

Bummer huh? Oh well - we are still learning with this camera.... I hope we figure it out before the next big event.

Halloween Pictures to Come Soon

I know it's been already over a week.... Heres the deal - we have uploaded the pictures and videos onto our computer - however at this point we need to make the videos so you all can see them too - not sure how to yet - we're working on it. The pictures are very very blurry. The new video camera doesn't take good stills - bummer. So we will pick through the lot and hopefully within the next couple of days we will have some up and available for you to look at them.... the videos aren't great either - the lighting wasn't really good for capturing the moment - so they are kind of dark - but it's still funny to watch and see all the costumes again - I think my favorite part (other than the continual capturing of Stephan going down the stairs - Jon wanted him to fall badly) is the morning after - we all look... well hung over! :)

I think the best news though (for me atleast) is that all the other videos are great - we have really gotten some cute stuff of our kids and Sarah's kids - the funniest is of the 4 of them playing in my living room - Hayden and Lauren were break dancing and then Charlotte started to copy them - I was laughing so hard that night and again when we watched it - there were tears... good stuff! :)

Anyway - we will try our damndest to get them out asap! Sorry for the wait.

Love you all,

Em

No Anal Leakage - but many more.....

So finally I went to the doctor about the whole Insomnia bull crap. She thinks I'm anxious/depressed and restless. So I've been put on this stuff for all three - I am supposed to take one to two pills a night before bed - if after a couple weeks I'm not noticing a change she wants to put me on Prozac... yikes - Prozac - that kind of freaks me out a bit. The side effects to this one drug are hilarious - I read them to Jon and after reading the "novel" to him he said "yeah but you'll sleep better". Let me list a few of them.... excess sweating, nausea, weakness, weight gain, increased appetite especially for sweets, eye pain, hair loss, twitching of the face or tongue, uncontrolled movements of the arms and legs, difficulty speaking or swallowing, unusual bleeding or bruising, seizures.... the list goes on and just continues to worsen.... basically I get to become a possible nutcase twitching and what not but I might be able to get a night of sleep.... The doctor assured me that MOST people do not experience any of the side effects at all - but that there are a few that do.... am I one of the few that do or am I gonna be lumped into the MOST catagory.... I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Last night I took the pill - I started with just one and I still had a bit of trouble getting to sleep - I took it at 9:30pm and I didn't fall asleep until after midnight.... I also woke up about 10 times - thanks to the girls - they just didn't want to sleep last night. So we'll try it again tonight and see how it does....

Ever felt like punting a two year old?



I made the mistake of taking two whiny kids to Target and expected it to be a somewhat decent experience... HA! I've never experienced such awfulness (new word). The entire trip consisted of one or both of my girls crying or whining over something. It was rediculous. I am upstairs right now calming down after dinner because it's just been ONE OF THOSE DAYS.... It all started with an early wake up - both girls crying and really not ready to be up - then they continued to whine until after lunch when I laid them down for a nap. Charlotte took a pathetic excuse for a nap and woke up crying and whining until Molly woke up crying and whining. Then I made the huge mistake of taking them to Target with Sarah and her 3 kids.... can you say duh? Guess what they did there? Oh you guessed right - whined.... cried.... yelled.... cried some more..... I was so anxious by the time I left that I nearly broke into tears when I got in the car.... Luckily Jon was home when I got home and took the girls upstairs while I made a quick dinner (soft tacos). We ate dinner and Jon sent me away - he said - "go upstairs and relax- take the laptop and your book and go" - he wouldn't even let me help him with giving them a bath. Angela called me just as I sat down - with some irritating news - not on her behalf but just more DRAMA from a psycho lady we used to go to church with (you all know who I'm talking about). I don't even want to go into it - just basically more crap from a lady full of crap..... So now I am blogging.... I plan on reading a book for a little while and then going back down to deal with the babes. Thank God I have such a great husband! :)

I just hope tomorrow is a little less awful..... I just need a good night sleep.

Jealousy sucks!


So one of my old neighbors (Rachel and Brennan) just announced that they are pregnant and due mid April - I would have been a few weeks behind them.... is it bad of me to be jealous and a little bitter about their good news? It's funny because every day that goes by since I lost the baby I've kind of gotten more and more into the mind set of waiting for a while before we have another - but hearing their news just made me sad, jealous, bitter and of course a bit envious.... I guess I will probably have emotions like this for a while. I'm not angry with them for being pregnant of course - just angry that I'm not I guess....

Anyway - that was my little rant for today.

Recipe Swap

Okay - recently I sent an e-mail to swap some of your favorite recipes.... I want to do it on here too - give me your favorite, easy, non expensive, not hard to find ingredients for either dinner, appetizers or desserts!!!
I need some new ideas - do you?


Here is mine:
Onion Onion Chicken (delicious in your mouth)
2 chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can chicken broth
garlic salt to taste
1 onion (sliced to sautee)
1/2 stick of butter (or oil)
1/2 can French Friend Onions
1 cup uncooked rice (2 cups water)
1 can of corn

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breasts in pan, dump cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth over the top and sprinkle garlic to your liking. Bake for 1 hour. Meanwhile (about 20 minutes before chicken is done) sautee onions in butter or oil over medium heat and make rice. Start corn about 10 minutes before chicken is done. Also 10 minutes before chicken is done dump french friend onions over top and continue baking. Serves 2 big meals. Most delicious when each bite has a little (or a lot) of everything on it. I guarantee you you will like it - well maybe not you veggies out there - but you can probably use a Portabela (spelling?) mushroom in place of chicken.

Enjoy!

Now get to posting your delicious goodnesses!
1 can of corn

I can't sleep!!!


Man I hate this.... it's freakin' 3:15am and I am wide freakin' awake. Normally I wouldn't care too much considering it's the weekend - however... tomorrow morning we have to be up and out of the house by 8am - all of us. We are doing the Race for the Cure tomorrow - as most of you know. I am very tired and wide awake at the same time. I tried going to bed around midnight with Jon and laid there tossing and turning - my mine just would not shut up. I decided to come downstairs about 30 minutes later. I popped on the internet and watched saturday night live - haven't seen that in a while - sadly it was the one with Britney Spears - kind of a bummer... anyway around 2 I turned off the tv deciding I would try to sleep on the couch - no luck... I just tossed and turned and again my mind just wouldn't shut up - it's exhausting being in my head... so I turned back on the tv and now am back on the computer. It's 3:20am now. I don't know what to do - at this point I almost wonder if it would be better to just not sleep at all now - I have to be up in 3 1/2 hours...... I'll let you know what I decide....

Doctor Confirmed It This Morning


Well Dr. Bennett called this morning and confirmed that I was in fact miscarrying. I strangely feel closure over all of this. I expected to be so upset - but I actually feel relieved that it's done. Don't get me wrong - I am still very sad that all of this happened to begin with - but knowing makes me feel better.
Thank you all for your love and support through all of this - it's been a very hard past few days. You are all wonderful!
When Jon and I are ready we will try again - it may be soon so don't be too surprised - this whole thing made us realize how much we want another baby and we got very excited about having it now and having them close together. We'll see - we may want to wait a while though too - we will let you know when we do get pregnant again - hopefully no more problems with the next one.
We love you all!

I don't like not knowing....


So Thursday morning was a normal morning, I was cleaning up the downstairs, I fixed Charlotte a bottle and got her upstairs for a nap. When I came downstairs I needed to pee, so I peed, there was a small amount of blood in my underwear. I of course freaked out. I told Molly "be good, Mommy has to go take a shower". I ran up the stairs, burst into tears and took a long shower, crying the entire time. Afterward I talked to Sarah and decided to call the doctor. The doctor reassured me that because I am so early it's probably just "implantation bleeding". This can be like a very very light period (sometimes mistaken for a period) and can even last for as long as a short period. Anyway other than that small amount of blood I didn't see anymore until today. I was going pee (and irronically talking to God about how thankful I was for this baby and how excited I was to be having it - even if it was unplanned) and when I wiped there was blood again. I have had a small amount of blood basically everytime I wipe now all day long. I don't know what is going on. I'm wearing a pad but there isn't anything but a small drop on it... Is this implantation bleeding? Is this the beginning of a miscarriage? What is going on? I'm so afraid to know. I did call the doctor again - because it's Saturday I am waiting for the oncall doc to call me back. I want him to say "don't worry - it sounds like it's just normal bleeding for this time in your pregnancy." I really don't want to even know if I'm losing this baby - I don't think I could handle it. I'm a mess needless to say. I just don't know......
Please keep me and the baby in your prayers - pray that the baby is fine, healthy and maturing normally.

And Baby Makes 5


Can you believe it??? I can't!!

Sunday morning Jon went off to church, the girls and I stayed home. All morning I was feeling a little sick... when Jon came home I said "I don't want to scare you, but I might be pregnant". You know how a woman just knows.... I did.... Jon went and bought a pregnancy test - I peed and showered and looked.... it was faint - but it was positive. We decided that I would take another test (one of the early detection tests) later that night or the next day.... when we got home from my parents house (our normal Sunday dinner gathering) I asked Jon if he wouldn't mind getting one tonight - I just needed to know.... He went to the store, I peed again, waited and looked... once again it was a faint positive.... I waited a couple days and took another... once again I peed, waited and looked.. this time it was a more distictive positive... so guess what.... I'm pregnant!!! We decided to tell people early so they could digest the information - since I know it's kind of scary....
We are excited though. It isn't like we planned it but we also weren't done having kids so this is exciting... God obviously had other plans for us!

Anyway - there you have it - baby number 3 on the way!

Finally... my top 5 Desert Island Flicks


1. The Rock





If you know me - you know my obsession with Nicholas Cage - there isn't a good reason for it - but I do love him in some strange unattractive way - not only am I strangely obsessed wih Nick but I also love shoot um up kill um movies.... they make me happy.... Anyway - I love that movie - good action flick and just a good time-killer.


2. The Notebook



I know I know - most of you will point and laugh at me... however I just love this movie. It's a total chick flick and I'm totally in love with the whole idea of falling so in love with someone that your souls can't help but die together. It's a beautiful, sad and loving story.



3. Knocked Up

I've only seen it once - but I can tell that it is one of those movies that will make me laugh over and over again. It was brilliant! Of course I will need something funny - this one will do it!








4. Best Little Whore House in Texas

Come on.... Dolly Parton, Sweet Candy Mountain..... no more words needed.... Mom you understand right?

5. Seven

I know kind of thrown out of left field - but I love this movie... I actually just bought it and watched it again - it's such a good thriller. It makes my heart race each and every time I watch it....

There... they are done.... a little bit of everything. I have a shoot um up and kill um, a chick flick, a comedy, a musical and a scary suspensful flick.

Who's brilliant idea was it to camp in black bear country?

Thank God we made it home safely and in one piece. We had a really good time but we had bears on our mind the entire time. One of the biggest rules was that you were not to surprise a bear - you should always make noise - so we walked around camp saying "Hey Bear" pretty much all day - it became a joke - but can you imagine if we had actually seen a bear... it wouldn't have been so funny. So the rules are as follows:

Do not surprise bears - make noise.

Do not leave food out - only when preparing or eating - all food should be stored in bear safe containers - coolers don't count because bears know what coolers are.

Food should be covered even in a car - thousands of dollars of damage every year are due to bears breaking into cars to get food.

Do not leave food in your tent at any time (remember that little boy that had his face eaten off because he had hid candy bars under his pillow?)

If you are to see a bear stand still, make noise and make yourself look big - if the bears approaches make lots of noise and walk away - do not run. If a bear attacks you kick and scream and fight for your life....

Sounds like fun huh?

We didn't see any bears though so I couldn't practice my kicking and screaming... bummer huh?

My friend Jessi wanted to see a bear so bad - she was very disappointed that there weren't any around... however 1/4 mile away at the next camp site there were bear sightings - 2 of them - a mom and a cub.... even more dangerous!

So other than saying "Hey Bear" all weekend we walked on trails, fished, went hiking on an Obsidian Mountain - it was so amazing, we walked to a waterfall and everyone swam (I didn't - I didn't bring enough clothes - but everyone else did), a bunch of them went kayaking, we went bike riding and of course ate and drank a lot.... we had a great weekend. This was all without the girls too. Sharon and Danny (Jon's parents) took the girls for 2 nights. It was so nice. I missed them like crazy though. The weekend before they had them too for our anniversary - so it was a little too much... but it was still fun and I'm glad we went. It's always nice to relax and hangout with friends.

Oh and if you didn't know - we were camping at Paulina Lake - it's like 20 minutes from La Pine Oregon and about 40 minutes from Bend..... kind of hidden up in the hills - it was beautiful. However to get there we had to drive through a wild fire - ok... maybe not through a wild fire - but we could see it from the road - it was pretty surreal - the sky was glowing this weird orange color and was full of smoke - it made it hard to see. It blew my mind that we were allowed to have a camp fire - the fire danger level was at EXTREME - but we had a camp fire every night and it was huge... the boys brought basically a whole tree to burn and they had decided they didn't want to come home with any left over wood....

Thank God we made it out of there safely - what with the bears, fire, and not to mention the longest car ride of our lives... it took us over 4 hours to get there - but here we are - safe and sound and finally bathed!!! I forgot to mention there were no showers.... it was sick! I was beginning to stink.

Anyway - that is all for now... I'm going to get back to watching Big Brother....