Let mushiness abound..... and other ramblings

Hola…. So I just feel like posting but I’m not sure what I’ll post about or what I want to say… I’m just going to type whatever comes to mind… how’s that…

I guess I’ll start by doing a “Missy-style” post…lol

Jimmie…. I’m not going to go in to any detail about his current health concern because he doesn’t want me discussing it… suffice it to say that us Powell descendants have no qualms about discussing such matters of the bowel…. And that’s all I am going to say about that. He has an appointment with a specialist on July 10th, which will basically be a consult and then he’ll probably schedule to do a scope. It could be nothing or it could be serious. His uncle Herb died in his late 50’s of colon cancer… of course our minds immediately went to the worst place but it could really be anything at this point.

So, in the mean time, he’s been discussing his problem with some of the guys at work (and yet I’m banned from discussing details – how’s that fair?!) and one of the guys had the exact same symptoms Jimmie has when he was in his early 20’s and the doc ran all the tests and scopes and found nothing wrong until they began to discuss diet and all the different things he was eating and drinking. Turns out he was drinking A LOT of Mountain Dew and the doctor told him it could be the yellow dye and to stop drinking Mountain Dew and the condition cleared up. So needless to say, Jimmie had mixed feelings about hearing that one. He drinks a few 2 liters of Diet Mountain Dew a day – he doesn’t drink coffee so that’s his caffeine drink of choice… so it might make sense if the Diet Mountain Dew is what is causing his symptoms… so reluctantly he’s off the Diet Mountain Dew …. we’ll see if that helps… he’s still going to go for the tests which is good but hopefully getting off Diet Mountain Dew cures him…

Other than that… he also recently got in to some poison ivy… poor feller is just falling apart…

He actually had a great Father’s Day weekend…. I know it’s been a dream of his for a long long time to go as a family to a tractor pull. That sounds so silly I know. But I just had this sense that it was something special to him. So Saturday night of Father’s day weekend, after Aniya and I ran around with mom, dad, Missy, Faith Anne, and Gracie at the Banana Split Festival, Aniya and I met him and Mayce (we also exchanged Isaac who was at the tractor pull). So I could just tell when all us girls got settled down at the tractor pull that he was just beside himself with excitement… so I didn’t complain much at all about having to sit outside and listen to the noisy tractors because he was just having a ball… the girls really were too… it was nice… On Sunday I gave him a pair of flip flops (to represent Mayce – our flip flop fanatic) and a pair of those pajama pants he likes with Baby Stewy from The Family Guy on them (because we call Aniya Stewy when she gives us the evil eye lol). And then the girls had also colored him cards and I had colored a picture from Trinity and Chaos. Also, Mayce and Aniya had made a few things at daycare for him (which I’m a little salty about – not really- but it is a little unfair because the stuff the girls made for Mother’s Day, I really felt compelled to pass those along to birth mommy. All the things they made for father’s day specifically said daddy on them so he didn’t have to share any of that stuff!) My “big girl” got all teary eyed… it was special… it’s just so amazing to me how much the both of us have grown up and grown closer through this whole experience. Being foster parents has just been such a blessing to us thus far!

Wow… I journaled a bunch about Jimmie… lol

The girls are just growing so quickly. I was telling Jimmie at lunch today that that is what makes me sad for their mommy is that she’s missing out on all the daily little things and how you can just see from day to day the tiny growths and learning that comes so quick.

Mayce has fallen into this routine where after we put Aniya to bed, we let Mayce stay up just a little bit longer and watch one of her favorite programs (which is either Sponge Bob or Scooby Doo). And while watching this favorite program she loves to cuddle up in one of our laps. This week Jimmie was out of town so I got all the cuddles! Actually, when we first sit down, I’m usually all hot and sweaty from either cleaning up the kitchen or wrestling the girls into their pjs… so I usually tell her to sit on the couch by herself while I get cooled off. So her new thing is first she’ll ask if she can sit on my lap yet and if I say no then she’ll sit there for a little bit and then she’ll ask “Can I give you a kiss?” lol… how can you say no to that?? She really for the most part is just a sweet girl… she has her rebellious moments too still though man… but she’s a smart girl and she’ll figure it out… I’ve started a sticker reward chart for good behavior so we’ll see if that helps….

I have to say that I understand my mother in a whole new way though. I used to wonder if she was a crazy lady sometimes because she would “freak out” about things. But with Mayce, I don’t understand why I have to escalate to crazy lady yelling before she actually obeys me sometimes. And then after the crazy lady yelling, I feel so awful about myself. I don’t like to yell or act mean and I don’t feel like that I should have to escalate to that before I get results… so after the crazy lady yelling, I get upset with myself and when I get upset with myself I cry and I of course want to explain to Mayce why I’m crying… and I just know she, like I did to my mother, is thinking I’m just a crazy lady…. lol

Aniya is just growing up before our very eyes…. She is just understanding things more and more every day. Her first official word except for the usually ma ma and da da babblings would be “dawg dawg” and then “shoe”. She is totally in love with our doggies… but recently she has discovered how to put on her shoes so she’s pretty excited to practice that skill a whole lot. She also says phrases like “what’s that?” and dawg dawg also means cow – she’s fascinated by our bovine neighbors. She has recently started to say the phrase “I want dat” and she points to whatever it is she wants. She is still at the age where you can cuddle her and kiss her lots and she loves to give you those fish lip kisses… and when I pick her up at daycare… oh man… she is such a cutie pie. Her class is in a different room so when I get there, they have to open up one of those half doors for her to get to me… as soon as they open that door, she yells and laughs and runs to me… she is just so stinking precious…

Needless to say, the longer the girls are at our house, the more I think I’d like to keep them. But I just can’t let myself think that way at this point because it would just be setting myself for that much more heartache. The girls are still on tract to go home to their mommy some day (I actually do not know what the plan is…we’re just along for the ride) or with another family member. I know that will be a hard day for us, but if in the long run that’s what is best for the girls, then that’s what we want. Please just keep lifting us and the girls and this whole crazy situation in your prayers. When I put Mayce to bed last night she wanted to pray and I just love that so much.

As for me myself and I… I’m in a really good place right now. I never would have believed that at the beginning of this crazy adventure. I was thinking yesterday how those first few weeks I was just this ball of nerves and really an emotional train wreck. I was mourning my life, my free time, my solitude, my my my… it’s amazing to me how God used this experience to rock my world and make me realize it’s not all about me and how He continues to draw me closer to Him through this whole experience. I’d say that this is definitely one of those growing times in my life… growing in faith and understanding and also personal growth.
It’s just good… and I’m enjoying the girls (when they aren’t driving me crazy). It’s fun to have little playmates but it’s also crazy scarey to realize that I’m responsible for teaching them all this stuff that they have to know, ya know… I mean like a few weeks ago I got on this really big kick about how we have to instill in Mayce now to respect all sorts of authority that she will encounter in her life and I just felt this urgent need to convey that to her… and Aniya needs to start thinking about potty training and how the heck do I teach her that… but my goodness as smart as she as and as much as she seems to comprehend, I really don’t think she’s going to have much trouble when she is ready. I’m just laying the ground work to let her know that that is an option as soon as she’s ready to do that.

Well anyway… I guess I’m done babbling for now…. I spent most of the morning answering text messages from my husband… he sends text messages to my email… I just think it’s funny that he text messages… anyway, I love that man and appreciate him so much. I’m really happy that I have him as a partner in this whole crazy experiment we call life…. My life really wouldn’t be the same without him. I know you all are thankful for your spouses or significant others and you can probably relate to the fact that sometimes in life, you know you are just going along and really taking for granted what an incredible thing it is to have this consistent person in your life, and then something life shaking happens, like becoming parents (or in our case foster parents) for the first time and it’s a little like you get woken up from this daze of mundaneness and you find that new appreciation for the person you’ve chosen to walk through this life with. This has totally been one of those times in our life and I just think I’m so thankful for Jimmie and I just love him more and more… all right… I’m sure I’m just being over board mushy now so I’ll end this entry… have a good day and a great weekend!