You've got questions? I've got answers. Part 2: All about me and my guy!

Welcome to Part 2 of Ask me anything!

This part is about my relationship with my husband.

Jen, Hit 40 and Missy want to know how I met my husband. Kat takes it a step further and wants to know every detail about the early years of our relationship and asks

-How did you meet your hubby?
Alex and I meet at a party in Auburn on January 1, 2000. My little sister in my sorority (who also happened to be named Emily) was dating Alex's brofriend, Webb (who still tries to take full credit for introducing us). Emily and her roommates were having a party and Webb came along with a few of his fraternity brothers. About halfway through the night Emily was concerned that Webb's buddies were getting bored and asked me to go talk to one of them so they wouldn't leave. After scoping out all three of them, I decided on Alex. (No offense to the other guys.) We hit it off that night and much later on Alex drove me home. He called me the next day and asked if I wanted to go golfing with him and his friend and his friend's girlfriend. I accepted despite the fact that I had never even held a golf club in my life. Fortunately, we were given the job of cart-driving. He asked me out again to a party the following weekend. And here's just a funny story: He had a pledge drive him over to my sorority hall to pick me up. When he introduced me to the pledge he introduced me at Natalie, this girl he dated before me! Yep, I was pretty ticked off. But, he eventually earned my forgiveness.

-How long did you date?
We started dating in January 2000 and in April, Alex broke up with me. I went home to my parent's house (they were living in Philadelphia, PA at the time) for the summer. Alex and I talked some during that time. My parents told me that if it was meant to be it would work out. About halfway through the summer, Alex told me he had made a huge mistake, and that I was the most amazing person ever, and that he couldn't go on living if we didn't get back together. (OK, I cant' remember his exact words, but it was something really close to that.) We went got back to Auburn for our final year we started dating again.

Here are a few pictures from when we were dating.

Fall 2000 in front of Jordan-Hare Stadium

Auburn vs UGA 2000 (we're standing in front of Alex's fraternity house)
New Years 2001, at my parents' house in Philadelphia, PA

Spring 2001, right after we were engaged.

-Did he or you propose? How?
On March 17, 2001, Alex proposed. We had dinner together earlier that evening and then he blindfolded me and drove me all around and eventually stopped and made me wait in the car. A few minutes later he came back and led me (blindfold still on) to a bench and had me sit down. When I took the blindfold off, I was sitting in the Arboretum, there were candles all around (only about half of them were lit though...it was a really breezy night!) and Alex was down on one knee. He asked if I would marry him and I don't think I actually said yes. I think I just jumped up screaming! Another funny story: Alex had not told our families that he was going to propose. So when we called to tell them we were engaged, Alex apologized to my dad for not asking them first. And my dad actually said, "Well, we'll have lots of time to talk later." In his "firm voice"! Alex looked a little nervous then!
Alex had told some of our friends, my roommates, and sorority sisters that he was going to propose and had arranged for everyone to meet later on that evening to celebrate with us. It was a wonderful proposal and celebration. (I looked for pictures from the night we were engaged, but couldn't find any on my computer.)
Oh, and here's just another detail to the story. We got engaged on a Friday night and that following Monday, I was sitting in class. There were some guys in the back talking to their buddy about how they had a paintball game going on in the Arboretum and some guy came up and asked if they wouldn't mind stopping their game for a few minutes while he proposed to his girlfriend!

-What is the most memorable moment from your wedding day?
Hm, there are so many wonderful things I remember about our wedding. I felt like my wedding was absolutely perfect. Well, except for the dress incident of course. I don't think I have a "most" memorable moment. But one moment I do really remember is when the preacher introduced us as Mr and Mrs Powell, I just couldn't stop smiling. I have this ridiculously huge smile on my face (and I'm totally aware that I look ridiculous but I simply cannot stop smiling) and we started walking the aisle all happy and excited and I completely forgot to grab my flowers. But we were married and that was all that I cared about! (Although I do also remember a distinct, but brief feeling like I had signed my life away and a "What have I done?!" moment right after that. But I quickly moved back on to insanely happy!)
I did laugh when we said our vows which kind of made Alex irritated and he actually whispered, "What's wrong with you?!" to me!

See? Goofy smile and no flowers.

Julie also wants to know: How did you know that your hubby was "the one."

Truly, it was when we broke up. I had dated people before and there had been all kind of break-ups: mutual, his decision, my decision, etc. But I was just upset when Alex and I broke up. Really upset. And I just had a feeling in my gut that it wasn't over.

Tina asks Do you and your hubby have "date nights" scheduled? If so, how often?

We don't really keep a set schedule although we do try and get babysitters and go out on a fairly regular basis. We kind of go in spurts though. Sometimes, it seems we have a lot of dates bunched together and then we'll go for a while without a chance to go out. We do feel that dates are important though and always look forward to a date!

Lastly, I wanted to let you know that I've updated Part 1 of Ask Me Anything. My mom and aunt felt that I wasn't very accurate in my story regarding Jack's birth and did not give the glory to God as I should have. I did not add all the details, but I will blog about that one day if people would be interested in reading it.

I added this on the end of that question: *Update* Truly, I had a lot of complications and problems during my labor and attempted delivery of Jack. For a while things were very scary and had God's hand not been guiding us all the way, there may have been a very different outcome. I am very grateful for all the people who were praying for me during that time and most of all for the wonderful blessing God gave me that day: a sweet, healthy baby named Jack.

True Story Tuesday and I'm not talking about you

This is a story from my childhood. I had actually forgotten about this until I read Kmama's True Story Tuesday last week. I'm not sure if my mom is going to appreciate me telling this story, but since I'm an adult now and it's my blog there's not a lot she can do about it. Except, of course, call me and get onto me for blogging about this. She can threaten not to keep the kids anymore but we all know that's an empty threat. Ahem, love you, Mom!

Anyway, when I was a teenager, probably 14 or so, my mom and I were shopping with my aunt and grandma. Mom and I went into the dressing room to try on a few things leaving Aunt Karen and Grandma to browse. We were sharing a dressing room and talking quietly since there were other people trying on clothes as well. As my mom is stepping into a pair of pants the lady in the dressing room next to us totally lets one rip. It is seriously loud and disgusting! My mom looks at me (with her pants half on) and mouths "GROSS!!" The offending lady quickly gathers her things and hightails out of there. Being the nosy person I am was, I peak out of the room as she leaves.

A while later we are standing in line to make our purchases. There is a lady at the counter and then one other lady waiting and then us. The lady at the counter is none other than, dum-da-da-dum, poot-lady!

I whisper to my mom, "That's the lady that pooted!" "Are you sure?" Mom whispers back. "What are y'all talking about?" asks my aunt who's just as nosy as I am. "That lady paying was in the dressing room next to us and had the loudest poot ever." we told her.

While this conversation is taking place, the lady in between us and poot-lady keeps glancing over her shoulder at us. By this point, poot-lady has walked away but we are still talking about her. The lady in front of us starts to walk away, glancing over her shoulder at us one more time.

"I think that lady in front of us thought we were talking about her." I said to my mom. "Oh, no!" says Mom, who's pretty much the nicest person ever, "I feel so bad." "Go apologize" I encourage her. So my mom walks over to the lady and says, "Excuse me, I just wanted to let you know we weren't talking about you." The lady just looks at her. "We were talking about someone else" Mom explains. The lady just kind of looked at her and walked off. I'm sure she didn't believe her since my aunt and I were standing there watching and cracking up at the whole thing!

Head on over to Rachel's place for some more true stories!

I plan on having Part 2 of my Ask Me Anything post up tomorrow...I know you'll be on pins and needles waiting!

Trick-or-Treat!

Happy Halloween! At the Powell house we've had quite a cast of characters.

After watching Bambi a few months ago, Jack has been all about being a hunter. I was nervous when he watched Bambi that the hunter scene would disturb him. Instead that was his favorite part, he told me. That's just great.

And may I present Princess Aurora. Some of you might have wondered, after reading this, if I forced this costume on her. No, I did not. Melody also thinks that Princess Aurora is the best princess. She is doing her best princess wave in this picture. Very regal, I think.

And here is little Charlie as Superman. Although Bizarro Superman is more accurate.

And there he goes...off to destroy save the world!

While I did not get any pictures of actual Trick-or-Treating since it was raining the whole time (um, yeah, that was fun). However I did get some video of them analyzing their stash.


And diving

right in!

BOO!

Just incase you're wondering if it's a ghost or not...

PSF and an orange and blue Halloween

Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays. Don't get me wrong. I'm all about the candy. (Like I would ever turn down chocolate!) And scary movies. Yeah, I like those. Seeing little kids run around in cute costumes is pretty fun too. Ok, I guess I do like Halloween. I'm not a big pumpkin carver though. And since I'm not the craftiest person, my kids are usually dressed in a hand-me-down costume or something that was really, really easy to make.

Last Halloween, however, was one of my more creative ones. I figured this would be my one shot at coordinating all three of them. (I was right, Melody and Jack were pretty clear about their costume preferences this year.)

Ok, maybe Jack and Melody's costumes aren't the most original, but I get originality points for Charlie's costume for sure.




Can you tell what my little 5 week old baby is?

Here's the quarterback and head cheerleader

Go Tigers!

This is one of my favorite shots. I didn't even take it...I was holding her hand. That sucker was the first piece of candy she got and she tore right into it. It was all she cared about all night. And yes, when she was done with it, she was one sticky (but sweet!) mess.

As for this year?

Check back here tomorrow night...but for now, just a little tease...

Hosted by Cecily and Carissa

WW - the fight

My sweet little bruiser of a baby got into a playground brawl.

He went at it with some gravel.

The gravel won.

You've got questions? I've got answers. Part 1

Welcome to part one of Ask Me Anything.

Since I'm totally OCD I've organized the questions I've received into categories. This part is all about my kids...

Erin asked
Are there any more kids in the Future? No! Three is enough, thankyouverymuch.

Whats your favorite personality trait about each of your children? Jack is a lot like me, and even though my mom's going to roll her eyes when she read this (and probably my husband too) I kind of like his bossiness!

Melody is so snuggly. She loves to hug everyone. Me, Alex, her friends, and even people at the airport! I like that.

Charlie's personality is still developing too much for me to pick a favorite trait.

Mimi asked:
What is your bedtime routine with the kids? Our routine is pretty simple. I try and have the kids bathed before Alex comes home from work. We pretty much let them each pick a book and then prayers and a few songs and then lights out. For a while our bedtime routine was getting long and drawn out. By the end of the day, I'm wiped so I try and keep it simple.

Where is your favorite place to vacation as a family? Hands down, the beach.

Summer wants to know:
What is your best memory (so far) with each child? :) This is a great question. But, honestly, I have too many good ones to pick. Now that I'm not nursing any more and all my children sleep through the night, I can say that I liked getting up with them at 2 a.m. and nursing them. They were so snuggly and quiet then and afterward they would just lay their heads on my shoulder and go back to sleep. I especially liked this for the boys...it was one of the rare moments they were actually still and would snuggle me! Those were always sweet moments.

Kelli asked:
I want to know what your day is like. How do you manage it all? I'm pretty routine. OK, I'm very routine. I'm a planner and like to stick to my plans. But honestly, our day is pretty simple. I take Jack to school in the mornings. Melody also has preschool two mornings a week. On those days Charlie and I play at home or run errands. Other days, we play with friends and sometimes have activities like Music Class. Pretty much every day, Melody and Charlie nap from about 12:30 or 1ish until 3:00 when we leave to pick up Jack. (I know, I know, please don't throw things!) After school, if the weather's nice we play at the park or just hang out. Wow. Now that I'm writing this I realize my life is incredibly boring. Sheesh. Now I feel like a dork.

Amy wants to know:
While you were pregnant with each of your adorable little ones, did you know whether boy/girl? (without help of ultasounds)...
Did you find out or leave any as a surprise? We found out each time. With Jack, I felt pretty certain he was a boy, but I knew for sure (before my U/S) that Melody was a girl and Charlie was a boy. I like to think I have very strong intuition! *giggle*.

When I was pregnant with Charlie, however, my dad (who's right 99.9% of the time) was convinced I was having a girl. I knew I was having a boy. So, we made a bet. The big rivalry in our family is the Auburn vs UGA game every November. The bet was, if Charlie was a girl, we had to wear UGA gear all game day. If Charlie was a boy, my mom and dad had to don Auburn gear. Thankgoodness this was the ONE time my dad was actually wrong. An for the record, he wimped out and didn't keep up his end of the bet even though he'll claim to have worn orange underwear or something!

Kat, who wins for most questions, asked (among many other questions):
-Who was the most difficult labor? I had three C-sections, one unplanned and two planned. So Jack was my only and most difficult labor. But believe me, my labor with Jack was the equivalent to three labors and deliveries. I won't tell the whole long drawn out story, but to give you and idea, I went into labor on my due date, June 2. Jack was born, after much labor and pushing, at 8:42 pm on Friday June 4!
*Update* Truly, I had a lot of complications and problems during my labor and attempted delivery of Jack. For a while there things were very scary and had God's hand not been guiding us all the way, there may have been a very different outcome. I am very grateful for all the people who were praying for me during that time and most of all for the wonderful blessing God gave me that day: a sweet, healthy baby named Jack.

-Any funny labor stories? While I was certainly not laughing at the time I can kind of laugh about it now. Well, not really. But you might.

The day before my due date with Jack, I had a doctor's appointment. The midwife who checked me completely crushed my spirits by telling me that I had no action going going on down there, that there was no way I would be going into labor anytime soon and she scheduled me for induction the following Monday. I went home and cried about it all day and promptly went into labor the next day.

While I was about 36+ hours into labor, checked into the hospital and had already had several hours of pitocin bringing me moderately close to 10 centimeters, guess who was the midwife on call? Needless to say, after my appointment on Tuesday and the hormones and emotion surging through my body, that poor woman didn't have a prayer. I won't go into detail, but she quickly left the room!

Rachel wants to know?
I want to know how you decided on names for your kiddos.
I love answering this question!!

All of my kids have family names. When I was pregnant with Jack, I knew I wanted him to be named after my dad: Marc. Alex felt very strongly that if he was named after my dad, then his dad's name should be in there too. So, after much, much, much debate, we agreed on the name John Marc and decided to call him Jack for short.

Since Jack had such a strong family name, I wanted my other children to also have family names. So, when we our second child, and first (and only) girl came along we chose the name Melody after my mom's sister who passed away in early childhood. I wanted her middle name to be Rose, after Sleeping Beauty, (the most romantic movie of all time) but Alex wouldn't let me name our child after a Disney Princess. Ok, I really wanted the middle name Aurora but Alex totally went off the deep end when I suggested that! Since we each got to pick one name for Jack, it seemed fitting that we do the same for Melody, so Alex picked her middle name, Elizabeth, after his aunt.

Charlie was the hardest name to choose. We had it narrowed down to three names and were getting close to my due date and still hadn't chosen his name. (Yes, I like to have their names picked out wayyyy before they're born. I know I'm weird like that. It's a bonding thing for me.) Our options were Charles, after my paternal grandfather, Eli, after my maternal great-grandfather, and Mabry, which is Alex's middle name. Given our "you pick one, I pick one" agreement, Alex picked Mabry for the middle name. This left me with the option of either Charles or Eli for a first name. Finally, I decided that I loved both names and the men associated with them too much to pick so we decided on Charles Eli Mabry Powell!

What's funny about all this is that when I was growing up and even in my marriage before kids came along, I never thought I would be a big family name person. But when it actually came time to name my children, family names were really the only ones we ever considered. With the exception of Rose, which I'm still bummed I didn't get to use! I love the idea that all my children are named after special people and their names have significance and meaning to us in that way.

Ok, if you are still reading, you rock! I know this was long.

Stay tuned for Part 2 which will be all about me and my husband! And hopefully a little shorter too!