2012 IncrediPowells Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE

INCREDIPOWELLS 5:  Zombie Apocalypse

                With the end of the world quickly approaching on December 21^st, we thought we would give you one final update on the status of the IncrediPowells.  In a house dominated by females there is no shortage of yelling, tears or fingernail polish.  Let’s see how things unfolded for the IncrediPowells in 2012.

                Emmerson turned 3 this year and has become the definition of high maintenance.   If she has been well rested, fed, bathed and there are no sisters in sight, she is a complete sweetheart.  If one of these factors is out of the equation, you better be ready for a fight and be careful, because she aims for the face.  She has recently become potty trained, which was life changing for her as she is now eligible for dance!  She could not be more excited to be on the other side of the glass that she has had her face pressed against for so long.  Also, she may be entering rehab for an acute addiction to the iPad.

                Ellie will turn 5 in January, that is if the world lasts that long.  This was a pretty big year for Ellie as she started preschool this fall.  She has never hesitated once at going to school and has even told me that I don’t need to walk her in.  With Emmy joining dance, Ellie has decided that she would like to dance also, even though she has complained that her feet get hot in the shoes and the classes are too long.  I guess all that can be overlooked, when you are the only one not dancing.  Ellie is also quite the home body; she very rarely wants to spend a night away from home, even if it is at Grandpa and Grandma’s house.  On the rare occasion that she does, she makes it more than known that it will be, “just for one night only!”  At this rate, when you get this letter in 20 years, we will still be talking about Ellie living at home.

                Addison is 8 years old and she fully believes that she was put on the earth to do one thing….DANCE!  Between Iowa C.A.T.S., D.D.C., Foster-Powell, and a short stint with Des Moines Ballet, we had Friday night off from making a trip to a dance studio.  That’s right; we had one whole night that we were not running her here or there to make a lesson.   She also took the trip of a lifetime this year as my parents took her for two weeks to Hawaii!  While on the Big Island they attend a luau, went hiking, hung out on the beach, went kayaking and got hula lessons.  We pretty much did the same thing while she was gone.  I do know one thing though; Mom and Dad never asked me to go to Hawaii, the farthest I ever got from home at that age was Branson, Missouri.

                Kim is in her ninth year of teaching 5^th grade at Four Mile Elementary (SEP).  Last year she was a teacher representative for the PTA and did After School Assistance; this year she is a full time dance mom.  She has found time within this last year to develop a new hobby and it goes by the name of Flippy Cup.  She came home from the neighbors one night talking about how much fun she had playing this game.  The next day all the neighbors could talk about was how she was smashing cups and yelling “Suck It!”  If any of you were wondering if she had lost her competitive spirit, I believe the answer is a resounding no.   If you ever make it to the Sherrylynn Hood, you had better bring your “A” game, because there are no friends across the table.

                This year I started working nights at Titan Tire and watching Ellie and Emmy during the day, I am not sure which one entertains me more.   When I tell people where I work and I tell them Titan the usually ask where it is at, I tell them the only reason you would have ever seen Titan Tire is if you were specifically going there or you were lost.  It has been a huge adjustment, not only with the number of people I am supervising, but also with the wide variety of ethnicities.  I am not sure what I have spent more money on this year, food out of the vending machines (you name it, we have it in a vending machine and they take debit cards), or copies of Rosetta Stone.

We hope this letter finds you and yours doing well this Christmas season.  If there is a 2013 we wish you all the best and hope to see you soon but, if the Mayans happen to be correct…it has been nice knowing you.

KC, Kim, Addison, Ellerson, Emmerson, and Katara IncrediPowell 

Procrastination

A few years ago, about 9 to be exact, I made a desk out of a couple of old solid core five panel doors.  From those doors I got a piece of drop that I thought had potential to become something. That piece made it through 3 moves and equally as many children and numerous clean outs.  There was just something about this piece that would not allow me to throw it out.   Fast forward to last week, I finally decided what I was going to do with that piece.  I went and saw some old friends at a graphic shop and had them cut some vinyl to apply to the face.....below is the finished piece.

Holiday Projects

Here are a couple of quick and easy holiday themed projects.

Fireplace Reno

When we first moved into our house neither of us were thrilled with the look of the fireplace.  We felt that it had the look of belonging in a house with 12' ceilings......which ours was absolutely not.  We decided to remove the hearth and lover the fireplace to ground level.  This did two things; it brought the fireplace closer to the floor and most importantly, allowed for a larger TV above the mantle.  Next, we replaced the ceramic tile with a natural slate and finally, we painted the wood and accent color and applied antiquing glaze.  The before and after pictures are below....hope you enjoy.

Finger Prints

Here are a few digital prints that I did for the living room wall.  After about 2 hours of finger printing, I was finally happy with the ones I got.  As you can imagine, trying to get good finger prints off a 2 and 4 year old is about as easy as herding cats.  After scanning them into the computer and turning them into vector art, they were printed onto a canvas material and stretched onto frames......this is the result.

Not Your Average GE

 Here was a little somethin' somethin' I did to the front of the washer and dryer to give it a little pop.

Closet Doors

When we were remodeling the girls' bedrooms, the doors were on the top of our list to replace.  We went with a five panel door that has sort of an old school appeal.  One thing that we failed to take into consideration was the closet doors, and how much it would cost to replace them.  We decided to keep the existing doors and cover them with a full digital print.  They turned out to be a couple of my favorite things in the house, I like to think it something that you just don't see everyday.