i heard a little voice from the back seat say

“mama? is daddy still in ahhgannisann being bwave?”

i answered yes and that little voice sighed, waited a beat or two, and said

“i just miss him so much sometimes.”.

and i said, “i know baby, i do too”.

there were more injuries this week,

one of his men was shot and had brain surgery yesterday.

i’m thinking about his sweet wife and how scared she must be, 

how powerless she must feel while he is far away and recovering,

and how she knew this was a possibility when she sent him away.

it something that might happen to any of us at any time.

but he makes it worth it.

i can’t imagine not living this life, but sometimes it baffles me.

that i go through daily life smiling, but in the back of my head i’m always thinking about it.

what harper said put it perfectly. out of the mouths of babes, right?

random thoughts on a lazy sunday.

harper came down with a 103 fever last night out of NOWHERE. 

she’s better today, but we are taking it easy. we are all still in our pajamas 

and we will watch movies for most of the day.

well, h and i will watch movies while sadie walks around and throws things and makes grumpy noises at us for being so boring.

i hope you are all happy and healthy.

be back soon!

xo

2. Thinking about my “Spring Break ’09” road trip we took yesterday with my dear friend Sarah . Our running joke was remembering our spring breaks in college. WHOOOHHOOOOO! SPRING BREAK 1999 BABY!!! (which for me, i think was south padre island).

Well, this year, SPRING BREAK ’09 BAAAABY! WHOOO HOOO!!!!, we packed all of our kiddos (five total) into Sarah’s minivan, and took a road trip to Austin to find the bluebonnets. I was joking that I might chug some juice boxes on the way and we should shoe polish the windows SPRING BREAK ’09!!!!

oh, how times change. so, it seems. we very well may have been out of our minds for attempting this. i’m pretty sure we’ve both gone crazy in the past 8 months (her husband, nick, is deployed w/ j.). it was umm.. quite the adventure. but so much fun. so so so much more fun than sitting around my house going nuts.

funny story…we never quite found those bluebonnets. it was a total wild goose chase. i won’t get into it, but it involves a highway being completely shut down and these things being randomly yelled from the back seat.

AAARRRRRGHHHHHHH (poor 5 year old cole, being sandwiched between two 3 year old girls).

I NEED TO POOP! (repeatedly, and that would be from my child.)

WAHAHHAHWAHWAHWAH (two exhausted one year olds, out of their minds from fatigue)

um, mommy? are we almost to the flowers? where are the flowers? (harper).

it was quite the trip, but i love sarah and we always have so much fun with them. 

i also learned that my daughter is way too spazzy (like mama like daughter) to get those darling running up the steps photos:

i also learned that sadie wasn’t really “into the whole road trip thing”.

3. This conversation with Harper yesterday. I was taking a bath with Sadie, Harper walked in and said:

“oh mama, your boobies look nice! they are beautiful!!”

HAAAAAAAAAAAA. Okay. I’m pretty sure that’s the ONLY time I’ll hear that in my life. Love it. And yes, Lisa Dickinson, this one is just for you. 

4. This series of photos. I actually laugh really loud every time I look at them, and I’ve looked at them a LOT.

oh 

my

gosh.

HEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHE i’m totally laughing again.

In case you are wondering what in the world this is all about, this is sneaky, devious, Sadie pulling her sister’s hair.

And for those of you that might think it’s mean for me to photograph this,

it literally happened in a span of a few seconds.

I don’t know if I think Harper’s faces are funnier, 

or Sadie’s “Wha? i’m not doing anything??” faces.

Whoa, that was a long one.

Hope you are all having a beautiful Wednesday!!

xo

When I ask for help you give me help, and opinions (some of them blunt), and i LOVE that. 

So here’s what I have decided. I ordered this one:

Which was overwhelmingly your favorite. 

So i knew i HAD to order this one.

What else I will get is to be decided. I’m making a day trip to Austin at the end of March, and I will be hitting up Anthropologie and other assorted stores. Thanks for the tip on White House/Black Market, KP. Forgot about that one.

I’ll get whatever else I need at that point…I think I need to be trying on things before I order them.

BIG NEWS:

looks like the dc trip is for sure at this point! j has gotten the go ahead from his commander. he thinks he will come here for a few days before the  trip (all of his uniforms,etc. are here) and then we will fly to DC together. he will go back to afghan. from there.

i never expected this extra time together in a million years, and i’m so thrilled.

For those of you that asked about the leaks..

this was us all last week:

How gross is that? Plus the water was super stinky and just disgusting overall.

Now on top of everything else, we have to have our carpet cleaned. Vom.

But it’s sunny and happy this week,

and the leaks have been fixed (i pray). 

Many of you were concerned about me finding the source of the leak, damage caused etc….our playroom/scraproom is actually a porch that was enclosed at some point. so it’s a flat roof, no insulation, etc. it’s built well, but it’s not like a leak in the house, through the attic. And luckily my dad and brother are in the house business, so i knew just who to call.

Sunshine is so good for the soul. Last week was HARD.

It was Harper’s spring break, so no school, ballet, etc.

PLUS jimmy left

PLUS the leaks

PLUS it rained all week with no sunshine.

But the good news about bad weeks is that the following week is bound to be good. And this one is beautiful.

I hope you all are having a beautiful Monday, as well.

And thank you all again for your opinions and thoughts…I appreciate each and one of you so very much!

I’m going to leave you with a layout from the latest Simple Scrapbooks special issue. Look at my little rock star!!

xo

s

1. is way into soccer. and she dribbles really well! it’s funny b/c we’ve always said we think she will be that cute, sporty girl in h.s. 

2. has a few favorite words and phrases. in no particular order: definitely, pull yourself together, you’ve GOT to be kiddin’ me, darling, frustrated, fashion

3. sometimes talks without stopping (or seemingly taking a breath) for 10 minutes straight. from what my mom tells me, she comes by this honestly. what i HOPE she does not come by honestly is eye-rolling, sighing, and door slamming. not that i ever did that. nope.

4. loves reading. her favorite books are  Are You My Mother?  There’s a Wocket in my Pocket, and Kitten’s First Full Moon.  when jimmy left to go back to afghanistan, he stopped by the USO reading lounge. the other day the girls got packages in the mail containing a book, a dvd of him reading that book, and a blanket. j sent harper there’s a wocket in my pocket.  She reads it along with him, and sometimes she watches it 20 times in a row. I let her.

5. starts preschool next year. i know she will LOVE it.

she:

1. is still my crazy monkey baby. if there is dirt, she WILL find it and eat it. if there is anything for her to knock down or throw on the floor, she WILL do it. have any of you seen dirty rotten scoundrels? in one hilarious scene, steve martin slowly and petulantly knocks every.single.thing off of a mantel slowly and deliberately. that’s sadie. substitute that mantel with a table, chair, etc…and you’ve got our girl. 

2. is seriously RUNNING. she’s out of control. it may actually be walking really fast/lurching…but she’s so so mobile. it’s interesting, when J was home we found a video of H at the exact same age. she was barely walking. but she was WAY more verbal. sadie only says a few things. BAH PAH (harper), uh oh, ma ma, da da, etc.  she signs though. i’m not concerned in the slightest, it’s just so funny how different they are.

3. really doesn’t sit and play with anything. i could give her every toy in the world, and she would either carry it around or throw it. but she doesn’t play. it’s nuts.

4. eats so so much. her favorites are raisin cinnamon bread, cheese, and cottage cheese. she seems to have no food allergies. see, they are polar opposites. i’m NOT giving her nuts or eggs for a long long time though. 

5. sleeps like a champ. 2 naps, and down every night at 7 and wakes up at 7. harper has always been the same way.

he: (yes this is his face he gives me when i’m in trouble)

1. got back safe and sound

2. is in the process of finding out if we get to go to DC for the award.

3. misses us lots

she:

1. is working with the april SC kit (layout made with addon 1- bo peep):

2. still looking for something to wear to the wedding and possibly DC. the 2 jcrew dresses i ordered were HUGE and not flattering.

3. appreciates all of the car advice. car shopping is on hold until the man is home. =)

love you all!! 

xo

He won’t budge.

I told him he’s never here anyway, and he’s not the one flashing 2 inches of butt crack to the world every day (not to mention pulling muscles) as he attempts to get the girls in the car.

I finally convinced him to go look at them with me over his leave.

He grudgingly agreed, but decided we should ask harper what she thought first

(to see which side she was on, i suppose, even though she is TWO and has no idea

what a minivan is, much less if we need one).

ME: harper, do you want to go look at minivans?

H: WHAT? MINIVANS?

ME: yes, minivans. do you want to?

H: MINIVANNNS. DAT DON’T SOUND GOOD.

What

ever.

Clearly Jimmy has been bribing her with Barney or snacks or something.

Unfair.

She later changed her mind, but at that point 

she was confused and thought we were going on a 

“Miniventure” which i guess is like an adventure.

And at that point, I had given up anyway.

harper, harper, harper. what am i going to do with you?

Do any of you have a Honda pilot? We thought those were super cool.

Moving on…

My friend and scrapbooker extraordinaire, Kelly Goree

is coming to Waco to teach. She’s doing a crop night and dinner on April 3

and then three classes on April 4.

I’m pretty much signed up for the whole shebang

and I want you to come too.

Check out details HERE

and register by calling 254-751-7020.

I really hope to see you there, she is FANTASTIC and you don’t want to miss this!

happy friday !

roof is still leaking here, they can’t do anything about it til it dries up and it’s been raining all week. =(

lots of love to all of you!

xoxo