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Stephanie Howell

reading, organizing, shopping, momming too close to the sun. Home is wherever the Army sends us.

The Evolution of a Love Letter

Jimmy has always been very romantic.

Not in a blatant, in your face, roses and slow dancing way,
but in a strong, steady way.
And I love that about him.
He has always written me love letters.

 

I have love letters from West Point,
Half delirious letters written on waterproof army paper from when
he was in Ranger School,
Love letters from the first deployment to Afghanistan
and printed emails from the subsequent deployments.

 

His love letters started out like this:

 

Letter

 

And they have evolved to this:

Howell, James C USA CPT USA B Co 1-26 IN BN CO CMDR

 to me
show details Aug 19
Reply
 
 
 
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Hey baby,
Your email made me want to come home and hold you.  I hate that you have
to worry about me and it breaks my heart that no one can really be there
for you.  I want you to know that I am so enormously proud of you.  I
wish I could be as strong as you are.  I love you more than you know and
am so proud to be your husband.
Love
J

 
I treasure them the same, even though now the “love letters” 
are brief and electronic (and sometimes businesslike and armyish, hehe).
So sorry for the sappy post today,
I miss him much today.


His company lost more young men, brave men this past weekend.
There were also many injuries.
So please pray, if you are so inclined.
This mushy post has made me reminisce, and i thought 
I’d post some OLD photos.
enjoy, hehe.
xoxo
s


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Pic2


Pic3

 

Howell Bulldog Face

Introducing the “bulldog”.

Harper loved to do this beautiful face as often as she could:

 

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Lovely, right?
Doesn’t that second photo look like she’s saying
“what up, g?”?
Yes, Harper has lots of homies.

 

Now Sadie has taken to the bulldog face. (see below).
Okay, off to cool down. 
We just went on a walk, that damn double stroller kills me. 
We were SMOKED by a 90 year old shirtless dude.
As he left us in the dust, Harper yelled
“OH, DAT MAN BE NEKKY!!!”

 

Love to you all.
xo

It’s slightly possible that ballet might not be for her

I’m just saying…

And don’t you fret, I would never say such things to her face.
To her I say “oooooh! you look soooo beautiful”.
to which she says “yes”.

 

And the ensuing conversation is a whole other can of worms.
“Harper when people say you are pretty you say thank you! Let’s practice…You look so pretty”
“YES!”
“No, thank you!”
“NO THANK YOU”
“No…say thank you”
“YOU ARE WELCOME”
i give up.

 

Anyway, back to the original story.
Let’s put it this way, we have a  history of awkwardness in this family.
I am so so clumsy.
I once fell down when I was just standing in the middle of the room. There was nothing around me. I simply fell down.
Jimmy saw it, you can ask him… true story.

 

I once knocked a tray out of the hands of a stunned waitress who was carrying about 30 drinks. I knocked it out of her hand b/c I was gesturing wildly. Classy.

 

I once fell down the stairs on Chi Omega acceptance day.
That’s right, fell right down the stairs in front of the entire chapter.
I’m pretty sure that at that point they were doubting their decision.

 

So, needless to say, I was slightly concerned about Harper as a ballerina.
How do I say this delicately…
She is not long and lean like a gazelle.
She is sturdy like a tank.

 

Today in class when she was supposed to
“leap across the room like a delicate butterfly”,
she
“jumped and galloped across the room like a buffalo”
all the while yelling 
“JUMPY JUMPY JUMPY JUMPY”
the other little girls looked baffled.

 

I know this because i was the only mother in the classroom.
She cried every time I tried to leave. 
So I stayed. Because I couldn’t bear to take her out of there 
in front of all of those little girls and their mothers.

 

This town is one of those towns where everyone knows each other.
All the little girls and their mommies were friends.
Except us,
And it broke my heart to see her sitting at the end of the line crying,
so i stayed.
I will stay a couple more times, and then hopefully she will let me sneak out.

 

Anyway, back to the galloping. 
It was not graceful, or ethereal.
She’s just like her mommy that way.
She fell so many times I lost count.
HEEEE!!

 

Here are the pictures I took before class.
Please note the odd facial expressions and um….interesting??? poses.
I sent these to Jimmy and his response was “what the hell are those 
faces she is making??” i laughed out loud.
I’ll let you decide for yourself if my title is true.

 

Love to you all!!
xo

 

p.s. i have no illusions that these are “great” photos. i was simply trying to take them before she made the dang “MEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” face.

 

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Checking In

Firstly, Thank You all so very much for the kind birthday wishes!

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend.
J sent me these:

 

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And I treated myself to this:

 

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So I’m a happy camper!
I honestly don’t have much to share, I just took some photos this weekend that make me really happy and I thought I might share them,
I hope these aren’t boring to you!

 

These are all Harper and Sadie on my birthday, 
i know, i know, I’m not in any of them…well actually my legs are, does that count?
and my arm! hehe!

 

I’m taking H to Mother’s Day out Open House tomorrow.
Please pray for us that she does not
a. scream like a banshee
b. cry
c. tell anyone embarrassing stories about me.

 

Love to you all!
xoxo

 

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Ohhhh the Things She Says

After I sneezed really hard  (and said ohhhh no under my breath) she said “UH OH MAMA…need harper change you?” and she said it so compassionately as she was rubbing my knee. 

“When Daddy comes home, no Harper sleep in Mama’s  bed, Harper sleep in Harper’s bed!”. And when I said “why?”. She says “because mama and daddy need special time, mama daddy need PLAY!”  And, bless her heart, I had to bite my tongue.
The sweet little thing said this b/c every time Sadie naps, we have special time together and play games, but of course I have my mind in the gutter, and this cracked me up big time.
 
“oh oh, GOODNESS…where my keys? Harper need GO. Harper need high heels!”
where are you going harper?
“i go date with daddy”
oh really?
“harper go ahh gannistan”

 

(when I put her in the bath) “OH THIS BE COLD! THIS BE NICE! THIS BE SO ‘FRESHING!” refreshing? really? heeee

 

“Harper want to wear dress. I loooove fashion!”

 

“mumblemumble LOVE YOU!”
oh, i love you too, baby!
“NO MAMA I LOVE MY COOKIES!!”
(looking at cookies tenderly with head cocked she says in a small voice)
“i love you so so much”

 

upon seeing me snack on Goldfish
“NO DAT BE GLUTEN FREE. DAT HURT HARPER’s TUMMY”

 

to the little boy playing with the train at barnes and noble
“SHARING BE CARING!”

 

when she sees that the barney at our LSS has no eyeballs
“where go EYEBALLS? i eat them”
me- what did they taste like?
“CHICKEN!”

 

what do you want for supper tonight?
“diet chicken!!”

Just a small taste of the whirlwind that is Harper.
Do you see why sometimes, at my wit’s end, I say
HARPER!
could we 
just
be
quiet
for a second?
can we 
just 
sit 
quietly?
mommy’s brain hurts.
 

 

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Such a joy