Stephanie Howell

That Heart-Sinking, Lump in Your Throat Kinda Moment

July 13, 2008

Every day we have one of those.

This morning it almost did me in…

My brother came over and knocked on the door

and H ran to the door yelling “DADDYYYYYY!!!!”.

And then when I opened the door and it wasn’t him,

her little face just crumpled.

And I had to give the baby to my brother

so I could take H in her room and just hold her.

And cry into her hair.

And then life went on.

When your day starts out that way, what’s a girl to do?

Well, go to the flea market of course!!

Or Fee Farket as H calls it.

We dropped S off with my mom and off we went for some “special time”.

is it necessary to mention that i had a small heart attack when i found the first thing below?

it was buried underneath a pile of gross clothes

and the guy had NO idea what it was, so it was CHEAP.

seriously?

heart

attack.

I think H will agree that we felt MUCH better after our Fee Farket

adventure.

So that’s today.

On we march.

And is it sad that I look forward to bed time because that’s

when I put one of his shirts on my pillow and hold it?

And smell it? And I’m worried b/c he’s only been gone 3 nights

and it already is losing its smell.

Good think he left cologne and deodorant here. And yes,

I don’t care if you think that is weird. =)

I have some great photos to share tomorrow,

my mother’s dear friend, Nancy, brought her grand daughter over yesterday

to play with Harper.

And she brought me the most amazing, dear collection of vintage treasures

that belonged to her mother-in-law.

Nancy, If you are reading, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I will share with everyone tomorrow, it’s just incredible.

One last thing, tonight is August sneak peek night over at Studio Calico.

Come join in if you can, it’s always so much fun,

and I must admit that the kit is very pretty and very “me”.

I’m having lots of fun with it.

If I owe you an email, I promise you will hear from me soon.

I’ve been taking my time reading each and every one of them,

and holding them close to my heart.

I have been a bit overwhelmed, but don’t think I’m ignoring you.

I WILL answer them this week, I promise.

happy sunday, sweet friends.

xoxo

Back to Normal (whatever that means)

July 12, 2008

Busy, busy, busy.

Play-do, a new play vacuum cleaner (which she intensly pushes while frowning and saying

oh NO, vewwwy diwty. no no sadie), dress up, singing and dancing,

arts and crafts, phone conversations with my sweet friend Sarah, whose husband Nick

left too..Hey Sarah, you blog stalker you! hehhhe

Learning to make our beds, water the flowers,

inspecting the birds nest in the fern on the front porch,

these are all the things keeping us busy.

And wine and scrapbooking help after the wee ones are in bed,

I won’t lie.

Harper keeps saying “Harper go Afghanistan?”

which sounds like “hahpah go ahh gann ih sannnn?”

And that kind of breaks my heart, but it’s okay b/c I’m pretty sure she thinks

Whataburger is Afghanistan.

We stopped there to pick up a burger on the way to drop J off and she said

“OH!! ahh gann ih sannn!!!”

Okay harper, yes, that is Afghanistan.

Heee. I kind of wish I thought that’s where he was.

Much less scary.

But he might come back with a major belly in that case.

The way J works though? He eats bad every once in a while,

wakes up and runs like a zillion miles,

and his belly is gone.

Makes me sick. Hmmmph.

Anyway…

Things are okay. Got an email from him last night from wherever he is…

On the way to wherever exactly it is he’s going.

He sounded tired but good.

You know that 2nd picture in the last post?

The one where he looks like he is about to cry?

Well, I went back to look at that “roll” to try to figure out what he was thinking about…

and this was the photo before that one:

ACK! Talk about lump in the throat.

I can’t even believe I accidentally captured such a real, private moment.

See, this is what I love about this hobby.

It has made me look at things in a new light.

This is on the girls’ ceiling:

We made it the other day…a link for each month he is gone.

Harper loves it.

I, on the other hand will love it when it’s about 14 links shorther.

THEN it will be fun.

J recorded some of the girls’ favorite bed time stories

before he left and the chickies watched them for the first time last night:

Harper cracks me up in that first one. She’s like

“WHAT THE????” she was so excited and kept kissing the screen.

Sadie, as always, was baffled.

I snapped these quickly and promptly left the room.

As Harper says “No Mommy CRY!! Face MESSY!!!”.

So, that’s about it.

I do want to share some crafty randomness…

I bought some Real Simple goodies at Target the other day,

they were on sale so I got the address book and agenda…

I’ve been wanting them forever.

Of course I had to embellish them…

I’m obsessed with the Basic Grey Sultry Chip Stickers

I’ve been using them on everything since I got them months ago.

Here’s the simple way I dressed the books up:

I’ve also done a couple of layouts. I have a feeling I’ll do a TON of layouts over the next 15 months.

There’s nothing else for me to do after the girls go to bed and i don’t want to

sit still for one moment.

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend.

I want to tell you again how much your words of encouragement have meant to me,

here, at 2peas, and at Studio Calico.

I’ve printed all of your sweet comments and I will look at them often.

Thank you. That’s not even close to being enough, those two words,

but still.

xoxoxo

And So Begins a New Adventure

July 10, 2008

He’s gone.

And I’m so dang tired I can hardly stand it.

The girls are napping and it’s quiet. And the house feels empty.

How is that possible?

I have such hope for the next year.

So much I want to learn, do, become.

I will become a better person because of this…

stronger, wiser, more faithful.

I’m not really in the talking mood right now,

so I thought I’d leave you with some photos I took this morning.

Love to you all and thank you, thank you, thank you

for your kindness, love, and prayers.

xoxo

Date Night

July 9, 2008

High heels

a dress

actually wearing makeup and perfume

and blow-drying my hair.

sea bass

a whole bottle of French wine

beignets for dessert

ADULT conversation

no interruptions

holding hands

not talking about the babies quite

as much as we thought we would

inside jokes

giggling…

having him tell me

how proud of me he is,

and how much he loves me

and only having to sneak

off to the bathroom so i could cry

once. (which has to be a record for me,

usually it would be ten times or so,hehe)

treasuring this last day together,

memorizing the way he looks, smell and sounds…

please note the puffy face and squinty eyes

from lack of sleep (thanks sadie) and crying.

but i did my hair and makeup and that’s what counts yay!!

knowing in a little over 24 hours

i’ll be missing him terribly.

Checking In

July 8, 2008

Quick post today. I’m off to get Sadie bug and Harper the monkey up, I hear them stirring.

Did any of you have a hard time transitioning from the damn swaddle? It’s killing me. She is so spazzy she wakes herself up every few hours.

We finally got her to sleep on her tummy unwrapped but I’m getting up like every single hour. She shares a room with H, so I can’t exactly let her cry it out.

Help me Lord. I’m going to be a zombie while J is gone.

Oh well, atleast I’ll probably get skinny.

heheeh.

I’ll leave you with a few random (blurry, grody mommy w/out makeup and messy hair) pictures.

yes, i just said grody.

xoxoxo

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