Stephanie Howell

Exploring Normandy Day 1 | Rouen

April 22, 2015

On Thursday we left Venice bright and early and flew into Beauvais Airport in France (about an hour and a half outside of Paris).

This was a trip that we’d been waiting to take for a LONG time. Especially J, Mr. History Major. We sprinkled fun day trips in with the heavy historical stuff and I recommend this trip to everyone. It was wonderful.

We picked up our rental car and drove directly to Rouen, where we were spending one night.

We flew into France smack dab in the middle of a transportation strike. It delayed our flight about an hour and then the metro completely shut down in Rouen so we just walked the entire town.

It was quite lovely. I was worried about the weather on the trip, but we totally lucked out on almost all the days. It was just beautiful.

Here are a few of the things we saw:

macarons for days!

her idea, love this girl:

amazing cathedral:

Where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake:

the girls danced for a LONG time to this guy’s piano music.

Whew! That’s a lot of pictures! But I can’t help it. I want to share every moment with y’all. 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll be back with days 2 and 3- Honfleur.

xoxo

I’m Back!

April 20, 2015

I’m back from a trip to Normandy and I have to tell you it was honestly the best trip I’ve ever taken. Life-changing really. Now to figure out how to even begin to organize my thoughts so that I can tell you all about it!

Happy Monday-

xoxo

On Creative Weirdness

April 7, 2015

I’m stuck in a really weird place, y’all.

A place where I love to look at all of my pretty scrap supplies, but rarely use them.

A place where I got rid of about 3/4 of my supplies so I don’t feel so overwhelmed, where I move paper around but never glue anything.

Layouts don’t feel like “me” anymore, but I’m not really interested in Project Life.

I love using my supplies for gift wrapping, though.

I’ve come to the realization that for now, I enjoy little notebooks, journals and minis.

A place to gather snippets and thoughts, but much less traditional than what I used to make.

And it’s really weird to be honest. I don’t know exactly what happened. I just quit making stuff and then I waited longer and longer and then I just stopped. Completely.

And I really miss it but I don’t know if it will ever be the same way that it used to be.

And you know what? That’s okay. I’m still meeting my creative needs, even though it’s lunchbox notes and not layouts.

I have a ridiculous amount of 12×12 albums that are stuffed to the gills. And they are HEAVY. And I have to move them all over this world. And I’m kind of tired of that. But the other day I walked into my craft room (soon to be baby room) and Harper was curled into an armchair flipping through my albums and the joy on her face was affirmation.

I’m so glad that I have all of those pages.

And I don’t want to never make one again. I truly don’t!

But now I have my blog. And Instagram. And Artifact Uprising books. And journals. And a million photos. And minis. There isn’t guilt, y’all.

But there is a longing. My heart misses it. And I think that means that I will make pages again soon. I don’t think I will ever make big 12×12 pages with one photo again, though. It’s just too much.

I got too caught up in the stuff and the expectations. Too caught up in what everyone else was doing and saying and selling and making. I lost the joy.

So that’s where I am. In limbo. Wanting to make, but not sure how or what. Slowly finding my way back. Piece by piece, photo by photo.

xoxo

Monday Brain Dump

April 6, 2015

+ Look at these four. When did they get so big? I love this photo (from yesterday before church) for so many reasons. The dresses, the shoes and tights, Lucy’s crown…I just love having girls.

+ Good news. I’ve officially come out of the first trimester fog. At almost 15 weeks I now have a desire to blog again but to be honest I don’t know what to blog about. Again. Yep. Back in that stupid funk. Oh well- I’m just excited I want to blog!

+ We are heading to Normandy soon for a week. We are staying in Rouen, Honfleur, Bayeux, Mont St. Michel, and a couple of other places. We are doing a one day Normandy tour and I’m already teary-eyed just thinking about it. I just looked up the weather and it’s rainy almost the entire time, though. BOO. Guess that’s France in the spring, yes?

+ Finished Orphan Train and I LOVED it, but it broke my heart.

+ The ONLY things I want to eat are Japanese, Thai, and Chinese foods. Seriously. Italian food still grosses me out. Sigh. I need this to end. Luckily I found a great restaurant and had an amazing plate of Pad Thai and I could have cried it was so good. Why is pregnancy so weird?

+ Any book recommendations? I’m stuck. What’s the best book you’ve read lately?

Happy Monday y’all. I’d love to hear what you are up to in the comments, I’ve missed you guys!

xoxo

twelve.

March 29, 2015

I made this collage five years ago and found it here on my blog for our seventh anniversary.

There have been many more photos since then but these remain some of my most treasured and special moments so I thought I’d use it again.

Bottom row, middle : The minute he walked in the door after missing Sadie’s birth. I tear up every single time I look at it.

Third row, all the way to the right: When we were in college and so completely in love we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. When I look at that photo, I feel that infatuation all over again.

Seventh row, all the way to the right: When he walked in the room after a deployment I wasn’t sure he’d make it home from.

If I had snapshots of the last five years (I don’t have many of these on film) here’s what I’d see.

+ My face when we found out I was pregnant with number five. Shock and a little bit of fear, and Jimmy standing in the corner of the restroom with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.

+ Us seeing two heartbeats on an ultrasound in Fort Benning, Georigia five years ago.

+ Celebrating our eleventh anniversary in Paris. Having hard conversations but coming home closer than we’ve ever been.

+ Deployments, training, and constantly being apart. But the reunions, oh the reunions. The sweetest thing in the world. Nothing compares and it truly makes all the aparts worth it.

+ Learning to navigate life in a foreign country together.

+ Having an entire year TOGETHER while he was in Rhode Island for school. Having almost every single breakfast and dinner together for 365 days and driving each other a little bit nuts but mainly just loving it.

+ Lots of everyday stuff. Raising four little people. Disagreements, hard decisions, laughing until we cry. Vacations, texts, being apart a lot, being together some. Frustrations, pure happiness, life.

This life together has taken us so many places (literally and emotionally) that I never could have begun to imagine. The past 12 years have held the most intense fear and the most overwhelming joy that I have ever known. Sometimes in the same exact moment.

There is nowhwere I’d rather be than by his side. Whether it’s on the couch holding hands and watching a scary movie…or in a room surrounded by other people.

He is it for me.

Home. Love. Grace.

Happy 12th, Jimmy.

xoxo

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