Just me My Soldier and our 2 little chicks

iphone tour of the new howell household

Okay. So God is good. That's truly all I keep thinking over and over.

Every morning I wake up and walk through this beautiful house with a big, silly grin on my face.

I kind of feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

The Fort Benning housing office gave us our dream house. I mean that. Truly.

We have enough furniture to fill up approximately 1/4 of this house.

I'm scared this is a dream. They called yesterday and I was scared for a second that they were telling us it was a mistake that we got this house...we live on a street with almost all Colonels.

Everyone is SO nice, kids everywhere...playing til dark. It's safe. And beautiful. Oh, did I mention that?

See? I'm obsessed.

Jimmy and I keep saying there is nowhere to go from here but down. HEEE.

I mean, we could never ever in a million zillion years live anywhere like this if it wasn't provided to us by the army.

This is why I wanted to live on post here at Ft. Benning.

Our house is close to 100 years old...and beautiful.

I feel like Claudia Joy in Army Wives. teehee.

Before I get started, let me apologize for the cruddy quality of these photos.

I promise I will take some "real" photos once we get  unpacked. ;) right now the house is a maze of boxes. i've stubbed my toes approximately 10394032945 times.

Our street:

 

coming in the front door:

 that door down the hall is the guest bath.

that's the living room to the left:

 

the dining room to the right:

 

dining room to living room:

 

through the living room are french doors that lead to a little extra room. j is going to make it the "bar area" with all of his army plaques/etc. on the wall. his one  man room. well, except for the gym he made in the garage, hee!

the kitchen is in the back to the right. they remodeled it right before we moved in, so everything is brand new:

 

to the right in this photo is what is possibly my favorite part of the house,

this sweet little breakfast nook:

across from the table are wall to ceiling built in shelves.

in the back are the stairs to the basement. there is a guest room/bath,

laundry room,

and storm shelter/storage down there.

view from back door:

 

upstairs are the girls rooms (they look identical...nice size and lots of windows/good closets),

the girls bathroom,

and our master bedroom:

 

j has two closets and he LOVES that fact. poor guy usually has his stuff hanging random places all over the house. i say that's what happens when you go away for a year. it's a chance you've gotta take (j/k).

master bath is off our room and that door to the left leads to the sun porch-

MY NEW SCRAP ROOM!!!!

 

you cant' tell...but the windows go all the way around the room, there are seven total.

i'm in natural light heaven!

and by the way, i think i lied earlier about the breakfast nook being my favorite part of the house. i think my closet is my favorite part.

 

it's an entire room to itself. with a DOOR where i can lock myself in when i'm losing my mind. just kidding...kind of.

look at these closets within the closet. sigh:

 

i just love it. it's old. and delicious. the bathroom windows look like this:

 

and this is what is across the street, and in our back yard.

 

 

 

 

lovelovelovelovelovelove.

and let me throw this out there. i am not showing off...well i kind of am,

but this is NOT our house. we have to give it back.

they will have to pry it from my cold dead hands.

but they will take it back. and we will go somewhere else.

so i'm allowed to brag just a wee bit...b/c we are only borrowing it.

=)

love you all!

xoxo

We are okay.

Safe in a hotel room in Georgia. This is heartbreaking and sickening. We are supposed to be SAFE on army posts. How could this have happened??

All of our friends who are still at ft hood are okay, praise the Lord. Please pray for the soldiers at Hood and their precious families.

Love you all- thanks for your kind emails. Xo

Ps. We are here, and the pic above is the house we were assigned. I'm in love. ;)

and just like that

 

 

 

and just like that, they boxed up

our life

our memories

our home

for the sixth time in as many years.

and she sat on the couch watching. and thinking. about the year she and her girls survived here.

the tears shed

the prayers said

the way the Lord led.

and now it's on to a new home.

new memories.

laughter, tears, fears, and moments.

and she will follow Him (and her soldier)

wherever they lead her next.

xo

Hope you had a Happy Happy Halloween!!!

we certainly did!

sure...we started off with a few bumps.

a nap that was too long...messy hair and a case of the grumps:

 

oh the difficulties of being three. woe is me:

 

but soon things turned around.

it's hard to be a grump when daddy makes burgers and good friends come over to play.

everyone was happy in no time at all!

and off they went.

 

 

hope you had a fantastic weekend, my friends.

the packers come monday and the movers come tuesday...so i'll be incommunicado for a while.

love to you all! xoxo

Marketplace

It's time to go check out the November Kit at Studio Calico...Marketplace!

This one is truly delicious.

Doilies? Check.                                                                                                                                          Houndstooth? Check                    

Paper with Vintage Plates? Check

Stitch Rubons? Check.                                                                                                                          

Let's just say we are a match made in heaven. I purchased the Bazaar and Flea Market addons and love them both equally.

Thought I'd share what I did. Then it's off to talk to the roofers, the plumbers, off to get medical records and take the pictures off the wall.

20 months

 

I loved these photos of Sadie from our trip to NY. They were perfect to use for her monthly page. I mean look at her...happy go lucky in one photo, throwing a fit in the next. Very Sadie.

Lots of layering and piecing here.I loved using the tiny pinked edge of the Sassafras number paper and stitching over the seam.

Daily Prayer

 

this is the prayer i say every day (sometimes lots of times a day).

love the soft feelings these blossoms added. I took them apart, crumpled them, smoothed them out, and put them back together (layering different colors). The stems of the flowers are cut from the BasicGrey "doilie" die cut paper.

The doily rubons were heavenly. I used every single last one of them. I used them to make a soft border on the left side of this page.

The butterflies ar punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I used them to embellish the flowers and also to dot the "i" in daily.

Love the ethereal feeling this page has.

Lead the Way

This one chokes me up. One of those pages that makes my heart hurt. When I saw this simple photo of J leading the girls through the forest at West Point, it evoked so many more complex emotions.

This page is fairly simple. Lots of rubons, and i layered October Afternoon journaling stickers over the center of the doilies. They fit perfectly.

The Woodgrain paper was perfect for this photo. And there are those stitches again. ;)

Precocious

 

Look at my sweet girl.
I've heard several people say the large patterns on the BasicGrey paper are not their favorite, but I disagree. Don't be scared to use them. I used one for the background here (and also on the daily prayer layout above).

These doilies are DIVINE. I love the color combo of melon and green/mint green.

These are the same blossoms I used on Daily Prayer, but I took them apart, folded them into fans, and secured them with the gorgeous Making Memories vintage findings buttons.

The stems are those Hambly rubons I love so much,

Vintage twine and more butterflies (shocking i  know) were just what the page needed.

On the title, I painted the thickers with my White Sharpie poster paint pen. I blobbed the paint on and rubbed it in with my finger. Made the color a bit softer.

wp/nyc

 

Yes! Another two-pager. I'm pretty sure this is now a monthly occurance!!!

I wanted to scrap my iphone photos from our trip and this seemed the perfect way.

click on the photo to see it larger. love the sweet sassafras word/alpha chipboard.

i ran out of basicgrey orange stickers by this point, so i used negatives again.

the circles are punched from the promo card for sc's new paper line, home front.

sidenote: am i obsessed with the fiskars apron lace punch or  what? it's a sickness.

Happy Wednesday, sweet friends.

xoxo

gotta case of the mondays

 

 

 

 

winners!!!!

magnetic board-

6

Dana said...

Oooh, I would love to win anything out of your giveaway closet! Thanks for the giveaways, Stephanie!

bracelet-

99

Pam said...

How fun! I'd love to win anything! Thanks for the opportunity! Happy Packing and best of luck with the move!

Box One-

419

mollee said...

Love your blog!!! And this giveaway is amazing!!! Good luck Stephanie!

Box Two-

138

jill s said...

i hope all the packing + moving goes smoothly!!

toss my name in the hat. :)

xx
jill

Thanks for playing, everyone!

If you are a winner, send me your info at

Stephaniehowell8(at)gmail(dot)com.

back tomorrow!

hope you had a beautiful weekend. xo

October Sponsor Giveaway!! CLOSED!!!!

Happy Friday, girls!

It's about time for a giveaway, don't you think?
How about FOUR giveaways???

Luckily, I have two fabulous sponsors this month who are generously sharing some of their goodies with you.

First up is Paper Miniskirt.

by the way...is that not the cutest shop name ever? i love it.

Paper Miniskirt is giving away this brown fringed daisy memo board to one reader:

 

Next up is Star Hitched Wagon. If you love beautiful, handmade jewelry...this shop is right up your alley!

Star Hitched Wagon is giving away the Caliope Bracelet, which was featured in the June 2009 issue of Bead Trends Magazine. You will also receive a copy of the magazine.

 

And last but not least...

as many of you know, I'm moving to GA at the beginning of Nov.

Yesterday I started packing my scrap room into ziplocs (SO SAD).

the point is...I've got LOTS in my giveway closet. lots and lots.

Two readers will win a flat rate box stuffed with goodies. Internationals may enter, but I'm sorry...I will need you to help with the shipping cost if you win.

 

 

If you would like to win any of the above, leave a comment by Sunday evening and I'll draw a winner then.

Good luck and happy weekend!!

xoxo

s

i offer this story as proof. (version 2)

***sorry, this posted as i was writing it. way before it was ready. whoops!! it's finished now, teehee. dang you, typepad!!***

proof that i can act like an utter and complete spaz and he will still love me.

i mean, there are plenty of stories i could tell...

the time my foot got caught in the stroller at Disney and i flailed about like an elongated woman, flapping my limbs..

the time i got a little into a story i was telling and my long arms smacked a waitresses tray (holding honestly somewhere around 20 drinks) and they all fell to the ground and broke...

i could go on and on and on.

but this one sticks out in my brain.

 

the first time i told him i loved him.

we hadn't been dating very long. 3 months or so. but i knew. i really did.

being away from him broke my heart.

i remember the very first time he called me after the weekend we met.

i put down the phone and SCREAMED and did a happy dance. i hardly  played it cool. never. not with him.

so i knew i loved him. and i kind of wanted to tell him. but i decided not to b/c i didn't want to scare him off.

when he came to visit for my birthday, i was more smitten than ever. he treated me like a princess, but also told me "no" when the occasion called for it. (sidenote: i vividly remember the first time he told me 'no'. july 2000. he wouldn't let me stop at a JCrew outlet on the way to Waco from Dallas. i wish i could say i didn't pout, but that would be a lie. someone needed to knock me down a peg or two. ;).

he was an honorable, good guy. and the most handsome boy i'd ever met.

but i was NOT telling him i loved him first.

i mean, i'd already kissed him first....i was NOT telling him i loved him first.

and i certainly was not going to tell him i loved him as he came out of the restroom,

as he was still buttoning up his pants.

________________________________________________

oh yes my friends. i did.

you might imagine that blurting out "I LOVE YOU" as someone is coming out of the restroom might be awkward. especially after only 3 months of dating.

and you may imagine that when he said "uhhhhh i love you too????"
(THAT'S RIGHT THOSE ARE QUESTION MARKS)

it made the whole situation even more awkward.

and you'd  be right.

but then as i was sitting in the living room utterly mortified, DYING of embarrassment ...he got down on his knees in front of me and told me all the reasons he was falling in love with me too.

and when my best friend lindley burst in the front door screaming
OH.MY.GOSH.IS.HE.PROPOSING.TO YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU???

it was okay. because he loved me. and we were going to have a long, beautiful life

full of me embarrasing myself HORRIBLY while he looked on and rolled his eyes. the eyes would be full of love, and that's all that mattered.

and i love him more today, and i didn't think that was possible.
(especially since he tells me no quite regularly.)

Right Now

Right Now

she:

 

1. is into saying "dear" and "honey" for some reason. she also likes to say "yes, my friend". so so weird, and also hilarious.

2. is OBSESSED with princesses and mermaids. she has one princess dress that is now hidden b/c every single time she puts it on she turns into a raging fit-throwing you-know-what. so the dress is now hidden and we talk about how true princesses are beautiful on the inside, too. or as jimmy puts it "ifbeingaprincessmeansyouaregoingtoactlikeaspoiledlittlegirl,then YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE A PRINCESSSSS!!!" haaaaaaaa.

3. is LOVING preschool. loving it. her preschool's spaghetti dinner fundraiser/open house was last week and the preschool students sang for everyone. she was in the front row. she took a step out in front of everyone and sang every.single.word louder than everyone and did every.single.motion bigger than everyone. she's a  mess.

4. loves books and being read to. right now our favorite author is Mo Willems.  books for kids with wit for adults? gotta love it.

5. is getting excited to move to georgia. she says it's going to be a big "BENTURE" and she hopes that she will have lots of new friends there. i have no doubt that she will.

she:

 

1. is getting really frustrated with the fact that she's not talking as much as she wishes she could. lots of sadie words, which kind of all sound the same...but she's trying. harper just won't let her get a word in edgewise.  so she's starting the back-arching crying kicking fits. awesome. i know she's just frustrated, so we are working lots on "using our words". AND NO HARPER, THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU!!!!

2. has a shoe fetish. wears my shoes all day long. leopard flats? check. black high heels? check (while vacuuming, no less). she's truly obsessed with SHAS!!!

3. is still getting into everything. this morning? an ink pad. yesterday? i found an apple in the bathtub. as harper says...what in the WORD????

4. is TALL. really tall. 97th percentile tall. that's my girl!!

5. has this beautiful, shaggy, thick hair. it looks like it's been cut into a style, but it hasn't. it's the funniest hair ever. especially when she wakes up and it's verrrry fluffy.

he:

 

1. won't ever let me take a serious picture, hence this awesome pose.

2. is getting excited to work with the Rangers again.

3. has been such an amazing help with the girls while i've been sick (yes, still sick. it's got to be some kind of a joke how long i've been sick, and with how many different things). he's really the best daddy in the world, and i never ever get tired of watching him with them. they ADORE him.

4. has been watching GLEE with me every week and laughing at it in all the spots i do. and that makes me love him even more.

5. is sick with a cold..thanks to me. i'm sorry, j. :)

i:

 

1. am nervous about moving. excited, but nervous. it's hard making new friends. and i want to make friends and stay for a while. and i want the girls to love it there and have lots of friends and a good school...just lots to think about.

2. am trying to start exercising and eating right again. fell off the wagon right before Disney, but i ran 2 miles w/ j the day before yesterday, and i'm trying to be thoughtful about what i eat. why does it have to be so HARD? heeee!!!

3. just finished the condition by Jennifer Haigh. Not my usual read, kind of depressing at times, but a really interesting look at family dynamics.

4. am listening to regina spektor lots right now. i love "samson" especially

5. just finished my second november SC layout.

 

life is good. love to you all. hope this post didn't bore you too much!!!

xoxo