Beyond the Sesa

Our family loves jazz. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald will always put a little spring in our step. I chose "Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin as my music inspiration for this photo. Being a Navy family it always speaks to me of the sweetness of a homecoming after a long deployment.

"Somewhere Beyond the Sea" layout supplies:

Glitz Design "Black & White" papers: Floral, Wood Grain, XO

Glitz Design "Black & White" 6x6 paper pad

Glitz Design "Black & White" Alphabets & Words sticker sheet

Glitz Design "Black & White" Titles & Accents sticker sheet

Glitz Design "Black & White" Whatnots

Glitz Design "Black & White" Giant Rhinestones

Glitz Design "Black & White" washi tape - Dots

other: sequins, tulle, doily, vellum, lace

there's no place like home

After a year of incredible heartache, losing both of my parents three weeks apart, duty called and Stan had to ship out overseas. 

The Navy had been very gracious to us over the past year, bringing him home mid-deployment last March just in time (3 hours before) my mom went into brain surgery. Throughout the year his command, allowed him time as needed to help take care of our ever-changing situation on the home front. Just a couple of days after Thanksgiving Stan headed overseas for what we fondly call here at our house a "bonus deployment" (an extra little ditty between regularly scheduled deployments). Today, he arrived home safely. 

As a side note, I have found it very difficult to write anything meaningful on my blog since (and really before) I lost my parents. My head seems so jumbled up with the tsunami of thoughts and emotions that enveloped last year, and words do not seem to come easily in writing these days. Some of the process is of sorting through the rubble is coming through photo journaling daily life. Please forgive me if words fail when I wish they would flow. 

“When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.”  

-G.K. Chesterton

Home Sweet Home

i hope you're ready for some gushing about just how thankful and grateful i am to have my handsome husband back home. i know i am!

three weeks ago today, stan's plane touched down and he was home... finally home, and we'd made it through deployment number six. it is one crazy life, filled with blessings and hardships all its own. but then, no life is immune to hardship any more than it is immune to blessing. so i am ever grateful for this life i have. and especially grateful for my big brawny man being back home!

i already posted these pictures, but they were my choices for my 365 project, so decided to post them again. there is nothing quite as exhilarating as a homecoming... complete with tears and overwhelming joy. stan's plane pulled right up to the hanger, and the girls and i ran for it. (i was a little behind with the camera, for the pictures and for letting the girls get that first piece of daddy.) boy did those girls need some good strong daddy-lovin'. there is just something about a dad's love that little in the world can replace. 

we headed home along country roads "littered" with "welcome home stan" signs & "dad you rock" signs. (thank you eric & rob for your help getting them all up and down for us!) when we drove onto camano there was the first big 4'x8' banner.  (thank you action potential chiropractic for letting me borrow a section of your lawn... and THANK YOU cascade lumber for the steaks! you guys are a true blessing to our family!) then, of course, we pulled into our house strewn with flags and banners reminding our sweet hero just how much we appreciate all he gives up for us.

one of the things the girls look forward to most is a hearty dad-cooked breakfast when he gets home. bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes... the works! when he's home, stan always cooks breakfast on saturday mornings for the family. it's one of those little moments of family tradition that stick with you for a lifetime. (emma even made stan a welcome home card with a picture she drew of him cooking breakfast.) ah, the sweet normal-ness of home!

lucky for us stan got a full four days off when he got home this time! of all of our homecomings this was the longest bit he's had off after a deployment. we had all of our meals together, walked the beach, had picnics, snuggled on the couch, had pillow fights and laughed until we were all in tears.

then back to school for the girls to finish out the last week. as a right of passage for the 4th grades, they get to build rockets out of 2L bottles and have them launched across the school yard. torrey and i had worked on her rocket, and were just hoping that it wouldn't flop. (our aviation man wasn't available yet!) it didn't go the farthest, but it made a very decent showing for itself! hurray for the internet. :) this was one of the most fun school activities i've watched... ever!

i found this super cute skirt made from a vintage table cloth at this cute little store in snohomish... and it was according to emma, "just my style."

at last... the last day of school!!!

so now i'm getting a little distracted while i try to get this blog post up... so i think i'm just going to do quick notes and get it up... then if i'm motivated i'll update it more. (mostly because torrey is standing right behind my head planning out her birthday party on friday.) so here goes... we had stan's big welcome home party with loads of yummy smoked ribs (thank you eric... again) and lots of friends to share the day. there are more pictures here.

father's day!

day at the new community park 
love that everyone worked together to raise the money and to build the park. how cool is that.

more daddy/daughter navy sweetness here

the mock theme song of our house is the song little girls from the movie annie. "lucky me. lucky me, look at what i'm dripping with... little girls" i'm pretty sure this guy isn't complaining. :)

emma started vision therapy this past week to help with focus and tracking. it always amazes me the things that these clever groups of people find to help people! we're already been able to see some of the areas of struggle, and can see buds of improvement... and definitely in emma's confidence, and it's only been one week! yahoo. i'm sure we'll have updates along the way of how it's all going.

we went on our first camping trip of the season this past weekend, and on a dry run for our big camping trip through several national parks starting next week. we camped in our favorite close-to-home spot... camano island state park. ahhhhhh, i love that place. one of the bits of fun we love about the state park is that my parents come out and have dinner with us. at least one night we always have marinated flank steak for dinner... and i'm pretty sure they've rarely missed an opportunity to join us. seriously, with a grum & pa (grandma & grandpa) this fun, how could you not want them to join you every second possible!

i'd intended to write so much more, to thank everyone for the deployment & homecoming prayers, to be clever and witty, to be much more caught up with posting along this homecoming season. but alas, i've been true to my slightly behind self. but i would like to say thank you from the depths of my heart for all of your prayers, encouragement and love through this past deployment (and those that came before it)... i thank God each day for this blessed life.

now off to the grocery store with torrey to pick up the party goods for friday! :)

xo. noel joy

home at last

just a quickie post with a couple of homecoming pictures... it was perfect & nothing can quite describe the overwhelming joy of a homecoming. there are a bunch more pictures here.

the big day...

for weeks the girls and i have been busy making signs and buying out flags from every walmart and target in driving distance! last night we got the front of the house all set up with the big banner signs hung... we are ready! not that we wouldn't be ready without 100+ flags, but anything we can do to show stan just how much he's loved, missed and appreciated... well i would have a million flags if i could to say that.

so if i go under the radar for a few days... just know we are enjoying that special family time with our very own big strong hero who is home with us again!! thanks for all of your prayers along the way. we are so blessed!

God bless America

the count down is on...

we are getting mighty closes to our big brawny man coming home... just a few days out now. yahoo!!! the house is mostly clean, maybe not to stan-standards, but certainly much better than noel-standards. the signs are all made, the sign hanging team is on call, the nails are up for the banners on the house, the kitchen table is full of flags ready to put out... we're very nearly there! {a few more from today}

the girls and i have been praying for safety for stan's trip home, sunshine for his homecoming day and that the dresses i ordered for them would come in on time. (thank you to my mama who has been praying hard, too!) the dresses arrived on saturday. (i ordered them well over a month ago.) and this is how the box arrived. i couldn't help but think of the opening scene of ace ventura. definitely not my favorite movie, but this box IS that scene! thanks to the good prayers, and a strong plastic bag inside, the dresses survived their journey through the usps system! hurray for answered prayers!

friday night the girls had a little sleep over with a pair of sweet sisters. isn't it fun to find wonderful families with wonderful kids the same ages as your little ones? yah, i think so too! i caught this scene when i got up in the morning to make a hello kitty waffle feast for the girlies. as long as i live, i'm not sure i'll ever witness anything sweeter than a sleeping child. {love}

friday was our school's annual carnival, complete with bouncy houses, carnival games and more. what's not to love about that, right?

in all of the prep getting ready for stan to come home, i've been looking at pictures of the girls from around the time he deployed... i can't believe how much they've grown in the time he's been away. i figured now was a good time to get a couple more face shots of them. (not that i don't have bunches from along the way, also.) it has truly been one of the greatest blessings of project 365 to share our daily life in pictures with stan while he's been away. to see life happening, to watch the girls grow, to be a part of us... even when he's so far away. what a blessing technology & creative genius can be! to whomever came up with project 365 - i thank you so very much.

and this... well, it's sort of a surprise for  my husband... (no, not the tractor!) so i can't really say what this one is all about. :)

{so thankful}

it's memorial day, and my thoughts of course, wander toward my husband who is overseas (but getting quite close to coming home). but more than that, memorial day is about all of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for this great country. those that didn't come home. i've been spending countless hours this week going through the pictures of military homecomings over at pioneer woman. the images are powerful, heart breaking and so much more. it has renewed my perspective and thankfulness for our previous five homecomings, and the one coming up in less than two weeks... they were the homecomings where we got to hug and hold stan at the end. not the kind where we were handed a flag by a graveside.

i am so so thankful for the men and women who give so much, and are willing to give everything for this great country. and today i'm praying especially for the families who have lost the ones they've loved along the way. may God fill your heart today.

God bless our troops & God bless America!

homecoming 2006

homecoming 2008

homecoming 2008