Gotta Start Somewhere

I have to start somewhere . . . but really, this is hardly a beginning at all. I've been blogging for 4 years about my normal, every day life as a doting wife to a loving husband and a stay-at-home-mom to two young girls. My stories are all out there in CyberSpace, though (supposedly) they can't be easily accessed now because I had to 'close' my old blog to unknown readers.

The internet is a funny thing. You can think that you are OK with putting your business out there, but then something happens . . . and all of the sudden you DO care about exactly WHO is reading about your life.

Anyway, I have to start new. And I have to start somewhere new. So here I am. Gotta start somewhere.

Welcome, if you haven't read about my lovely family before. I'll fill you in:

I'm 32 years old. I live with my family in the Southeast -- Georgia, to be more precise. I'll call myself "Helen" on this blog . . . though I won't do the quotes every time (because, man, that would get exhausting).

I've been very happily married to my husband, who we will call Joe, for nearly 7 years. Joe travels for work a lot . . . weekly, usually 3-4 days, which often becomes a big part of my story line here at House in the 'Hampton.

My beautiful girls are turning 4 and 2 years old in just a few weeks. Here, my oldest daughter is named Big and my youngest is named Little. Easy to remember, though not the most femenine of names. That's OK. I still plan to post pictures of them on the site, so you'll get to see just how girly they are.

Speaking of pictures . . . I am a pseudo-professional photographer, so photos are a big part of my life. For that reason, I'm going to post pictures here . . . I just can't seem to find a way to do a blog without photos. It would not be me. (So yes, the kids you are seeing are MY kids . . . but they are not named Big and Little.) I do family and children photography, and I travel around to people's homes for many of my shoots. I only shoot occassionally -- but there was a time about a year ago when business was booming. So much business, in fact, I was struggling to handle my duties as a mom, wife, and only-daughter to my widower father.

Yes, I'm 32, a mom and wife, a photographer, and an only child. My mom passed away last year, my dad has battled some pretty major cancer demons over the past 3 years, and it's all taken it's toll on my very small immediate family. I love the photography, but right now, my family is my priorty, and they often need a lot of my time.

I'm happy to do it -- to devote my life to them, my family. As long as I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel -- that my girls WILL get older (and easier to manage), that my husband MIGHT be home more one day, that my dad WILL be happy again.

Okay, so that light isn't buring too bright at the end of the tunnel . . . but I'm still happy to do it. And when I'm not that happy about it, I turn to the blog to vent.

That's the basics, I guess. It's me, Joe, Big, and Little, hanging out here at our House in the 'Hampton. Things are good most of the time, not great sometimes, and downright hard at times, too. But we manage. And we are -- no matter what I post -- a happy family.

Like I said, WELCOME to the new blog. Now that I've started, I'm really ready to get going.