Stephanie's Blog Rocks!

This week I was lucky enough to "talk" with stephanie, from the poor broad with four daughters. Right now she is single parenting her girls while her husband is away in the service. It was my pleasure to get to know her, and I hope you find her as enjoyable as I do.

me : How did you come up with the name for your blog?

stephanie : I picked it because everyone always assumes that since I have four daughters that A) I must have been trying for a boy and failed four times or B) they feel sorry for me, often telling me how bad it's going to be when they are all teens together. To which I say to A) I was trying for a baby, I really didn't care the sex but every time I found out I was having a girl I was very happy. I am not sure I am cut out to raise boys. And my answer to B) is they aren't all going to be teens together. Lilly and Aidan will only be in high school together for one year. Aidan and Sophia will never be in high school together. But Delilah and Sophia will and it will be just fine.

me : Why did you start blogging?

stephanie : I started reading my best friend's sister in law's blog and I wanted to start commenting on it so I decided to make my own blog. My husband thinks I do it to complain about our families, but that really isn't the case. I try to keep it positive, but not everything in live is positive so some of the negative things creep in.

me : How would you categorize your blog, and what makes it different from all the others out there?

stephanie : It's a "mommy" blog and I know it. Some people I know are kind of put off by mommy blogs, but I get attached to the family I read about and think of them as if I knew them forever. So I like mommy blogs personally. I try to add pictures in there pretty much every week, I love pictures and looking at other people pictures.

me : Describe yourself in one sentence.

stephanie : A big crazy mess most of the time, but with a calm cool front on the outside.

me : I ask this of everyone I've interviewed because you can learn alot about someone by the company they keep, lol, so here goes:
Who are your favorite, must read daily blogs?

stephanie : Crazy Magic Hectic Sometimes Beautiful Life (me : I love jenn, too!!!!!), Good Intentions, Betsey Booms, Jason for the love of God, MeMarie Lane ~ She was the first blog I read, she is my best friends sil, Moving at the speed of life, Stephanie's Place ~ this one is private. I don't know her personally, but I was a long time reader when she decided to go private.

me : Your daughters have the most beautiful names. How did you chose their names?

stephanie :
Lillyanna Margaret: I didn't exactly pick her name, my mom did. I had picked out Lilas Annette and my parents hated it. Since I was really young (19) and was pregnant before I was married I felt like I needed everyone's approval, especially hers. She was in the delivery room and after Lilly was born and we found out she was a girl (we waited to find out) my mom came to me with the name. Lillyanna for Kale's grandmother Lilith and my grandma, my mom, and I who all have middle names with Ann in them. And Margaret for Kale's Nanny Margaret, who was and still is his only living grandparent.

Aidan RoseLynn: I had picked Aidan for a boys name and really thought I was going to have a boy. When we found out she was a girl one of Kale's friends suggested Aidan would be a pretty girl name. I liked the idea and didn't have any others so we used it. And boy does it fit her perfectly, it means Little fiery one. Rose was for Rossana the exchange student living with my parents at the time. We call her Rose and we just love her to death. I was staying with my parents during my last two months of pregnancy with Aidan as Kale was in a military school at the time. He was closer to my parents house than ours in KY and I didn't want to give birth alone. So Rose took care of Lilly while my mom and mother in law stayed to watch Aidan's birth. Lynn came from my dad and Kale's mom, both of their middle names are Lynn. I was going to just have her name be Aidan Lynn but my MIL felt it was too short and not femine enough so Ifeminine Rose. It's funny that she said it was too short because she felt Lilly's name was too long, go figure.

Sophia Grace: I just loved the sound of her name. I didn't name her after anyone, although when we were going through my grandpa's things after he died we found out he had an aunt Sophia. I only had a girls name picked out during her pregnancy and when my mom's friend did an ultra sound for me (before the official one) she said "Oh I don't want to tell you the sex now." Since she was a girl. I told her that it was a good thing, since I only had a girl name picked out.

Delilah Annette: I had been throwing Delilah out there since my first pregnancy, but Kale was worried about the stigma attached to the name. I finally got him to reconsider when the song "Hey there Delilah" came out and he liked the way Delilah sounded. Annette is my mom's middle name.

me : I read that your husband is in the service. Tell us a little about him.

stephanie : Kale and I met when he was a PV2, low ranking enlisted soldier. He works in the Military Police field as an Internment Specialist AKA Corrections Officer. He was just promoted on November 1st to SFC and we are very happy about this. He is working on the requirements now to move from Enlisted Soldier to Officer. He just needs 12 more college credits to submit a packet to go to Officer Candidate School. He works really hard and is well known in his field, often he is asked for by name for jobs. He worked as a Military Police Investigator when he was stationed here in Fort Leavenworth. Now that he is stationed in Cuba I really don't know what he does as it is top secret.

me : How often is he away from home?

stephanie : This is the first time he has been stationed away from us for longer than 2mths. Before he usually was only gone for 2mths at a time and that was less than once a year.

me : Is it hard single parenting? Do you have a lot of support from family and friends?

stephanie : It's not as hard as I expected it to be. Really it has been harder being separated from my husband emotionally than it has been to have less help. Which he is a lot of help when he is home and normally does half of the work in our house and half of the work caring for our girls. Really this separation has been good for us, it has let us see why we fell in love in the first place. We have been together for over 10yrs (married for 10 in Feb) and we had kind of lost some of the spark that was once there. It has now come back and we are talking more than we ever did (which is hard to believe since we talk about everything already). I guess the old saying is true "absence makes the heart grow fonder".

I do get a lot of support from family more than anything else. My family lives in the town right outside the fort. My brother, his wife, and their son live very close. My parents live close. And I have an aunt and uncle that live close. They all help out whenever they can with whatever I need. My parents even take the older three girls one night a week to spend the night at their house. And my mil has been out quite a bit since Kale left, three times I believe. Whenever I need something she is here for me. Kale's dad even came out with her the last time to help me clean and organize the garage so I can park there this winter. I am very blessed to have so much help around when I need it. But really for the most part it's just the girls and I.

me : How do you find time for yourself with four girls running around?

stephanie : I stay up really late at night and send my kids to bed really early. :P In all seriousness my kids have very strict bedtimes during the week. Lilly and Delilah at 8pm, Aidan and Sophia at 7pm. Then I do tend to stay up way to late. They need their sleep or they are bears, I learned that very early on in my motherhood journey. (me : my kids have early bedtimes too, and it is wonderful!)

me : Is there anything else you want to share with us?

stephanie : One thing that is important about me, that defines me, is the fact that I had a miscarriage between Sophia and Delilah. It was a late miscarriage too, 16wks 6days and we were only days away from finding out that baby's sex. Which I never did find out which is a blessing and a curse. Delilah was born exactly 1 year to the day of my miscarriage, which I felt brought everything full circle, but it scared me the whole time I was in labor with her.

bullet questions:
tell me your favorite:
month of the year? May, warm, dry, and full of life.
color? Green
holiday? Christmas, I believed in Santa until I was 13 and I think it's important to let kids believe to keep them young, especially nowadays.
animal? Cats, all kinds big and small. I like that they take care of themselves.
drink? Pepsi

Thank you so much stephanie for taking the time to do this. I can only imagine how busy you must be!