Stephanie Lynn..

So, my original plan was to go down the list and talk about Kim next.. After much grief from Stephanie for blogging about Missy first, I have decided to blog about Steph next.. Gosh, again, where do I begin?? She was the surprise baby.. I cried so hard at the hospital when I found out I was pregnant, and did not have food poisoning, that they had to sedate me.. I just couldn't imagine how I would cope with three little ones.. Dumbest thought ever, I know, but I was young and did not give enough credit to myself.. By the next morning, I was right with the world again, and began to feel the excitement creep in.. Did I dare hope for another girl?? I had already brought two of them into this world, into a family overrun by boys.. For the girls' dad, I would have been just fine with a boy.. If I was calling the shots, it would be another girl.. Well, she started her journey to becoming a tiny little human off with a bang.. I landed in the hospital for six days with her.. As my belly grew (very little), so did my discomfort.. How could such a little baby be causing so much pain?? Just under my right ribcage was always burning and I could no longer sleep on my side.. Ultrasound showed a breach baby, tucked squarely under the right ribs, facing frontward.. Her head was causing all the trouble.. Very interesting pregnancy, with much action, but that's another story.. She bleated like a weak little lamb, instead of actually crying, for about the first 8 weeks of her life.. She had the weirdest head when she was born.. You could see every ridge of every bone.. I kept bonnets on her.. And, she looked exactly like a little old man!! We were in love with her from the get-go.. She was the only baby I have ever seen that did not stay bunched up sleeping for the first month or so.. She sprawled out completely in her bassinet.. To this day, she takes up every inch of bed, in every direction.. I was so ready to sit and rock her and was content just holding her.. Not near as uptight as I had been with the other two.. I was sad for the other two girls that I had not enjoyed every second of taking care of them like I did her.. She displayed her own little unique personality very quickly.. Stubborn doesn't even begin to define her.. She never walked on her whole foot until she was probably 6 or 7.. She was our twinkle toe munchkin.. She did all her walking on the balls of her feet.. Once she was old enough to peek over the kitchen cabinet, she would put her nose and her fingers on the edge, and very soon I would see her toes feeling their way along the edge too.. She called mushrooms fungus when ordering them for her pizza until she was around four.. I was determined to encourage her to eat things I wouldn't touch, so when I pretended to be loving them, I would say, "Oh yummy fungus Steph!!" and she would eat them.. Loves them to this day.. Ewww.. By the time she was two, one of her favorite foods was chef salad with creamy Italian dressing.. Her and I would eat it at 6am.. She fell in love with hard boiled eggs that Easter.. A day or two after, I kept hearing this funny noise coming from the kitchen and peered around the corner, only to find her patiently breaking every single egg in the fridge.. She wanted another hard boiled egg and was sure if she kept breaking, one of them would surely be solid.. I cleaned up a dozen cracked eggs off the floor that day.. Then had to go buy more so I could boil her the eggs she was wanting and wanting them now.. You could not dictate her style of dress.. She has asked me how I could dress her the way I did sometimes.. That's hilarious because she was going to dress her way or not at all.. I came up the hill in Ozark once and she was playing on the driveway with the other kids.. She had on a black snow boot with a fuzzy top, a brown sandal with a purple sock, a green pair of shorts and a red shirt.. She had a yellow bow in her hair.. Priceless.. She was the EASIEST child to get to sleep.. Put her in her highchair, give her food, and wait till she passed out.. Clean her up and put her to bed.. The days she didn't fall asleep like that she would climb in my lap like a little monkey does to it's momma, snuggle down into me, and be out.. She would go stick her nose in a corner or put her face to a wall if you made her mad.. That was how she pouted.. She came down the stairs in Ozark once, barefooted and carrying a teddybear.. She informed me she was mad at me and running away.. When I asked her where she was running to, she matter-of-factly told me "Oklahoma".. Still have no idea where that came from.. She would play with roly-polys (potatoe bugs) and I was watching her one day.. She would flip it so it would roll up in a ball.. Then she would chase it down and do the same thing all over again.. Then, out of nowhere, she would open her hand and smack the bug on the sidewalk, squishing it.. I asked her why she did that and she matter-of-factly told me because she was done playing with it.. Duh!! Her nicknames from me were Stephanie Monster Mash, Stephanie Duder Magruder, and Stephanie Monkey Face.. I did not know any Magruders but it rhymed with Duder.. Then in 2004 she married Richard Magruder.. Way cool.. Her nickname with everybody else quickly became "Baby Satan".. Or "Satan II".. Kim was "Satan I" or just "Satan".. It actually took me four days to give her the name she has now.. While I was carrying her, she was to be "Megan Lynn" if I had a girl.. Then, she looked nothing like a Megan so the hunt for her name began.. On day three we settled on "Stacie Lynn" and the nurses were so proud that she finally had a name.. Obviously I changed my mind one more time.. We took a year off school for her eighth grade year and faked home school.. We played around with it but there was really no daily structure.. We were both rebelling against people we didn't respect and decided we would do this the way we wanted.. I'm guessing my four year old self was involved in that.. :) She started her Freshman year at Spokane and hated it for the first weeks of school.. I cried everyday because she would come home so unhappy.. Then she started making friends.. Lots and lots of them.. The kids loved her, the teachers loved her, the parents loved her.. She took up for the underdog and made sure to let them know she was their friend.. She said she knew if she didn't, that I would cry for days over the thought that somebody felt alone.. She tried out for, and made, the cheerleading squad.. She was a natural at it and loved it.. Her Sophmore year, she won the Miss Merry Christmas Crown.. She wore a stunning, short, red A-line dress with a lace up open back.. Definitely not the typical style but she pulled it off beautifully.. That win was just yet another testament to her popularity at the school.. She won that by an all school vote including teachers and staff.. Only one time before, about 20 years earlier, a Junior had won that crown.. It was pretty much a given that the crown went to the Senior.. They did not just like her, they respected her.. She was kind to everyone and the crown on her head was proof of that.. I must say this about those Spokane cheerleaders at the time.. They weren't the snobs like so many others are.. It was a small enough school that they may have had their own clicks, but they had no problem mingling clicks.. Those high school years were the best years and the worst years of her life and mine.. Determined not to allow somebody to drag us down with them, we even found ourselves barefooted, in her car, not knowing where we would be sleeping that Sunday night.. We were homeless, by our own doings, and all we were sure of was that we had to take that stand that afternoon.. We knew we had family to help us figure out the next move.. Greatest leap of faith we could have taken.. We rented a place and were now living on our own.. I was babysitting and Steph was working two jobs, going to school, and cheerleading.. And, we were free from the oppression that had plagued us.. I remember the few years on Short Leaf fondly.. We really did love it there.. It seemed to be where the girls all hung out till all hours, doing their nails, coloring their hair, or just hanging out with no particular thing to do.. Her graduation time was interesting.. I figured I would be totally ok.. Then as I walked across the gym floor on parents night, to receive the flowers she was holding, waiting for me at the middle of the court, the tears burst loose.. So this was it.. This is what all of these years have been about and now it's almost over.. What an amazing young woman she is.. Motivated, driven, hardworking, and loving.. Don't get me wrong.. She'll tell you what's on her mind and she can make you want to run and hide when she's after you.. We used to call her the Warden.. She is Miss Organized.. She didn't get that from me.. Hahaha!! She loves to shop and should be on the Kohls commercials.. I watch them and have to laugh because I have literally watched her "score" on super sale nights, using her Kohls card to get Kohls cash.. She walked out one day with a $750 gazebo type tent with the screens that could be tied back or zipped to close off the whole thing.. Yep, she saw, she shopped, she scored!! Cost her $150.. We call her the spaz because she is.. Every year on the 1st of January we give her the title of "StressMaster" for that year.. Our lives would be very empty without her.. She too is one of my greatest accomplishments.. I am one of hers.. My daughters have defined me and I think they did a pretty good job..