This Too Shall Pass

For the past few weeks my wonderful daughter has lost her mind! She has gone from a sweet, sassy and independent little girl to a whiny, clingy and tantrum throwing diva. Then I realized one day she will be turning three in a month. Yes folks we don't have terrible two but we most certainly go through the terrible threes! So for the next six to seven months my daughter will be replaced by this short little diva but please pray that she returns my sweet, giggly little girl soon. For all of our sakes!

It Made Me Happy

What I learn from friends

Last night I went out to dinner with two great gals! Yup I used the word gals. Besides their being pretty cool, they're pretty smart as well. I love talking to them because every time I go home knowing something new.
*I've always thought one way about a certain topic because I thought it was unconstitutional to be illegal. Well last night I learned that I was wrong. Yes folks I was wrong, I know shocking!! On a side note i'm okay with being wrong. That's a friend's job to tell you when you're wrong, nicely.
*I don't have a lot of opinions when it comes to politics. Sorry, I just don't.
*Ordering three desserts and putting in the middle of the table is stinking awesome! (you read that right, 3)
*Getting to spend time with my friends WITHOUT children is great!!
*It's nice to sit and talk with people and just get to be me. I like me and don't really understand why other people don't. It's a mystery!! :)
*I have awesome friends. I bet you're jealous.
*Getting your friend to loudly exclaim, "WHAT!", in a fairly quiet restaurant is priceless!!
*The biggest lesson is a night away from my children makes me a better mommy!

How Fast

Twice today it has been brought to my attention how quickly my children will grow up and become adults. This is still a while away for me considering my oldest is 5 and my youngest is 5 months. I joke around that my kids will live with me forever but really the goal of a good parent is to raise your children to be independent, one of the goals. It got me to thinking that about what I love about having small children.
1. Every morning Jackson wakes up between 6 and 6:30. I get up fix him a bottle and snuggle with him before the other two wake up. He's so sweet and cuddly in the morning.
2. Playing dress up is super fun. Especially when glitter is involved.
3. Right now, my husband is deployed, I am the tallest person in the house.
4. Having cereal for dinner is totally okay with small kids!
5. I love to watch cartoons and so do my kids.
6. Play dates = mommy time.
7. Everything is more fun and fascinating for a little kid.
8. I can still fix Maggie's hair without her just flat out telling me no.
9. The super cute clothes that are made for little kids. Especially girls!
10. The imagination is an incredible thing! I love asking my kids questions just to see what they will say.
11. Anything can be turned into a song. Right now my kids still think mom is pretty cool so they don't mind me singing randomly during the day.
Children are gifts. There is no "best by" date on them. There are no guarantees as to how long they will be with us. They are total gifts from God. They are amazing little people and re meant to be cherished, loved and protected. Needless to say there are days where I look forward to them being older and not having to buy diapers anymore. But I don't want that to go by too fast!

Surviving Deployments.

So right now i'm in the midst of deployment #2 and I thought i'd share a few coping tricks. Really folks I am no expert on this nor am I a perfect soldier's wife. FAR FROM IT!! But I like lists (if you've ever read my blog this is obvious) and I like to think that for the most part i'm doing a pretty decent job of coping. So how to survive a deployment in 10 easy steps.
1. GOD, enough said.
2. Your life must go on. It can not stand still for however long your spouse is gone. Especially if you have children!
3. Get a life, with friends!!!
4. Learn to stand on your OWN feet. There are certain things I hate to do but I have no choice. The garbage still has to be set out and the yard has to be mowed, unless i'm going for a jungle look.
5. Lean on your friends/family. But look at #4 at the end of the day it's just you.
6. Don't become a hermit! I will say when things get to stressful then I hole up in my house for a few days and don't talk to anyone but not all the time! On the flip side you don't have to do something everyday!
7. Shopping is not therapy!!
8.But girl's nights can be!!! Babysitters are worth the money!
9. You have to learn what stresses you out and how to deal. I sit on my balcony at night when everything is quiet and just sit. Sometimes I wallow, sometimes I cry and sometimes I just enjoy my quietness.
10. While your spouse is gone you have to live! It has to be more than surviving especially if you have kids. They need to see you enjoy life and laugh and have fun. Side note: be honest with your children. They are smarter than you think and they know what is going on. Don't hide it from them.
So like I said I don't have this down to a science but it's what I do and as Lori would say "it's how I roll".

It's the little things

So, i've been in a funk these past few days. It really started on Sunday but then it carried over into Monday and part of Tuesday. Now you could say, "well Alicia you have three small children and a husband all the way in across the world." You would be correct, I do. But that's not why i've been funky lately. And that's not what this is about. To get myself out of my funk I began to wonder about the things that do make me happy. By the way, i'm a fairly happy person so there are lots of things that make me happy these are just the most important.
My husband. Did you read the post about him? I love him!
Those moments when my children are playing together nicely and laughing. Really what sound is better than your child's laugh?
Freshly waxed eyebrows and mascara. You may see me without make up but you will rarely see me without mascara.
Quiet moments with Jesus. Where you sit and bask in His love for you.
A vanilla coke from sonic.
Music.
A good pair of jeans so when you turn around you think, "mmmmm".
A friend who can make you laugh at any time. I have awesome friends, go down a few posts and I tell you about them.
Really I have so much to be thankful for and so many things that make me happy; big things, little things, red things blue things. Anybody else read One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish? So no more funk!

Five, 5 and under

Today I had the great privilege of watching two sweet kids. Adding these two to my own three, you got it, equals 5! The ages of these children are 5, 3, 2, 1 and 4 months. As you can imagine it was a busy day! Not chaotic, just busy! Here's a few highlights of the day:

• Sweet P loves my boys! Baby J got many slobbery kisses and hugs and she loves to snuggle with the Professor.
• Big Gun has one volume. LOUD!
• The Professor is bossy. Never noticed how much until today. He loved telling Big Gun, Miss M, and Sweet P what to do.
• Big Gun put on the super man costume, poked himself in the chest and said "it has boob things".
• Miss M was the only one to have to go to time out. She has a slight attitude and not wanting to share.
• Big Gun fell and told me that wall just came and hit him!
• At one point the four older kids got pretty quiet so I had to go investigate. They were all in the Professor's bed, Big Gun and Miss M on one end sharing a pillow and blanket and Sweet P and Professor on the other end sharing a pillow.
• Baby J pretty much minded his own business all day.
• Sweet P can't really say my dog's name. It's Sam, her s sounds like a d. You sound it out.

It was a pretty good day! The names were changed in order to protect the innocent.

Free To Be Me

I listen to this song almost daily and no I can't tell you who sings is because I can't pronounce her name or spell it, sorry. I love this song. Today it hit me how blessed I am to be able to just be me and have friends who accept me and still love me. I don't have to put on a facade and pretend. I just get to be Alicia. This is the first place that I have had friends particularly female friends that I don't feel the need to compete with them. Can I just brag a minute on my friends? They're awesome!! I know that I can tell them anything and there is no judgement (except maybe the democrat thing)!! It's wonderful! I've never understood the need for women to put each other down just to make themselves feel better. Why would we partake in this type of destructive behavior? I've been guilty of this. It's so senseless. We should build each other up and just be free to be yourselves. So to all my female friends out there: you are all amazing women (really I wouldn't be friends with you if you weren't) and I love each and every one of you!! Thanks for be such a blessing to me!

A Challenge

I've decided that I should give myself a challenge. Not that raising three kids, homeschooling one and have a husband who is thousand of miles away is not a challenge. But this morning I was making out bills, not one of my favorite tasks as an adult. I need to be wiser in how I spend money. Yes we can pay our bills and have extra, it's the extra that's the problem. Just a little f.y.i. i'm an excellent shopper. So my challenge for one week I will not go to Wal-Mart. At all. Nor will I go to Sonic more than once a week. This includes little stops for just a drink. To be honest the Sonic challenge will be harder than the Wal-Mart one. So i'm putting this out there for all of you to see and help me be accountable. We'll see in a week how I did (fingers crossed).

"And my beloved is mine"

Today is a day of remembrance. A day to honor our men and women in service. A day for me to tell my husband, Christopher, that I could not be prouder to be his wife. I love being married to a soldier and truly I love our life. But back to my husband, whom I think is pretty terrific!
Reasons why my husband is pretty awesome:
1. He loves me. This may seem like an obvious thing but really folks i'm not the easiest person to live with.
2. He's an amazing father! You have no idea the sacrifices he made when Andrew was born.
3. I love that he is a leader. Yes, I believe the man should be the head of the house (the bible says so). He's a great example for our children.
4. He's romantic. In his own way, he's so sweet. Did I mention that he loves me and lets me know how beautiful he thinks I am, even when I was swollen and pregnant!
5. I never know what he is going to say. Okay this one isn't always good but it's part of his charm!
6. He looks really good in his uniform!
7. He loves God!
Christopher, I can never express how proud I am to be your wife! I can't wait for you to be home!!

Just a Rant

Okay folks just because I have read all the Harry Potter books and LOVED them does not make me a bad person! I am not going to hell for this! If you wish to judge books, movies or music you have to have actually read, listened or watched to have any sort of opinion!! I know the difference between fiction and reality so drop it! Okay rant over.
Also my oldest son has seen one of the Harry Potter movies and continually tries to turn his sister into a frog, he's not going to hell either. Now it's really over.

Little Pep Talk

Dear Deployment,
I will defeat you. 12 months is a long time but in the end we will be a stronger and happier family. I will successfully home school my child. I will not spend all of Chris's combat pay (that was a little issue last time). I will do fun activities with my kids and not get annoyed with them for my loneliness. I will not go to sonic everyday just Sunday and Wednesday. I will exercise and be healthy and not eat out all the time. I will celebrate the little things. You may try to get me down but you will not succeed.
Yours truly,
Alicia Ann McGlone

Random Facts Continued

Just so whomever is reading this knows it's really not for you. At least this one. I just need to be light hearted right now, not to serious. Right now I don't want to think about the next 12 months. Instead i'll write more strange or not so strange things about me, maybe more than you want to know.
1. I love my hair, the color, texture. I just love it and am always messing with it. Because of this i'm afraid i'll go bald when I get older.
2. I love movies where they blow up a lot of things. I could watch Bad Boyz II everyday. Or any movie with Vin Deisel I really enjoy!
3. I'm really glad I only have one daughter. The way she is right now i'm not to sure i'll survive her teen years. But I also love having a daughter. The frills and dresses going to get pedicures together. We haven't yet.
4. Before I leave the house I always check to see what my butt looks like. Yup that's me, it's vain and silly but I still do it, everytime.
5. I love to watch dance movies or tv shows. I always think "hey that looks easy" and then i'm on my butt on the floor. Apparently it's not that easy!
6. If i'm really quiet then a.) i'm trying really hard to listen b.) the conversation is boring me or aggravating me or c.) i'm singing a song in my head. Sometimes it's a combination.
7. I hate to cry especially in public.
8. There are lots of idea going on in my head. I don't always know how to implement them. Or don't put out the effort to do something about them.
That's it. It's a fun ending for a long and somewhat sad day.

Look What God Can Do

My sweet little boy will be turning 5 in the next few weeks! There was a time that I never would have thought that we would make it to any of his birthdays. I have a constant reminder of what God can do living in my home. Obviously God knew I would need a lot of reminding of just how awesome He is. When I was 24 weeks pregnant with Andrew I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and at 29 weeks I was put in the hospital with the knowledge that Andrew would be born within the week. He was born on July 29, 2005 at 9:13 p.m. through emergency c-section. When Andrew was first born he weighed 2lbs and 4oz. Even that small he looked just like Christopher. For such a small preemie he did really well. We took him home on October 1 just 3 days before my original due date! But on November 30, which is Chris's birthday, he went back into the hospital and this time was not so great. This was probably the longest day of my life. Andrew was driven by ambulance from where we lived to about 60 miles north to Arkansas Children's Hospital. Once we got there my baby was gray and was so dehydrated that they could not get an IV in him. According to the doctors Andrew should have never lived past this day. His blood sugar was a 3, I don't know a lot about this but I know this is bad, really bad. His blood pressure was so low that he should have been in a coma but instead he was awake and alert throughout all of this. For about six hours the doctors could not figure out what was wrong with him except there was some mass in his stomach area. It was so large that they could not figure out what it was or where it was. Finally the doctors came to Chris and I and told us they needed to do exploratory surgery to figure out what was going on and if they didn't he would not survive the night. So around 10 pm that night they wheel Andrew to surgery and about an hour later his surgeon comes out and informs us that he had a bowel obstruction. It was roughly the size of a grapefruit, at this time Andrew was barely six pounds. This should have ruptured but it didn't. Things got better after this day but there were lots of little bumps and two more surgeries along the way. We finally went home in February 2006. He had to go back in March for his last surgery to put his small intestine back together. Ever since then Andrew has been a perfectly healthy and happy kid. Each year reminds of what could have been and the incredible miracle God granted me. There is nothing to small or to big for God and I thank Him for my miraculous reminder, Andrew.

LIFE WITH 3

I had many assumptions about what life would be like with three children. Some I gathered from friends who have three kids and others just on my own naivete.

Assumption #1- life would somehow be easier. Something I was told adding the third child is easier than when you added the second.
In reality- it's not easier!

Assumption #2- my other children would take to having Jackson around great.
In reality- Andrew was fine when we brought Jackson hom. Maggie while she loves her baby brother she has turned into a temper tantrum, whiny, clingy little girl.

Assumption #3- Jackson would be an easy baby.
In reality- he is an easy baby, if you hold him. He is not to keen on his swing or bouncy seat but loves the comfort of somebody's arms. Needless to say I don't always get a lot done around the house.

Assumption #4- I would have another pacie loving baby.
In reality- Jackson is not a fan of the pacie. He'll take it every once in a while but he really wants a bottle or to nurse. That's how he goes to sleep, he just spits the pacie out.

Assumption #5- taking 3 children out by myself would be nearly impossible.
In reality- it's not that bad. Andrew has always been great about listening to me and staying close but Maggie I wasn't to sure how she would be. Well same child from #2 has done really well about staying with the buggy in stores. There is only room for one child in the buggy plus groceries and I am not pushing those crazy car buggies. I run into enough things without the extra bulk.

Jackson was born 7 weeks ago and while i'm definitely still figuring out how to be a parent of 3, there is no way I would change it!!

Night

Night time is the lonliest time of the day. Especially if you and your husband are seperated by a few states or eventually an ocean. It's the time of day where all the what if's creep up and invade your mind. Whatever emotion you've been holding in all day suddenly comes out. You can hear every noise at night and know that you are the one who has to keep your family safe. Your house seems bigger at night and so does your bed when your the only one in it. During the day you have to be mother and father but at night your just you, the one terrified that this could be your future. Some nights I can just fall into bed and sleep at least until Jackson wakes up but others I lay there and just wish for tomorrow to come. One more day is gone so it's one more day closer until I get to see my husband. Needless to say sleep really isn't all that easy when your alone.

Being A Woman

There are some days that I think being a woman just sucks! There are so many strange and odd things that happen to us. First there is the whole pregnancy thing, having been pregnant recently it's still fresh in my mind. Your emotions go up, down and all around and then do a little dance so that your husband and kids just think you're crazy. Your boobs become HUGE and then shrink to deflated balloons! I mean that's really disappointing!! We have periods and then we get to deal with menopause. I often think that when I get to heaven i'll have to have a little chat with Eve. Another thing that really is just not fair is the weight issue. Why do men get the ability to loose weight faster and easier than women? But saying all this I do love being a woman. One of the greatest privileges I have is being a wife and mom. But there are still times I think it would be nice to pee standing up!

Circus Lessons

Yesterday my family and I went to the circus! I walked away from this experience with some new life lessons.
1. The circus is freakin' LOUD!!!
2. My kids can sleep through anything. Jackson slept the whole time and Maggie fell asleep right after intermission.
3. There seems to be no limit as to how much popcorn or cotton candy one child can consume.
4. I do not enjoy sharing my personal space with strangers. This is thanks to little tiny chairs.
5. You can do any stunt if you have no fear.
6. Sequins can really go on anything!
7. Most circus performers seem to be asian.
8. The women in the circus are tiny, to the extreme! Pretty sure Maggie is bigger than some of those girls.
9. Nobody's hips can move like a black girls. Sorry white chicks it's not going to happen, quit trying and move on.
10. Pirates can and do wear spandex.
11. Elephants do hold each other's tails. I just thought it was something on The Jungle Book.
12. Tigers are beautiful animals regardless of how obese they are.
It was an enjoyable time for our family but i'm not certain it will become a yearly event.

10 Random Facts

So, I did it. I now have a blog. Now what to write? Just for starters i'll do 10 facts about me that some may know and some may not.

1. When I was 2 I stuck the end of a pen up my nose, the little round thing that keeps the ink stick in. Well nobody could get it out not even the doctors so they decided on surgery. After I was put to sleep and right before they started the procedure I sneezed and it flew out of my nose. So my nose has never been surgically enhanced.

2. I love being from Arkansas. It's a great place and most of my family is there, I miss them. Also I love being a southern girl. The accent, how I was raised all of it. I just love the south!

3. My most embarrassing moment, to date, happened in college.

4. After Andrew was born I had post partum depression. It sucks and is horrible to go through but there is a light at the end.

5. There are two talents or gifts that I have asked God to give me for a long time and so far he's said no. The ability to sing beautifully and to be a great writer. I love to sing. I think we should have musical days where everyone has to sing instead of talk. And I love books, i'm pretty sure you can learn just about anything from a book.

6. I love learning about people and their lives. But i'm not good at sharing details about my own life. I know something I need to work on.

7. As I get older I enjoy spending more time with God. I don't know if that relates to being older but that's how it's working. I'm learning that I can get through situations without God but how much better it is with Him.

8. I love my husband but there is nobody out there who can get on my nerves faster than him. But I love him with a passion and miss him terribly when he's not here.

9. I went to college as a biology major. It didn't even last a semester, blood and all of that make me woozy.

10. Okay this was harder than I thought so there's only 9.