Friday, Biscuits, and Strangers

Yes, thank the Lord, it is Friday.

The week has been long, and it began that way. Evie Grace decided that sleep really wasn't on her agenda on Sunday night, thus she was awake from 12am-4am. Thankfully, the Lord has been good, blessing us with much rest this week.

This weekend holds some excitement for us. One of our dear couple friends is having a baby, and tomorrow night is the gender reveal party. They had the ultrasound yesterday, had the technician place the gender in a sealed envelope, that was later handed to the mom's mother and then off to the baker. We are excited to see if this cake is BLUE or PINK. Will it be glitter and bows or footballs and bats? YAY! We are so excited for these sweet friends!

Hope your weekend is simply fantastic, restful, and wonderful! If you are watching the LSU v. Alabama game, who will you root for? I think we will stick to ROLL TIDE b/c we REALLY dislike the Tigers!





MEMORY LANE: When I think about Fridays and Fall in Russia, I get giddy inside. This time of year, it's already quite chilly. Not just at night like it is here, but pretty much the entire day. The days are getting quite shorter. The sun is beginning to not come up until close to 9 and it is setting closer to 4 (and this only gets worse until Dec 22nd, the darkest day of the year). The leaves are on the ground, and usually, the ground is wet. It always rains in the fall a lot. And, if it's Friday in my Russia memory, that means that I don't have language school on Saturday, and that is always a reason to be giddy!

This one particular Friday, Sarah didn't have language school, so I was by myself. I had gotten off the bus on the corner, as I always did, and I was walking home. As I was walking, I looked at my nice watch my sister had given me before I moved there. Apparently, that caught the eyes of some men who were sitting outside. Immediately, the two were by my side, one on either side, trying to talk to me. I got nervous, but tried to remain calm. I listened intently as they were tryign to get to know me. They asked me what time it was, where I was from, etc.

All I remember is that as I neared my building entrance, I kept thinking, "Oh my, they will know where I am living." I don't remember if I said bye to them, or if I simply took off running, but I quickly pressed the buttons into my building (I don't know why... the door was ALWAYS  broken) and ran up the one flight of steps to my door. I knocked frantically, just KNOWING, that they were behind me and ready to kidnap me and sell me to traffikers. As I beat on the door and begged Sarah to open the door, she was saying, "Hold on, the dough is on my hands, and I can't the door open."

Finally, she got the door open, laughed at me for being hysterical, and put amazing homemade biscuits in the oven. I felt ridiculous as I told her my story.

Have I watched too many episodes of crime shows, or WHAT?!

Memory Lane

For a long time, I've wanted to try to write down stories from when I was overseas. If not just for my own trip down memory lane, but for my husband, my daughter, my friends, my family, etc. Are those stories important? Not to you, maybe, but for me? Absolutely! Much of that time is what made me who I am today. Is that good? Not always, sure, but it is what it is. God used that time to mold me, to hold the mirror up to my face so that I could see WHAT I am really made of (dirt, if you're wondering...).

So, I think that each time I write, I will try to think of something that happened in Russia that is similar to what I am writing for that particular day. It may not always happen, but hopefully, as time goes on, I will have a collection of the good, the bad, and the ugly, from my time as a missionary. One thing remained constant, for sure: He was always Faithful. He never forsook me then, nor is He is or will He now. :) There's a new link to the side for my blog I kept while in Russia... go ahead and take a look. It's but a mere glimpse inside that story.

Next Up: Thanksgiving...

...not CHRISTMAS!

While I am certainly NO SCROOGE, I do wish people would hold on and let us have our THANKFUL season before we start focusing on the "GIMME" season. Now, of course, most people simply want to jump ahead due to the pretty lights, fun decorations, and of course, Bing Crosby, NSYNC, and the others who make our drive into work and workdays supersweet with their melodious Christmas tunes. (And, I, for one, cannot WAIT to sing, "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"! Love that little jingle!)

::Side note: My wonderful old college roommate, Kala, used to begin Christmas music every October!::

But really people, pretty soon, I fear that we are going to all-together skip Thanksgiving and celebrate Christmas for two months. I mean, what if the govt and our employers decide to skip the Thanksgiving 4-day weekend since no one seems excited anymore?!? I mean, if THAT'S not an incentive, I don't know what is!

So while many of you are visiting the attic for the old tree and lights and getting your Christmas singing on, I've got a turkey & dressing and all things pumpkin to look forward to... and then I will celebrate the Yuletide season. (I mean, hey, I have two holidays, still!)

::Even though, I CANNOT wait to see my sweet baby girl in awe of the beautiful lights! Oh, how I DO love Christmas! And we are decorating the day after that yummy turkey and all things pumpkin Thankful day!::

Halloween!

::I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee::

Cuteness (focus on baby, not mommy!). Enough said.

To Cursive, or not to Cursive? ... Why is this even a question?

Come on into the time machine with me. Come on. I know it's scary, but it's just back to 1992. (Go ahead, take a look at your hair and clothes.)

Back to my 3rd grade class. Mrs. Petty's classroom at Charlotte Elementary. I was in the front row (of course I was... I strived to be the teacher's pet!). The overhead projector was projecting on the white pull-down shade, the lights out, and our tiny hands were trying to copy the swoopy letters Mrs. Petty so elegantly wrote on the projector glass with her marker. Cursive. It was as foreign as algebra at the time, and each letter learned gave each of us great deal of satisfaction. We were so cool; we finally knew what this swoopy chart meant:

::notice the swooping instructions::

[Trust me when I say that I had flashbacks of this quite often when my Russian teacher, Galina Vichoslavovna, kept saying to me, "Ne krasiva, Alis, Ne krasiva," (not beautiful, Alys, not beauiful), referring to my russian cursive Ms, and then instructing me to do write-offs in order to improve. Write-offs? Really? Yes, yes, it's true. And Sarah was laughing the entire time. Here's a Russian chart, just for kicks, and yes, after much prayer, we did finally master this too:

::notice the "M", 4th down, 2nd row. How could I not make this beautiful? I don't know!::]

Now, hop into my time machine to my 6th grade year. Kings Lane Middle School. Ms. Gardner's class. Again, front row. Again, teacher's pet. Again, learning cursive. Ms. Gardner was a strange bird, who had quite the affinity for beautiful penmanship. After weeks of reading our work in our less-than-perfect cursive writing, she made us relearn it all over again. Afterwards, I was told on numerous occasions how beautiful my handwriting was. She really drilled it in!

So, we can now step out of the time machine, to a time where the unheard of is happening. I read the following article today, "Has Cursive Seen the Writing on the Wall?" .  Forty-four states in the United States no longer mandate that cursive be taught. What?! Two states, Indiana and Hawaii, no longer teach it all! Granted, we didn't always love learning cursive, but neither did we love to learn how to add and subtract, but you don't see that taken away with the invention of calculators (at least not completely!). This literally made me quite sad. Have we really thought about what this means? This means that in about 20 years, a large population won't have a signature, won't be able to read the Declaration of Independence or a letter written years ago. (The good news is that your journals are safe from being decoded...).

I think I am just sad, because, yet again, we are taking out a piece of culture, and replacing it with technology. I suppose it's the same disappointment music, art, theatre, and band teachers have been experiencing for years. Countries across the globe take pride in the arts displayed and performed by their people, hence why it was so important to Galina Vichoslavovna that I wrote Russian well. Why is it that in America, we want to do away from everything and replace it with technology? I am telling you, there will come a day when something happens and we will be helpless to respond because we no longer know how to write. And, that, my friends, is quite sad.

Never fear, Evie Grace and future siblings, you WILL be taught cursive! Now I am the one that gets to assign write-offs and say, "Not beautiful, not beautiful." But just as I survived it, you will, too. :)

Go Team!

Alan and I were talking one day about how, as babies, you can make them fans of whichever team you want! They don't have a choice! So, until she can say otherwise:

:: VOL Baby!::

Evie Grace's Arrival

I was 39 weeks and 5 days. Everyone kept saying, "Oh, you'll be late. First babies always are." So I worked up until the Wednesday before I was due on Sunday, May 15th. I thought, Well, I will take some time off and rest a bit.
Thursday I had a drs appt at 1:45, so Alan went with me. We were excited to see how I had progressed. We knew at my appt the week before, I was about 75-80% effaced and 2 cm dilated. The doctor had told me the week before that if I had progressed, that I could go ahead and schedule an induction at my next appt, just in case she didn't come on time.
When he checked me on May 12th, I was about the same amount effaced, but I was almost 3 cm! (I knew she'd been working to get out. At times, I honestly had this vision that she prying open my cervix with her sweet little hands. I had some definite pain!) He said we could schedule the induction if we wanted, but I didn't really want to. There was something about naturally going into labor that I wanted to experience. So we left, called our moms, and anticipated when our sweet girl would get here.
That evening, we ate with Adam and Stephanie, Alan's brother and s-i-law, at the Chop House. Afterwards, Alan and I went to Walmart to walk around and get a few things. He says that I went to bed saying my stomach felt upset, but I don't really remember that.
What I do remember was waking up at 3:30 and honestly feeling as if I had a stomach ache. I thought I had diarrhea (sorry! but that's what it felt like!). I laid there and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. It was several stomach-back cramps later that I figured out what was going on: I was in labor! So I laid there, excited, for the next 2 hours until finally at 5:30, Alan woke up.

ME: Honey, please don't panic, but I think I am in labor.
ALAN: Really? Since when? Let me get my iTouch and count the contractions.

Sure enough, they were coming every 6-8 min. It was Friday, May 13th, and it was Kari's graduation. We were supposed to go with the Deans, but obviously, that would not be happening. Alan called and told Wes, and then we laid there for about 45 minutes longer. As the time went by, each contraction got stronger. I cried. I was amazed, though, at how great I felt between contractions! In my head I always though that labor was a constant pain which you simply had to breath through. I was thankful that God designed little breaks to catch my breath. :)

We decided to get up, take showers, and try to run some errands. The last thing we wanted was to get to the hospital, only to be told I wasn't really in labor, so by golly, we were going to wait until the last second! Or so we thought... I don't really have a high pain threshhold ;)

In the shower, I found it comfortable to place my hands flat against the wall under the shower head and let the warm water hit my lower back. I also rocked in that position. I remember that, even though I was in so much pain, I wanted to do whatever I could to help her get out. I would squat so that my pelvis would open, and that seemed to help, too.

We left for our "errands" and the first one on the list was Verizon. Yes, people, we live in a highly connected age, and my phone had broken. Adam and Steph had given me a loaner, so we had to have my contacts switched to the loaner phone before we went to the hospital. We drove up to the store front at 8:50ish. I could handle the contractions outside of the car, but sitting down with my seatbelt on, I felt so constricted. With each one, I yelled and tried not to cry. The pain was almost unbearable.

At 9:00, Alan ran to the front door. He was one of four.

STORE ASSOCIATE: Ok, Good morning, who's first?
ALAN: Um, my wife is in labor and we are on the way to the hospital.
STORE ASSOCIATE: OK! What can I help you with?

Alan was out in lickety split, and you better believe I told him to floor it! or rather, slow down b/c it HURT every bump and turn! We made just a few calls on the way. When we got there, we had to park a little ways from the L&D wing. I insisted that I wanted to walk. Of course, I overpacked, and here was my poor husband carrying pillows, bags, diaper bag, etc. When we got in the first building, I had to lean up against him b/c my contractions were coming so quickly and painfully. A lady saw me.

LADY: Honey, are you ok?
ME:  :: MOAN:: (and tears)
LADY: Quick, she's in labor!

People started staring and this man runs up with a wheel chair. Yes yes... I wanted to avoid scenes like this, but no, that's not what happened. He began flying through this building, headed towards the circle lot that is outside teh main building where L&D is. Alan is running behind with our entire life packed up (bless his heart), and I am sitting with my head in my left hand b/c I was about to die out of sheer embarrassment. Apparently the guy had radioed his pals b/c every door was held open and the elevator was waiting and opened for us to go up to L&D.  WHEW! I thought we'd never get there!

In Triage, the dr on call checked me, and yes, we were on our way to 6 cm! I could stay! It was 9:45am and she asked if I wanted my epidural. I said I really wanted to go as far as I could, but she said that by the time they gave me my fluids, I would probably be ready. And RIGHT she was! It was about another hour before we got moved to our room.

I wanted to walk, again, to simply encourage her on down. It was a good little walk, and when we got in there, anesthesia was on its way! Good thing, too, b/c those contractions were REALLY getting rough. The anesthesiologist came in, told me what was going to happen. Alan got to stay in. When he saw the needle, he opened his eyes real wide. I gently asked him to not make anymore facial expressions. Unfortunately, my epidural didn't take immediately, and my contractions kept coming. I was crying, and they called my dr back down. He gave me some more lidocain and a higher dose of the epidural. FINALLY, praise the LORD, it was working. Not perfectly, though, so I kept pushing the "Give me more" button, but working, nonetheless.

The Deans got there with Alan's food, followed by Alan's mom. All I got to have was a grape slushy, and I was ok with that ;) Finally, my mom, who had hit the road when I first called her earlier that morning, got there around 2:30. They had broken my water, by then, and at 3:00, was fully effaced and dilated. My dr told me that they would allow my body to push the baby down into the pelvis a little more before I worked, so that was fine by me.

Around 5, everyone left Alan and I alone to get this thing done. Oh my goodness, we were so ready to meet our sweet girl! I wasn't scared or anything... just ready! I was hurting, though.  By this time, my epidural wasn't really working anymore. My pushing nurse came in... and it was a guy. I was a little nervous but he was WONDERFUL! I began throwing up, and my husband kept holding the container for me. He was so encouraging, but I was in so much pain.

Zach, my nurse, coached me for 2 hours. I was doing the very best I could, and he could tell that I was doing exactly what he told me. Unfortunately, baby girl did not move at all during this whole time. The dr came in to tell me that we needed to go the "other way". Before labor, I was terrified at teh thought of a C-section; however, when she came in to tell me that we needed to do one, I was in so much pain and I was so exhausted, that my response was, "Ok. When can anestheisia be here?!"

They prepped Alan and I for surgery. The anesthesia felt oh-so-wonderful! Finally, after hours of pain, I was in a wonderland of happy thoughts! My baby would be here so soon! I hated leaving Alan in the waiting area as they prepped me inside of the OR. I threw up again, bless my heart, but my anesthesiologist held my container and wiped my mouth. Oh grape slushy, maybe I shouldn't have met your acquaintence!

::I was SO tired! The pain was over, and it was time :) ::

Finally Alan was by my side, and they began to retrieve our sweet girl. Lodged in, she was! Her shoulder was stuck, which is why she couldn't get out! My doctor exclaimed that she was delivering our toddler! :)

At 7:57pm, May 13th, 2011, our lives were changed forever! I heard her cry, and I asked for her to be brought to me! Alan kept saying, "There she is! There she is!" It was the sweetest moment EVER! It was over! It wasn't the way I had chosen, but it still ended perfectly! At 9lbs even, and 20.5 in, Genevieve Grace Grissom was here!

::"We're pulling out your toddler!"::

They brought her to me, and I kept thinking, she's ours! God gave her to us! I just wanted to hold her forever!

::First family photo. It doesn't get much sweeter than this!::