HAPPY EARTH DAY

Happy Earth Day Earth lovers! I hope the Earth treated you well today, and you took the time to feel the grass with your toes, find pictures in the clouds, make out with a tree (sorry Superstar moment there), and just took the time to stop and appreciate all the beautiful things this Earth has to offer. My day was neither spent making out with trees or around anything natural for that matter. In fact i was surrounded by just about every kind of synthetic, artificial, beeping, flashing, thing-a-ma-gijits known to man. Yup, i spent my Earth Day in a hospital, and yet i wouldn't want to be doing anything else than welcoming my 1st nephew to this wonderful planet Earth.

I started Earth Day particularly early this year. Like 2 o'clock in the morning early. Labor, why is it that you never seem to come at a convenient time? And this is coming from the girl who was moments away from being the baby who was born in the back of a car in the middle of a Navajo reservation during a 2nd journey back to the hospital. So i bid my inflatable mattress and perfectly fluffed pillow farewell and was off to fulfill my duty of the title "There by Your Side Every Second-Couldn't do Without- So Much as Need Someone to Wipe the Sweat off Your Brow I Will Be There" sister.

OK, so maybe i was more along the lines of "Ice Chip Holder, Remote Control Channel Changer, Breathe Down your Neck with a Camera, with an occasional Ummmm just keep doing what you're doing.....need another spoonful of ice chips?.....what do you mean you don't like a bright flash in your face right in the middle of a contraction?" kind of sister. It wasn't until i stepped foot in the hospital that i realized that i had absolutely no clue what i was doing. That the closest i had ever been to a woman in labor was while watching A Baby Story, and as a result developed a fear after learning that the labor process is a very very fragile thing. So much as make a wrong move and you could be the victim of verbal abuse.

She was amazing, here she was deep breathing in her "Cat Mode" (ever seen a cat in labor? They are in the ZONE!) while other woman labored in their rooms, in a much less cat like manor.

The labor drew on as she walked.....and walked....and walked.....

Watching from afar, Mom, after having 8 children herself (she's a Wonder Woman folks) can only help but feel sympathetic....

5 hours and 5 cm dilated later the exhaustion and lack of sleep begins to set in and the Epidural was looking friendlier and friendlier. So with an army of needles of all sorts of sizes, the pain dissapeared, and the, however tired it may be, smile began to surface. Oh modern medicine, you are a maker of miracles...

Now there was only one thing to do.....WAIT. By this point me and the madre were losing control of the eye lids as i swear they gained weight every second. Remember watching cartoons and whenever a character was on the brink of starvation/insanity they hallucinated their comrade as a roasted chicken? Well that was me. I swear i saw my mother more as a walking pillow than as the woman who bore me. I began to think that she had the same sort of thoughts about me as we shared the fabric covered concrete bench impersonating something that would acutally provide comfort.

This room im sure has seen a lot of pacing in it's day, i was no exception.

I was taking my 10,587,932 turn on my pacing track when through a small slit in a curtain i saw a baby. I creeped to the best of my ability to get a good look, not even caring who's baby it was, just so long as i get some baby action. Goodness know's ive waiting long enough! When the curtain is drawn up, i backing away and trying to not to look baby desperate became suddenly interested in a dusty crumpled up candy wrapper on the window sill. Until, looking up, saw the father. Hey! I know him! Then the thought process........father....baby....baby.....father......which must mean.....that's OUR baby! It was probably for the best that a sheet of glass separated us, or i fear he would have taken the full blow of the instant wave of love that came over me for him.

There was lot's of emotion on the other side of the glass as we watched the joyful reunion...

FATHER &SON

Oliver Lewis Pendleton. 7lbs 9oz. 20.5 in long.

Welcome to Earth little Ollie.

 

CECTPA ROE

At long last! I can finally say the words.......1 MORE MONTH! Gosh that felt good. I got exacataly a month's time left to put my pedal to the metal and beef up my inner spirit, because let's face it working at a pie shop that is just not happening physically. The decision to go on a mission has already started to play a great role in my life. My 18 month adventure has not even begun and I'm already beginning to feel the impact of a life that is focused on the gospel and the immense happiness it brings.

In celebration of such an occasion i was so lucky enough to get together with a darling talented friend of mine for a missionary photo shoot! I couldn't have done it without this girl, she's one of those people where you better get a signature from her quick before she's too famous to give you the time of day, I'm tell'n ya, this girl is going places! Follow her blog here and you shall see. 

 

At times i thought this month mark would never come, getting called to serve 18 months of your life across the world in Kyiv, Ukraine almost seems like a dream when 4 1/2 months of your life has only consisted of just about every food that comes in a pie crust and the phrase, "would you like whip cream on that?" Oh yes, I caught a bad case of what missionaries call being "trunkie", only in the opposite, and i gotta admit sometimes i felt the only cure would be if someone tripped, fell, and got a pie strait in the face. Hey, a girl can dream. Not going to lie though, there have been lots of memorable moments....unknowingly insulting an employees sister by identifying her mother as the women with breasts larger than my face, getting mixed up with two elderly men (because let's face it, after a while they all start to look the same) and loudly repeating multiple times to him if he wanted cream in his coffee until he tells me with an utterly confused look I don't drink coffee, burning 6 pecan pies, when i asked a table of elderly customers if i had their order and mistaking their case of Parkinson's Disease as their reply as it appeared they were shaking their heads "no", that time that i swear that Lemon Meringue pie kamikazied right out of my hands onto the floor right in front of the customer, that oh so wonderful moment when i mixed up What can i do for ya? and How can i help you? and it coming out as How can i do ya?. Let's not forget one of my personal faves when a very charismatic customer was walking out the door and turned around to yell You're a great blower! And then experiencing what it feels like to have 30 pairs of eyes burning into your blushing face.

With only a month left I'm thinking to myself hmmmm.....well now how did this happen? I still struggle to remember to pack a fresh pair of socks for the gym, let alone packing all life's necessities for a year and half. I don't even know what 6:30am looks like and soon it will be my new best friend. Many a time others can not understand me in English so heaven help the Ukrainians who have no idea what's com'n to em. But even through all these worries, occasional doubts, fears, and the fact that my stomach has become home to a swarm of butterflies, i know that anything can be done through the Lord. So Ill be sure to pack a pair of knee pads for all the praying ill be doing.

All these thoughts ran through my head as i attempted to get that 1 good shot out of the 10 not so sexy Marilyn Monroe moments. What seemed so like a dream was now feeling more like a reality, and i can't even tell you how excited i am! The time just feels right, I know that this is the time that the Lord would have me serve him. I am just feeling so blessed. My family is so blessed. I have two just beyond wonderful loving, strong, exemplary, parents who have never let me doubt their love and testimony of this gospel. I have 7 mind blowing they are so awesome siblings, who each in their own way set such an example for me. Moving into new homes, starting families, climbing their way higher in their work and schooling, i am just overwhelmed with the happiness, and how proud i am to call them mine.

So now that you're all sticky and dripping with all that sappiness let me dry you off with my personal favorite dry humor of the week. Laughter is my favorite so when i find something that can leave me laughing so hard that I'm actually silent and clapping like a retarded seal i kinda become obsessed. HERE ya go!...........did you watch it? are you dry now? OK, moving on!

And now here i am with a vast open suitcase just sitting there wide open just mocking me saying I dare you to fill me. I'm surrounded by giant piles of 'stuff' (think Hoarders, but cleaner), and clothes that i swear have mass produced since yesterday. I am already guilty of crawling into bed engrossing myself while drooling over North &South, as i hoard my mothers orthopedic candy (how do ya like that irony?) and pretend the mess is not there and that I CAN see the floor. Of coarse i regretted this decision when i woke and with every step was greeted with a stubbed toe or a banged knee. It's a new day suitcase, and today i will not be mocked.

 

You didn't honestly think i was capable of doing a windy photo shoot without some bloopers did you? Click here to see. (can you tell Ive gone a little "link" crazy?)