Oh How Pinteresting!

I have now entered that magical stage of adulthood known as Renting a House. Renting a house comes with a great deal of responsibility; namely the responsibility of making said house as cute as possible. So where did I turn in my quest for excellent decorating?

Pinterest of course!

If you have somehow missed the Pinterest bandwagon and don't know why I keep mispelling the word "interest", then you should know that it is "an online pin board" where you can look at all kinds of things online and then "pin" it to your board. (AKA, save it to your account so you can come back and look at it later) It's like window shopping. And it's a great place to get ideas for recipes, decorating, gardening, outfits and pretty much everything and anything. The best thing about the DIY section is that you can follow the link to get directions on how to make things...awesome things.

Things like...

A floating bookshelf!

A crayon melt to add color to a boring tan room!

Ways to make Mason jars useful!

Inspiration to turn this...

Into this...

A way to display your jewelry!

And lastly, a way to display your hip record collection!

Yes, my three rooms have become Pinterest rooms and no, I'm not ashamed of it. I've probably spent more money trying to make these things than if I had just gone out and bought a simple shelf or an ordinary jewelry box. But I am a maker; and I hate the ordinary.

So nevermind that I spray painted the bottoms of my feet blue or that my mother told me I don't have nuts. I created something. I did it myself.

So, here's an update: there now exists an Official Facebook Page to SpinningJenni's Path to Publication. And that is exactly what it's called. Please like my page! You'll get exclusive content of my goings on, and access to my posts. The main reasons I'm doing this are to get to know my readers a little better, generate more traffic to my blog, and because I don't want any creepers stalking my personal page.

Thanks for reading! =)

Grace

I have been very blessed and very lucky to have been able to be in the room while my very best friend gave birth to her baby girl. It was miraculous, beautiful, joyful...all that cheesy stuff you are always told by your mom and her friends while you're sitting there going, "Yeah. Right. That's disgusting."

(Some names and places have been changed. Just go with it.)

Shavia and Jose, my best good friend and her husband, had asked me several months ago if I would like to join them in the delivery room to take pictures of the baby after she was born. I was honored and flattered that they would invite me to share this moment with them. I accepted with tears in my eyes. I was just so touched.

"Do you think you'll be able to handle it?" Shavia asked point blank after I said yes.

I don't do well with blood and bodily functions. When I see my own blood, I pass the eff out. When someone else is bleeding, I feel as though my stomach has been filled with worms and I have been dunked in cold water. When people tell me about that time they broke a bone, I close my eyes and shout "No, no, no!"

So, it was a valid question.

"Of course I can handle it. I mean, I might pass out. But I'll be totally fine. Just have someone shake me."

Cut to six months later, AKA Monday night.

I had been hanging out at Shavia's house watching Baby Mama with her until Jose got home from a late night at the office. Towards the end of the movie she got really quiet and seemed extremely uncomfortable. I asked her if she was alright, but she would just brush it off saying it was heart burn and cramping. She has the pain tolerance of a prize fighting pit bull, so she's really hard to read when it comes to that. I took her word for it and went home at about 11:30.

11:40 she sends me this text:

I doubt anything is going to happen tonight. But you should keep your phone near you just in case.

I had gotten texts like this before, and I always kept my phone near me at night, so I didn't think much of it. I went to sleep at 12:09.

My morning alarm went off. I groaned and shut my eyes tighter. It can't be 6:30 already! I rolled over to hit snooze. Mid-roll I realized that the tune wasn't my alarm but my reggae ring tone. Picking up my phone, I saw Jose's name and face staring back at me, under the time 12:59am.

"Hello?" I asked, completely befuddled.

"Hey. You need to come to the hospital."

"The hospital? Why? The hospital??"

"Yes. You need to go to the place where babies are born."

"Oh. Oh. OH!"

"Shavia and I are almost there. Kim is at our house with the kids."

"Ok. So I need to come straight to the hospital. Not your house?"

"Right. Unless you want to go to our house."

"No! No I'm coming to the hospital. I just wanted to make sure I heard you right. Ok. I will get dressed and come to the hospital. Bye."

I sat up and swung my legs off my bed. "Ok. Go time." I quickly thought of the essentials I needed: Jeans, shoes, camera, a spot of make up. I hardly remember getting all these things together, but I was out the door at 1:06am.

Driving through my desolate neighborhood, I started to wonder if the conversation I'd just had was real. I had been so asleep, and there was about a 50% chance it had been a dream. Nothing added up quite right. The plan had always been that as soon as Shavia went into labor, she would call me first. I live with Kim, and there were no lights on in the house when I got up and came down stairs and the doors to her rooms were still shut.

What if I get all the way to the hospital and none of this was real?

I decided to voice text Kim to make sure.

So you are at Jose's?

Yeah. Shavia's in a lot of pain. I've never seen her like that before.

I floored it. Shavia birth's babies quick. There wasn't a minute to spare.

The hospital looks like a castle, and it's not exactly down town, so it was very dark. I couldn't tell where I should turn in at, so I finally just chose an entrance and wnet with it. I quickly came to a fork in the massive parking lot, and found a sign that gave me a left and a right option.

< Deliveries
> Hospital

"Well...I mean she is delivering..."

I was baffled! You would think that a hospital would make things crystal clear to understand but I didn't know what they meant by "deliveries." It was a delivery room, after all. In what context were they using the word "delivery"?

I went with my sleep deprived gut and drove towards Deliveries.

When I got there the place was completely deserted. I knew this couldn't be right, because I didn't see Jose's car. At 1:22am I called him.

"Hey, it's Baylor right?"

"Yeah. It looks like a hotel."

It looks more like a castle to me. "Ok. I'm here."

"We're on the second floor."

I ran up to the front desk.

"Can I help you?" asked the cute, blond security guard.

"My friend is having a baby."

"Second floor."

Elevator. Second floor. Fancy lobby with way too much furniture blocking my way. Another security guard.

"Down this hall, take a left. Push the intercom to get a nurse to help you."

Hall way. Sealed doors. Intercom.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm looking Shavia Knight."

"Hold on. Who are you?"

I waited in the hall for about 5 minutes until Jose came and got me. He lead me to the room, where Shavia was already in a gown, on the bed, talking to a nurse who had an accent I couldn't understand.

"Hi. I'm glad you're here." She said to me, through grimaces.

Everything happened very fast next. They hooked Shavia to an IV, made her sign a million papers, asked her a million questions, went running for the anesthesiologist (CRNA), gave her ice cubes, told her to breath and called her doctor. The CRNA came waltzing in and the nurse said "We are either going to have an epidural or a baby."

I wasn't going to watch the epidural process. I don't especially love needles and I'd head horror stories of how big and epidural needle is. But as they pushed my friend over and the CRNA painted circles on her lower back, I couldn't keep my eyes from wandering over.

The CRNA held up the first syringe, and the needle glinted in the spot light. Oh that's not so bad. That's normal sized.  That shot came and went. Then he pulled out another needle. One that looked like a drill bit.

The blood drained from my face and I quickly looked away. Holy shit that's big! Don't pass out. Keep it together. I concentrated on breathing in and out and pictured a calm meadow in my mind. This picture of calm was soon shattered.

The CRNA didn't get the epidural to Shavia in time. The baby was coming and there was no stopping it. She was coming au natural. No pain meds.

I'm not going to go into detail here. I don't think it's appropriate, and you probably don't want to hear it. All I can say, is natural child birth is exactly how it's portrayed in the movies. They don't exaggerate.

At 2:39am the nurse pulled out a screaming baby girl. I saw the whole thing. I saw her come into this world. It wasn't gross, or scary or messy. It was honestly and truthfully the most amazing thing I have ever seen.

I was so proud of my best friend. So happy for their family. And so excited to see the little baby I had felt kicking around for months.

She is perfect.

"The miracle of life" is an over used expression that is synonymous with health text books. But life really is a miracle. There is a new person in the world. She's one of us now. She's going to laugh and play and read and watch movies and go to school. It's easy to get caught up in thinking of all the things she's going to do, but when you stop and look at this tiny little baby just a few days old who can't even hold her own head up...it really just blows your mind that this life is even possible.

I wish the deepest congratulations to my friends and all of their family.

Thank you for reading. =)

A Hard Day's Night

I recently went to Georgia with some friends of mine. They were going to visit family and I had never been to Georgia so I said "I'm down. Let's go!"

It also didn't hurt them to have an extra man on defense as they were driving from Dallas to North Georgia with 2 children under the age of 5. Another added bonus other than the pleasure of my company, was that the kids love me. And what's not to love???

So we left one stormy Friday evening after we'd all gotten home from work. There was a lot of crap to load and even though we were all in a mad dash of efficiency and team work, we still ended up leaving about 3 hours later than planned. This put us at crossing the Mighty Mississippi at approximately 2:45 in the AM. Because it would have been mass suicide to continue on, we stopped at a hotel for the remainder of the night/morning.

I ended up sharing a bed with their 4 year old daughter, who was very excited about being in a new place and didn't quite grasp that even though she had been asleep for a while, it was not actually time to be awake. I climbed into bed and as soon as my head hit the pillow my cramped neck muscles started to relax and my heavy eye lids slid shut. Sleep, sweet sleep was on it's way.

"Um...Miss Jenni?" The tiny whisper sent my eyelids flying open.

"Yes?"

"You can sleep with Pink Puppy. Ok?"

"Ok."

A small stuffed dog was shoved into my arm pit. I waited as the little girl re-situated herself on her side of the bed and after 30 seconds of wonderful silence I gently closed my eyes. I was so excited for sleep I almost giggled.

"Um...Miss Jenni?"

"Go to sleep!" her father said from across the room. "It's not time for talking. It's time for sleeping. Leave Miss Jenni alone."

A tiny hand began to softly stroke my forehead. I raised an eyebrow. Physical touch is not my favorite part of life, especially when I'm trying to sleep.

"It's ok Miss Jenni." Soothed the little girl. "Daddy will make it all better."

I couldn't help but laugh. Delerium had set in.
"No more talking!" Said her mother. "You can play with Miss Jenni in the morning. Everyone needs to go to sleep."

I regained my composure and everything was silent again. I laid there wide-eyed waiting for something else to happen. But nothing did. I waited another 5 minutes...no sound, no movement. Finally. I smiled and closed my eyes.

"Um...Miss Jenni?"

"Noooo!" I moaned.

"The animals are nice."

"Go to sleep!"

The next morning I ate grits for the very first time at a breakfast buffet that included fried chicken right next to the bacon. We finally got to our destination later that afternoon, where I was introduced to all the dogs and got to watch everyone enjoy a second Christmas. It was all very relaxing and warm. Bed time rolled around soon, and the aforementioned little girl was not too keen on sleeping all by herself in such a big, unfamiliar house.

"Would you mind sharing a bed with her again?" Her mother asked apologetically. "She said she's afraid to sleep by herself...."

Of course I didn't mind. These people were like family to me, and I'm always trying to be helpful. Besides, I figured by the time I went to bed the little girl would already be asleep.

I was wrong.

She was wide awake when I pulled back the covers. I pushed her small menagerie of stuffed animals aside and climbed in next to her. I told her we had to be quiet and go to sleep. She seemed fine with this and laid down. I reached over and turned off the lamp, hoping that tonight would be easier than the night before.

"Um...Miss Jenni? I can't find her head."

"W. T. F."
I rolled over to her, completely thrown off by that statement. All I could think of was that horse scene from The Godfather. You know the one.

What I saw instead was the body of a small porcelain doll, with a sharp metal rod sticking straight out of from between it's shoulders like a spine. Unsettling is an understatment. I sat up, blinking at the horrid little thing.

"Will you help me find her head?"

"Um...this is weird. Why don't we wait til morning when there's light and we can see?"

"Oh! Haha, I found it. Will you put it back on for me?"

I put the creepy doll head back on it's metal neck stick and handed it back. What...an event.

The rest of the week wasn't quite as disturbing, but I hardly got any sleep. This child did not stop moving. She tossed, she turned, she snuggled, she kicked - a lot. One night her hand hit my in the side of the head and work me up. I reached up to move her hand away only to realize that it wasn't a hand at all. It was a foot. I sat up to find the girl with her feet on the pillow and her head down by my knees, sound asleep. As I didn't want to get kicked again, I picked her up and turned her around. Amazingly, she stayed dead asleep the entire time.

Here's an interesting fact about 4 year olds: They do not experience jet lag. This kid woke up at 6:00 am every morning, just like at home. Which meant I felt like it was 5. AM. And when I say she woke up this is what I mean...

Popping straight up out of bed like something from The Exorcist declaring with glee, "I'm awake!"

"Great...go see Nanna and Papa."

Even though I had no sleep, I also had no shortage of entertainment. I had a fabulous time in ATL and got to go shopping at a real Piggly Wiggly (they didn't have anything we needed, but I got a shirt out of it). I even saw someone driving their 4Runner with their foot hanging out the window. It was a wonderful time with wonderful people and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Though I might think twice before sleeping with a 4 year old again...

Thanks for reading! =)