a trip to the hospital

So, I realize that it's really late and that Friday is almost over, but I just thought of an extremely funny story about my mom giving birth. So if you get the least bit nauseous about gory stories, I wouldn't read the ending of this one. But, this one isn't about me, it's about my sister.

I grew up about 40 miles from the nearest of anything. Nearest grocery store, nearest hospital, nearest Wal-Mart. Oh, and even further from the nearest mall, about an hour and a half. Which isn't the case now, because the nearest mall is only 5 minutes away. If that, in fact I could probably walk there.

Well, knowing that, I can now get into the story. My mom was in labor and in the back seat of the car. {I think it was a jeep, not positive.} My dad, was in the driver's seat going as quickly as he could, when my mom screams at my dad, "I'm going to have the baby!" He stops the car, opens the passenger side back door, and LITERALLY catches the baby. Wraps her up in towels, places her on my mom's tummy. Then he get's back in and drives the rest of the 20 minutes to the hospital. {I'm sure as quickly as he could}.

{This is the kind of gross part, so if you want to skip this paragraph and read the end, feel free, but I am giving ample warning.} When they arrived at the hospital the nurses brought out a wheel chair for my mom and baby to ride in, but when my mom stood up, all of the afterbirth just fell right out and onto the pavement. My dad was so embarrassed that every time he walked by the "place" he would just kind of ignore it and pretend that that "thing" didn't belong to him and he had no idea what happened. But all my dad could think was, "Why hasn't someone taken care of that yet?"


{This is a picture of my mom, Cathleen, and me when I was a
little baby. Aren't I cute?}

Continue reading here...
The baby was born on a bridge over the Snake River and much discussion went over which County the baby was born in and what her name should be. My dad wanted to name her "Bridget" because she was born on a bridge, but my mom said, "No Way!!!" They settled on Anna. Isn't that a lovely name?

I just think it's hilarious how now-a-days we think it's so FAR to drive 10 minutes to get to the nearest Wal-Mart... and can't even leave the house w/out our cell phones. I know I can't.

But think of what it was like to only go shopping once a MONTH. That's right, I said month! My mom made one shopping trip w/ all of us kids to Winco in Boise. There we would get two shopping carts and split up into groups. Each time we got the items mom asked us to get, we would go and find her to get more "items" from the list. There were 7 of us kids and only one Mom! I don't know how she did it.

We considered white bread a treat and called it "Boughten Bread". My mom made almost everything from scratch, including the whole wheat bread. We grew the wheat, my mom ground it in the wheat grinder and made it into bread.

Let's say we are making pizza. The dough was made from my mom. The cheese was made from the milk our cows produced {our milk went to Swiss Village Cheese-we were one of the top producers there}. The sausage and bacon were from the pigs that we raised and the vegetables grown on the farm.

You see where I'm coming from? A very self sufficient family. I learned how to work hard and I am so grateful for that now...

Sorry if this story grossed any of you out. I find it more funny than gross, but what can I say...

Do any of you have funny birthing stories? Were you born at home or in a car? Did you parents get lost on the way to the hospital?

I'd love to hear your stories!