*{HaPpY BiRtHdAy AVA!!!}*

It was early May, 2006.

I was still working full-time at the Courthouse (Hey girls!) & can remember sitting in the Child Support office talking about how Little Pig (that's what we called her, since we chose to keep her name to ourselves :) could come at any time, I should think about taking a little time off before she arrived... of course, it was an Election Year in the County & the thought of me taking off 3 weeks before I was due leaving the girls one less worker sent them into a tizzy!

I quickly changed the subject... It happened to be the Thursday before Toad Suck Daze & I had a list of delicious foods I wanted to have before L.P. made her debut... Corn Dogs, Sausage on a Stick, Fried Twinkie, Corn on the Cob, Chocolate Covered Frozen Banana, Hand-Squeezed Lemonade... so I focused on the route I should take to make sure that all of those goodies got in my belly!

The Courthouse closed down at noon that Friday & usually, I would walk down with everyone else to get some grub. However, I still had crib bedding, curtains, pillows, etc. to make for L.P.'s room & decided to go on home & try to finish some of it up.

As I was gathering all of my stuff to leave, several of the girls said to me

'Now, don't you go having that baby this weekend! We need you here for 2 more weeks!'

I had a little over 3 weeks left to go, no worries...

Okay, so at the time, we were having a little problem with Stella's litter box. We have an automatic litter box that does basically everything for you (how else would one own a cat?), but it was getting hung up for some reason & the only way to fix it was to catch it in the process. Early Saturday morning (aka 8am) I heard it messing up & jumped out of bed to go fix it...

Of course, I also had to go to my new BFF'S (aka the potty room) right after I jumped out of bed... I'd never been so mobile before 11am.

Hmmm.... something was just a little off... Yep, Yep - that would definitely be water breaking, for sure!

Dusty had left early to go mow yards, so he could take me to Toad Suck for lunch - I called him & calmly explained that I thought my water had broke, he needed to come home & get me. He was home in lightening speed. I proceeded to take a shower, get fixed, & tidy up the house - I knew we'd have visitors afterwards if this was the real thing - plus, I doubted I'd feel much like cleaning once I got home, you know, after birthing a child.

He kept saying 'Um, are you done yet? We need to go!' I assured him I had a little bit of time, & he should help me load some clothes in the washer or something. After I got everything to my liking & he took at quick shower (at my request), we headed off to the hospital. I had already pre-registered, so they logged me in, took me back, checked me out & promptly got me to a room. I hadn't eaten breakfast, I was starved & all I could think about was brownies...

We waited to call all the fam until I got back to a room - no need in causing a ruckus for no good reason - luckily, I had a good reason :). Slowly, but surely, they all started trickling in. Dusty & I watched a Rocky marathon all day on T.V. - I mostly slept, but I could hear it none the less. That's about all that went on for 7 hours - lots of sleeping, watching T.V. & waiting...

wishing for some brownies...

Finally, during some basketball game (no, I do not remember which one - Pheonix maybe??) L.P. decided she was done in the oven & ready to make an appearance! After she got all cleaned up & weighed, I got yet another special treat...

One of my nurses went out of her way to get me some brownies!!! How awesome is that?! Obviously I had talked a lot about them...

It was so late the night she was born (that & the fact that there was no way on Earth Dusty was going to let go of that baby girl), everyone just came in to take a peek at her...

Who knew that 3 years later, that little bitty 6lb 10oz bundle of joy would be all we had ever wanted, all we had ever hoped for, all of our dreams come true...

She is literally the best. thing. ever.

We love you more than you could ever know, Tutu!

Happy Birthday!