When it all began...

Saturday January 9th started like any other typical weekend morning. We slept in a little late and had a little breakfast of peanut butter & honey toast. Trav played Wii Lego Stars Wars while I finished up some of laundry and cleaning while we were anticipating Travis's parents, Kari and Tim to arrive from Colorado later that afternoon. I had woken up with a little more cramping than other mornings, but shrugged it off as the baby "dropping" as he still was sitting high. The little cramps started getting stronger, longer, and closer together and by 11 AM they were just about 5 min. apart but nothing that I felt was of any concern (Definitely not painful). Soon thereafter we decided to grab a quick sandwich before picking up Tim and Kari from the airport, and ran to Firehouse Subs. This was a riot in itself!


We ordered 2 sandwiches, and sat down to eat. Trav decided to add a little "kick" to his sandwich by choosing one of the 50 or so hot sauces they had available. Without any thought, he doused his sandwich with a little Mad Dog. I immediately saw his eyes go bloodshot, lips quiver, and a look consumed his face that said "Damn that's hot!” The poor guy got up immediately to refill his drink, and I didn't see him for about 15 mins! In the meantime, I glanced at the bottle, noticed the cautionary warning stating that the company cannot be responsible for effects once consumed..... 357,000 Scoville units. A quick reference on my I-Phone showed that this is 142 times hotter than Tabasco sauce or 2.5 times that of Dave's Insanity Sauce! One consumer review stated the following "Sweet holy mother of god, I had to drink a half gallon of milk in 20 minutes to keep from crying like a sissy girl. The first minute was the worst, I thought about getting my last rites read to me." Needless to say, poor Trav emerged 15 mins later after drinking a gallon of soda. Now cool and collected we headed to the airport to pick up Kari and Tim.

Greeting Kari and Tim at the airport was momentous, we got to say "Congrats Tim and Kari, you're going to be grandparents very soon...Mary's in labor!" We got back to the house around 4 pm, relaxed with a few beers and a dinner of Crockpot chicken, sautéed carrots, and mashed potatoes. Dinner was filled with laughter and anticipation of the next few hours. Throughout this time, my contractions were getting stronger, and now were about 3 minutes apart. Trav finished getting everything ready and packed the car, and was wonderfully supportive by making sure I was comfortable and helping me through each contraction. We decided to head to the hospital once the contractions began to get painful and hence jumped in the car around 8 pm! Below are some pics before we headed to the hospital to start the next big chapter in our lives...