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In my Human Growth and Development class I am supposed to write 8 papers birthing a person, and in the end killing her (I was assigned a girl.) Here is the first paper. Please let me know what you think as Montana grows, it will help her life.



Though this is a story about Montana and her life, we must first go over the history of how she came to be and the history of her family; because unlike you, her family really was “out there”, although to others, they were a boring and normal family. Montana’s mother is Phoenix, and Phoenix’s mother is Crystal, and Crystal’s mother is Helena. Phoenix’s father was a member of one of the world’s most useless yet feared gangs in the history of man. He was an employee of the IRS. After putting a lean on some family’s home, repossessing their cars, and shutting down the 43rd generation candy shop, he was shot, then dipped in a large vat of chocolate and sold to a museum as the largest chocolate figure ever. Phoenix’s grandfather died of old age. Phoenix’s grandma, Helena, was only 87 years young. She was the president of the local book club, and chair woman of Central City’s cattle prod museum. Phoenix’s mother, Crystal, was a professional knitter. She was the best in town. She was known to knit deluxe ties, socks, and one year the home coming queen’s hairdo. The only problem is that no one needed a professional knitter, and now that her husband was gone, Crystal and her family were dirt broke. Some would say extreme poverty, but to them, they were rich in heart. Helena has a cousin that lets them stay in a three bedroom apartment above a paper mill and pay rent when they can. Though this family seems poor and simple, we will soon learn that Helena, Crystal and Phoenix are all very gifted women, even though Phoenix doesn’t know it yet. And Montana, we will wait and see is she also is going to be just as gifted, if not more then the rest. Phoenix was a sophomore at Central City High, just about to turn 16, and was hoping and wishing that she could soon have her driver’s license. Knowing that her mother or grandmother couldn't afford to buy her a car, she started working at the local super market, bagging groceries after school and on Saturdays. It was here at work that Phoenix met Rufus, the dairy boy. Rufus was once a high school football water boy extraordinaire, but because of his failing academic grades he was kicked from the team. With his dreams of college dashed he dropped out of school and planned on being the city’s mayor. Rufus had long thin red hair pulled into a pony tail, and he had started chewing tobacco. And for whatever reason Phoenix couldn't take her eyes off of him. They started spending breaks and lunches together. And though there was a three year difference between them they soon became inseparable. Because of raging hormones, you can guess what soon happened between the two. They started the hanky panky, and Phoenix got knocked up. Though it would about a month before they knew she was expecting, they started drifting away from each other. One thing that Phoenix didn't know about Rufus was that he was dedicated to his job. It was his honor. And one day when she spilled some milk in the dairy cooler, and Rufus flipped. He smacked her in the face, and that wasn't enough. He pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the stomach. Because Phoenix, well really Montana was just young in the womb, this kicked altered her development, and made a small change to her developing brain and heart. Phoenix had tried to keep Rufus a secret from her mother and grandmother, though she wasn't very good at it. Phoenix’s grandmother always knew what Phoenix was up to. Without even being at home when Phoenix had broken something, she knew, as if she could see the past and know the future. So when Phoenix started to feel the pains of morning sickness, she hid it as best she could, but her grandmother approached her and asked her about her body, and how long she might be along. Because of Grandma Helena’s gift to always know what was going on, Phoenix knew it was useless lying to her. She said that she thought that she was 6 weeks along, and that she wanted to tell her mother. Grandma agreed and said that she would go with her. Now Phoenix didn't know how, but it seemed that her mom could be holding things one moment, when before she wasn’t, as if she could move things with her mind. As Phoenix and grandma walked into the room, Crystal knew that something was wrong because of the look on both their faces. No one touched the door, and yet it closed behind them. As Phoenix started to tell her mother the story in greater detail than what she had told her grandmother, the window next to Crystal started to rattle and shake, and ceiling fan started to spin backwards, and before Phoenix had finished her story, the cordless phone was in front of Phoenix, in mid air as her mother said call Rufus and tell him that he had better do better then dairy boy because he is going to be a good father. Phoenix called Rufus and he was crazed! If people found out that he had a child out of wedlock, his possibilities of being Central City’s mayor are history. He wanted nothing to do with this child and hung up the phone. Crystal was to say the least upset as the phone was ripped out of Phoenix’s hand and smashed against the wall by some unseen hand. As timed passed, Phoenix was given a choice as to what she was going to do with her baby. Keep the child or put her up of adoption, and an abortion was out of the question! Rufus hit the road, to try to hide from his now colored past. Phoenix knew that she had to stay in school and graduate. She knew that she wanted to keep the baby, but she needed to talk to her grandmother first, and she knew that her mother had great power using her mind. Without thinking, Phoenix had her baby’s name picked out. Her grandmother always referred to the child as she or her, so it had to be a girl. Montana was a name that she loved and one that her mother liked to. But what would she look like? Would she have red hair like her loser dad, or long dark hair like her grandmother Crystal? Would she be short like her loser dad, or tall like her mom? Phoenix thought about all these things and more as the months passed. And when enough time had passed, she went into labor at home, because she had no insurance, and her grandmother was a certified midwife. Phoenix had gone to birthing classes, and was prepared. And what was amazing, was that during labor she was brought everything that she wanted: water, a cold towel, something to eat, everyone seemed to know exactly what she was thinking of. As Montana entered the world, squeezing through the birth canal, she had no idea that she was coming from a line of such “gifted” women.

A long journey for GRVO

Tuesday at work Jenn called me and said that she was having irregular contractions. I was then on high alert. Wednesday morning Jenn was having regular contractions and at 7:30 in the morning I said what am I doing today? She said your not going any where! So I spent the day with Jenn as she had contractions that were any where between 20 minutes apart and 5 minutes apart. We went for a long walk in the late afternoon which helped a little, but not enough. We got some advise from our Bradley Method instructor that we should call our midwife and get her advise as well as to what we should do, because by now, Jenn had been in labor for 18 hours with no advances. So at 10:45 we went to the birth center to talk to Becky, our midwife. We got to the door and no one came to our knock. At about the same time a mini van came sceaming into the parking lot and I thought it was Becky. Nope, it was Susan, on of the nurses. She let us in and we got cozy in a room waiting. Another mother had called just after we got off the phone with Becky and by the time that we got there, she was pushing and sceaming. So when Becky could pull herself away and come check on Jenn, Jenn was dilated to a 4 and almost effaced completely. Because Jenn had been awake for going on 20 hours she needed sleep. Jenn got a shot of morphine and some other muscle relaxers to help her get some sleep. We got home after the shot at about midnight. Jenn was already asleep when her head hit the pillow. I stayed up another hour to get the bags together, and shower, and get as much in the car as I could to be ready to the following day.
Jenn slept for about 5 hours and at 6 she said I think my water broke. So we got up, and headed to the birth center (which is only about a two minute drive.) Again when we got there, there was another woman pushing out a baby, and again she was right across the hall. And again we were waiting for Becky to get a break and come check on us. Susan was there all night cleaning from the baby at midnight, but she was chipper when we got there, and got us ready. Around 8 Becky was doing a check on Jenn and she was dilated to an 8 and just waiting for her body to say push. So we just waited and worked through each contraction. 10:50 is the noted time on the medical report as to what time Jenn started to push. She was in hard labor pushing labor for over an hour. At 12:13 Thursday afternoon, little Gabriel Richard VanOrden was born at 5 lbs. 1 oz. and 18 in. His apgar scores were 8&9.

So just an up-date on my pellet gun. I have a nice set up in the backyard now. my chair is out behind the garage and the targets are across the yard infront of a compost pile. I usually have around 16targets set up on an old table and can plink them off one at a time. This is just a sample of what a pellet does to a soda can full of water does. The top hole is a second shot the the lower explosion, yes that was done by a pellet gun. I know, it rocks! nothing like my 7mm, but for the price and shooting in my backyard, can't beat it.

Can you guess what this is a picture of? Yes is it a little dark, but I bet you can figure it out.

Getting ready

Our neighbors who just moved were trying to get rid of some of stuff. They had two boys, and we got some stuff. One of the things we got was a halloween costume. Jennifer wanted to make sure that it was safe for her little boy. This is her testing it out. I would really like to know what goes through your head when you see this, because I still haven't decided. Histarical, yes, funny, yes, great, most of the time! I love my wife! ☺