We interrupt this story to bring you something completely different!

On Sunday August 2, 2009 at 7:04 a.m. the Anti-Hippie and I welcomed our third child into to our family. Danger Hawk entered this world after 3 days of labor, sunny side up and star gazing!
We found out we were pregnant with Danger Hawk in December of 2008. I thought I had the flu, so I was not feeling particularly well. I was still nursing Princess Gnat so my periods had not returned regularly, so we were not quite surprised when I took 3 at home pregnancy tests and they all came back positive.
I was very lucky that I found a teaching job in January for the remainder of the school year, the job did not quite fit my personal educational philosophy ( but that is quite another post). I finished out the school year and in May was happy to be at home on summer vacation.
My pregnancy progressed through the summer and I had a great time being pregnant, up until those last three painful weeks. I was due August 13, and from July 28th on I started experiencing some pre-labor contractions. During this time, The Anti-Hippie, had passed his boards in the Navy and became a Chief Selectee for the 2010 Season of Pride (this too is another post), anyway this took the Anti-Hippie away from the house for a day or two at a time, where he was busy working on 'Navy Stuff'. At the beginning of August, there was to be a Navy Meet and Greet for all the Selectee Spouses and Families along with all the Genuine Chiefs.
The Meet and Greet went something like this: Hello I am The Anti-Hippie's wife, nice to meet you Chief So and So, Yes I am in labor I have been having contractions every eight minutes for the past 24 hours. Yes, I can't wait to meet him (baby Danger Hawk). No I do not think he will come while we are here. No, please do not tell me your birth story, about the labor from hell. Thanks nice to meet you too!
We eventually ate lunch, which the Selectees over engineered for, they expected 100 people, and only about 40 showed up. So my Husband and his troop of merry Selectees cleaned up dinner while the Genuine Chiefs had a meeting with all the wives, telling us that the next 8 weeks would be difficult, our husbands needed our support, yada yada... I am not bragging here, but while he was talking Danger Hawk decided to give some really good contractions, so I grimaced and listened, all the while thinking, GAWD I wish this baby would get here!!
After the Meet and Greet my husband was expected to clean up and so I went home with Princess Gnat and we got ready for bed, I was not in a lot of pain at this time, but I could tell that this baby would be here soon.
The Anti-Hippie arrived home from cleaning up at around 10:00pm and by 10:30 we were all fast asleep in our beds. At midnight The Anti-Hippie got up to go pee and I also had to pee, so I tried to race him to the bathroom, en-route I felt dampness around my bottom and we decided that my water was leaking. We called the awesome Grandma down the street and she came to sit with the kids while we rushed to the hospital. It was a very foggy night, and our drive was slower due to this.
We called ahead to the hospital and then to our surprise when we got there the Anti-Hippie's mother who is an ER nurse was able to take us upstairs to the maternity floor.
I labored somewhat comfortably for the next few hours, and then it hit, my contractions were coming at about 3 minutes apart and I was feeling great pressure. The Anti-Hippie was so wiped from the previous days events that he laid on the sofa bed and kept telling me I was doing a great job. I really wanted a natural child birth, but by 5am the pressure was so great and I was so tired, that I said the magic word and I got an epidural. By the time the whole process was over I had an epidural by 5:45 and was able to sleep a bit in between contractions. The Anti-Hippie will tell you this made a world of difference in my labor, I was smiling, not from the drugs, but because the pain had eased up due to the epidural. by 6:45 am I was ready to push, I pushed for 10 minutes and by 7:04am Danger Hawk had arrived.
Although my birth did not go as I had planned, it was still a wonderful experience and I was still in control of my body. No nurse nor doctor had told me what to do, I did what I felt I needed to and I am happy to say that I am glad I did. I am also happy to report the family and I are doing well.

Chapter 4 (finally)

My trip down to Anchorage was for the most part uneventful. Our Hitchhiking Ride dropped us off very near an REI store where I browsed the clearance rack for winter gear. I needed a coat and some pants. I bought a Gore-Tex coat (which I still wear) and a pair of Gore-Tex pants. From REI we perused the want-ads in search of a new used car for a couple of hundred dollars. We found a 1982 Subaru wagon about 15 miles away, we called for a taxi and went over to see the car.
The car was a yellow 4 door Subaru hatch-back with good tires and was for sale for a reasonable price, only problem was that it was a 5 speed. I had never learned how to drive a 5 speed, so Brian helped me get the car back to Fairbanks, on the way home we picked up a hitch-hiker and he camped with us in Denali. He was on his way to a hostel in Fairbanks, and we were happy for the company.
When I got back home to the cabin, Jacques was already at work and had left me an apologetic note. I ignored it, and promptly moved out. I had no where to go, so I slept in my car for a few nights. Brian had this friend who lived in North Pole, Alaska and he agreed to let me stay there and help with house work until I found a place to live. This guy, had a girl friend somewhere and he stayed with her most of the time. Now mind you Brian was still growing pot with Stina up in Gold-Stream Valley. I was still working at Denny's, and Jacques had taken our split pretty hard. He really wanted me back, but looking back on it now, I think he sensed that Brian was a bad apple.
By mid-September the leaves were off of the trees and the weather had turned cold, snow was coming and so was winter, and I still did not have a place to live. I looked in the classifieds each day, finally I found a cabin for rent back in Fairbanks and relatively close to Denny's. This creepy guy was my land lord, and he claimed he would be spending the winter in New Zealand. He gave me an address where I could send my rent, but he also gave me the creepy peepers. The cabin was nothing more than a 12x12 box with a little furnace that left everything black, because it burned oil and then it kind of leaked into the cabin, I would wake each morning kind of sooty looking.
Brian was working on harvesting his first crop and someone shot his wolf. His neighbor up in Gold Stream was tired of the wolf getting into the garbage so he shot and killed the wolf. This devastated Brian and he knew he must get this crop harvested and find another location to grow.
Meanwhile, Stina confronted me and tried to beat me up over Brian. I told Brian to leave. Stina then went up to the grow house and harvested all that could be harvested and tried to skip town. She changed the locks on the doors and when that neighbor who shot the wolf, saw Brian trying to get in, he called the cops. The cops found Brian inside the house and started snooping around, they wondered why there were rooms in this house with locks on the outside, well one thing led to another and they figured out he was growing up there and that led to a call to the Alaskan Drug Task-Force. They confiscated about $60,000.00 worth of pot and grow equipment. Now the ironic part of this is that Stina had gone in before she changed the locks and harvested quite a bit of pot, and was driving around with it in her car. When Brian caught up with her, he was able to re-coup some of the crop, but never made any money off of it.
I was at work the day this happened, Brian was not arrested, but they confiscated everything, and he came over to my cabin where he wanted to live. I kicked him out, I told him I wanted no part of this, and he left. He told me he was going back to Texas to get some money and to give me a break. I should have never let him come back. 2 weeks later I found him sitting on my front stoop one afternoon after work, and he told me he had some money and that he would take care of me. In the time that he was gone I started working for a guy who had a dog kennel who was going to let me live in his handler's cabin and learn how to maintain a kennel and most importantly have a team of sled-dogs. I did not invite Brian to live with me, he was trying all means necessary to get me back. And then I made the biggest life changing decision EVER, I let him come back and live with me.