HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY CASSI LYNN!!!!

It's December, 1990 and I am suspecting that I am pregnant(I cried). Sherry and I head to the store and I made her go in and get a pregnancy test. The next morning I take the test and yep, I am pregnant(I cried). I just could hardly believe it. Shawn and I had only been married about 6 months and I was only 20 years old. What the heck did I know about being a mother??? I wasn't at all ready for this so I cried. Oh Lord, how did this happen??? Of course Shawn was to the moon with excitement and just couldn't wait to tell the world. I told him we weren't telling anyone yet, I hadn't even been to the doctor. That night Shawn's parents pick us up to go to a Christmas party, we get in the back seat and Shawn says "Hey, wanna hear some news? Star's pregnant!" Seriously???? By the end of the night I think half of Swift Current knew.

I went to the doctor and he confirmed it and gave me a due date of August 9th(my birthday). Wow! That's kind of cool. I was sick for the first 4 months or so and then after that the heat really got to me. I had fluid everywhere and looked like a water balloon. But I was getting more and more excited to see the little person inside me that was doing all this to my body.

Well Mother Teresa(my mom) just did not believe that I was going to go all the way to August. She kept telling everyone "Starla's going to have that baby early". When their Craven tickets came in the mail I remember mom was so mad. She would say "I told your dad that I wasn't going this year. Starla is going to have that baby and we won't be here". We all pretty much laughed at her as Craven was 4 weeks before I was even due. Honestly, we thought mom was losing it. They ended up going but Mom was not happy about it.

It's Thursday, July 11th, the first night of the Craven Jamboree and Shawn and I are sitting in our living room watching Cheers as we did most nights. We had just been joking about a half hour earlier that wouldn't it be funny to phone out to Craven and have Williams and Ree announce that Grandpa and Grandma Stevenson need to phone home. LOL. Oh how we giggled. Then....as I'm sitting there, I felt something like I have never felt before. I got up to go to the bathroom, Shawn looks at me and says "What's the matter?", and I said "I think my water just broke" and he says "Ya, right" and then....yep, my water broke. Well, the look on Shawn's face, he looked at me then down to the rug, back up at me, back down at the rug and he says "Now what?". Of course I start to cry and run to the bathroom. Shawn gets on the phone with his mom, she tells him he better call the hospital, the hospital says to bring me up. While I am sitting in the bathroom crying(imagine that) Shawn is running around the house throwing stuff in a bag, all the while saying "I told you to pack a bag. You should have had your bag packed. Oh, why didn't you have your bag packed!" There may have been a few other choice words in there as well, but as I think about it now, it is quite funny. We got to the hospital around midnight, they got me all hooked up and set up and baby was doing fine but I guess she was ready to meet the world.

Shawn called Sherry at 6 the following morning and she went to the office to put up a sign and left a message for our dad on the machine. It said "Dad, when you get this message, phone me. Your other daughter is in labor". Well, of course we all were feeling real, real bad for Dad. After all, didn't Mom tell us all that this was going to happen and now poor Dad had to be the one to tell her. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

At 11:51am on Friday, July 12th, Cassi Lynn Wittmier was born and she was the sweetest 5lbs, 3.5oz you have ever seen. She is the first grandchild on both sides of the family so everyone was very excited to meet her. Mom and Dad did make it back to Swift that afternoon and I think once they laid eyes on their sweet grandchild, everything else was forgotten. Mom, however, does like to remind us every once in a while!!! Oh, and Dad thought this was kind of neat. They had been talking back and forth with Sharon that day to get updates and such. When Dad got his phone bill, he checked and at the exact moment that Cassi Lynn was being born, Dad and Sharon were talking to each other on the phone.

I can't believe that Cassi Lynn is 19 today. It seems like yesterday that I was 19???She has been an absolute joy in our lives and I feel very blessed to have been able to watch her grow into the beautiful young lady she is. I am very proud to say that she is my daughter.

We love you Cass!