Special Shares

Every now and then I try to think of different things I can write about in my blog. Since the post about my breast pump was probably my favorite one and not many people seem to read or comment on my blog I am realizing that maybe I am not gifted at blogging. I guess I just don't always have a blog worthy life. Or maybe I am just not looking at this the right way. Claire told me my blog was boring since it was just about stuff I wanted to buy. I guess making a celebration of my consumerism isn't exactly blog worthy, but I still think shopping and talking about what I would buy if I could buy lots of stuff if pretty darn fun. This all brings us to what could be a great format for a blog- maybe my blog- SPECIAL SHARES.
While I was in Germany on my mission my first companion was Sister Mathews. She was a cheerleader from Utah and she was super hard working a focused. Maybe a little intensely focused for me, because I still wasn't used to being a missionary and I didn't really know who I was or what I wanted from life. What I am saying is that I wanted to talk about non "missionary" things including boys or home life. It seems like the most random things come to mind to say when you are compelled to be with someone for 24 hours a day 7 days a week. At the very beginning of our companionship Sister Mathews introduced me to the concept of a "Special Share." This term applies to lots of things you can talk about- like a birthing story when no one has asked or something about your health. One day the Mission President's wife told us about how she had really bad diarrhea the whole time she was at training at the MTC. That was a special share. It probably counted as two since it was at a zone conference in her testimony. Sister Mathews limited me to two special shares a day.
Today I visited my friend Allison and we walked from her house to ALDI, a local supermaket. I thought it was going to be close but it actually was about a fourty minute walk each way. I didn't feel like I had to go to the gym after that. An interesting thing happened though today while I was hanging out with Allison. Her sister had a baby and Allison asked me my birthing story. Immediately, I thought of the special share.
A birthing story really is a special share, and since I am limited to two a day I think I should put two birthing special shares on my blog. Because I can.

1. At some point as Danielle was getting pulled out with forceps and they were cutting the cord and me with a big pair of scissors- somewhere in the gore of birth I ended up with a substantial amount of blood on my face. Maybe I got flicked in the face with the cord blood I was meaning to donate for research. I am still not quite sure of how I got it, but I just remember it and also my intense desire to finally drink juice.
2. I had an incredibly difficult time adjusting back to using the bathroom after having a baby.

Now the second special share is obviously more special than the first, but from it we learn a lot about what a special share should be- a little bit too personal but not necessarily so graphic that people know what is going on. I still have some shame, after all. Well those are my special shares of the day. And in honor of the special share I am including a photo of the game of Twilight Imperium John and I are playing all alone. It is taking up the whole dinner table which means either we need a bigger table or we need to finally finish the game. I miss all the old game partners! Thanks for participating in my special share.