Thursday, April 29, 2010

Lay Off Animal Planet!!

Here we go again...another gem from one of my students:

male student: "Mrs. Masten, when does Parker eat the yoke sac?"
me: "What?" (with a look of complete confusion on my face)
student: "When does he eat the yoke?
me: "Do you see me sitting on a nest? I'm not a chicken! There is no yoke!"
student: "Well then what does he eat?"
me: "Um, there is an umbilical cord..."
student: "Gross he eats the cord?"
me: "NO! He gets all the nutrients he needs through the cord. Next year, health class is going to blow your mind!"
another student: "Dogs eat their placenta"
me: "Oh lord! Time out, how did we get from Australia to this subject? Back on track people!"

Baby Shower part II & III

Last Friday I drove to Port Orchard to have dinner with Rebecca and Amanda. Little did I know it wouldn't just be the three of us! I arrived to find a table full of my former Clerk's Office co-workers and was surprised with a baby shower. It was so much fun to catch up with all of my favorite ladies and David even braved the estrogen to stop by for a bit. We munched on great Mexican food and got caught up on all the latest happenings.

Today, Kelly, one of my amazing colleagues at school threw a mega-shower for the three pregnant teachers at PHS. We are all due in May: 15th, 17th & 31st! The substitutes in our district will be busy! Everyone was so generous and even shared great practical advice for us first time moms.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Baby Shower!

I spent last Saturday afternoon with an amazing, funny, and generous group of friends and family. My sister Sarah hosted the party at her mother-in-law's beautiful home. Sarah made some yummy food, the best punch I have ever had, and tasty strawberry cupcakes for dessert! Then we laughed, chatted, played a game and spent what felt like hours opening gifts! Everyone was so generous and found such cute outfits and baby gear!

Later that night, I tortured Brian by telling him I just wanted to "show" him all of the loot that Parker got, then I started organizing and setting up everything. Finally, after about an hour Brian couldn't take it any more, grabbed the fleece blanket my Aunt Connie made Parker, folded it into a pillow and fell asleep on the nursery floor!

Because I can't possibly post pictures of all of the amazing gifts Parker received, here are pictures of some of the most unique gifts:





My fabulous sister-in-law Sarah gave me a memory can with little note cards inside to help quickly record all of Parker's important milestones, then when I have more time I can add these events into his baby book.







My amazingly talented Aunt Linda made Parker an adorable colorful dog quilt. She creates these beautiful quilts for various family milestones and always includes a dedication with the year it was given. I hope this becomes Parker's favorite "blankie."







Jeanee and her daughter Alexis made these cute letters to hang in the nursery. (After Brian and I hung them we stepped back to admire our handy work. I was concentrating on whether the letters were spaced evenly/hung at the right height and declared they look great!...Brian agreed, but pointed out we spelled P-A-K-R-E-R instead of PARKER!)





Finally, my Mom's best friend Louise from California sent this cute hooded bath towel with Parker's name embroidered on it. The hood has floppy ears and it has a matching dog bath mitt!

Monday, April 19, 2010

36 Week Belly Picture


Four more weeks to go!
I had Brian take this picture after several "wow your getting big" comments from students and staff members. Notice I have my chin tilted up so my preggo double chin does not show and the picture cuts off mid-thigh so you can't see my chubby "cankles." Who ever said pregnancy was sexy was not talking about a woman who was 8 months pregnant!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Yup, I'm Having One of Those...

As I sat at the front of the classroom today waiting for the kids to put away books and pack up their stuff. I notice two boys in the back of the classroom had flipped their friend's hood over his head and were pulling on the strings to cover his face. I opened my mouth to tell them to knock it off when a girl in the front row rolled her eyes, looked at my stomach and said, "You realize you're about to have one of those! Good luck with that, boys are soooo immature!"

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Lots 'O Doctors Appointments

Brian's work implemented a new policy-yearly physicals or your insurance premiums will double. No one is exempt so I waddled into my doctor's office last week for a physical. The nurse was filling in the info: age, blood pressure, height, weight, etc. when suddenly she stopped threw down her pen in disgust and said, "You have got to be kidding me! They are asking for the waist circumference of a pregnant woman? They should be shot!" The best part of all this? No where on this special HMO form is there any place to write in preexisting health conditions like pregnancy...so my doctor (who is pregnant herself) grabbed a red pen and wrote 33 weeks pregnant all over the form!

Had my 34 week doctor appointment yesterday. Holy cow! Six weeks until my due date! Where has the time gone? Parker is perfect and is already positioned head down facing my back...that's my boy!!! Going to the OB every two weeks has already gotten annoying especially since I have to drive 45 minutes for a 15 minute appointment. I'm super excited because in 3 weeks I start going once a week.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Things Really Do Happen for a Reason

I never thought I would ever say this but...thank goodness we are still living in the man den!!!

Tuesday: We were finally able to really get into the house and do some cleaning. Brian suggested that we take it slow and do a little bit every day after work and let the house keep airing out. So we did some deep cleaning in the kitchen/dining room and then headed back to the man den for the night. We could have moved back into the house that night, but it was a good thing we didn't.
As we were eating dinner, I mentioned to Brian that I was having trouble flushing the toilet earlier that day so he took a look, flushed it a few times and it appeared to be clogged...then I looked in the shower and saw water and TP coming out of the drain! So at 9:30 PM Brian dug up the cover to the septic tank and peeked inside and there was water up to the lid. Since neither of us has ever looked into a septic tank we assumed it was full. We called a 24 hr company and after asking Brian a few questions the guy told Brian it wasn't full and where he would probably find a clog. 15 more minutes of digging, a very long stick, Brian dry heaving, me laughing my ass off and the problem was fixed!

As we were getting ready for bed it dawned on both of us that if we hadn't been living out in the man den it would have taken much longer for us to figure out that we had a issue with the septic tank! Then I realized that we had been having flushing issues in the house for months so this problem had been building for a while and the entire man den, not just the shower could have been flooded before we even knew anything was wrong.

Did I mention how much I love living in the man den?

Side note: I'm guessing it is pretty rare for a company to help people for free when they could come out on an emergency call and make $300-400 for 30 minutes of work. So if you have septic issues call Apex they rock!