I am officially a published freelance writer!

I am so excited. I got to go and interview Julie Comstock, the owner of Cosmo Cricket - what an awesome woman! Not to mention Cosmo Cricket has amazing scrapbooking product!

http://scrapjazz.com/topics/Miscellaneous/Interviews/2672.php

Michelle

7 years ago

7 years ago I was having a funny feeling in my womb. I had been to the doctor earlier in the day and the non-stress test didn't show any signs of contractions. Not to mention I wasn't due until April 19th. I had been begging my midwife since week 30 that I wanted her to be born, but alas, when there wasn't enough fluid at week 34 for an amniocentesis, I was told I was stuck with her until at least week 38. 

Those of you who knew me during my pregnancy with this beautiful little girl, know how rough it was on me. I was in physical therapy before I was showing because my sciatic nerve was being pinched. I couldn't eat and was having to take an anti-nausea pill that they prescribe to chemo patients. I was miserable. 

Earlier that week, 7 years ago, I had an ultrasound. To add to everything else, she was breech. We knew from probably the first trimester that she would be a C-Section baby and I was just fine with that. I watched my sister go through a miserable labor, only to end up with a c-section and a blood transfusion. I was not going to go that route. I also had the luxury of short term disability insurance to help pay for me while I was out of work.

On March 27, 2003 at about 9 pm, I called my midwife because something wasn't quite right. Since I had been in her office earlier in the day, she told me to call her in the morning and she would get me right in.

At about 10:30, my water broke. At least, that's what I found out it was. There wasn't much there, so instead of waking up Jason, I called my mom and asked her if I had just peed my pants. She said no and that I needed to wake up Jason...it was time. Did I mention I hadn't packed my hospital bag yet? 

Quickest delivery ever. We made it to the hospital around 11:30. The nurse checked me, said yup, my water had broke. Called the midwife and she said she would come on in that night and she called the dr on duty to perform the c-section. By the time our parents had arrived, I was being prepped for surgery. I don't remember much about the c-section...3 things stick out in my mind:

1 - the anesthesiologist telling me in 5 seconds I wouldn't be able to feel my feet, then my legs, etc. Then he thought he was funny when he told me to put my feet up on the table (I had been sitting up for the spinal block)

2 - Hearing the dr or nurse say, "where's her feet? I can't see her feet." Followed by me thinking for a moment, "I know I saw her feet on the ultrasound." Come to find out, not only was she breech, she had pulled her legs up over and behind her head. (Her legs stayed up like that for quite a long time).

3 - Hearing, "it's a girl!" Followed by Jason looking up over the surgery drape to see Jenna...which led to him having to go outside of the room for a minute to lay down so he didn't pass out. He was brave and waiting until they get a quick pic with the 3 of us in the OR. 

 At about 1:10 am on March 28, my baby girl was brought into this world. 6 lbs, 6 ozs.

Now, 7 years later, my life has been completely changed. Every day she keeps us laughing. She is, after all, a teenager in a 7-year-old's body. From her "stalker" on her pretend Princess cell phone to her telling us about her rough day, she is the best thing we could ever ask for and I am so proud she is mine.

Michelle

With a little bit of magic...

I stole this off of one of my former co-workers, but for this purpose, I am totally taking credit for it! I cannot wait to see my student's faces when they see what happened to their leprechaun traps they made.

I gave each student a plain styrofoam cup and had them decorate them to be leprechaun traps. I told them when the cup is sitting up normally, the leprechauns will get curious and will want to get a closer look. Sadly, leprechauns can't get out of these types of cups so then they are stuck. Before they left school, they made sure they all left their chairs down to make sure the leprechauns could make it up to their desk. Smart kids. Anyway, here's the cool thing...




Sorry the video quality isn't the best, I was shooting through an oven door after all. I put the cups in the oven for about 1 minute and then pulled them out to fix any shape problem that may happen as they fall. The oven was on 350 degrees. My friend said she did hers on 250 degrees for 6-12 minutes. You put them in for the smaller you want them to be. I'm wondering if the shape would have turned out better doing them for the longer time at a lower temp. Guess I'll experiment more next year :)

The poem that goes along with it says:

If you be lookin' for us leprechauns,

We never will be found.

We turned your traps into hats,

And then we danced around.

Here's a pic of the hats after:

I'll take some pictures tomorrow of the setup...it includes a Keebler elf cookie! Can't wait.

Michelle

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

'Tis the month of March and with the month of March comes talks of rainbows. Last week, my class wrote a poem using the colors of the rainbow, that was fun. But, that's nothing compared to the fun we had today. First, rookie moment, I didn't have my kids put on smocks when they did their water colors. It's washable and thankfully the one child who got paint on her shirt has an awesome mom who understands. Anyway, my 2 cohorts had their kids paint rainbows earlier this week, so I decided to follow suit.

Yesterday I planned to have my kids paint today, I set aside an hour for the activity and got everything I needed ready. I got home and got on my computer to do some blog stalking when I went to the Cosmo Cricket blog. Julie (and her crew) always have such great ideas and yesterday was no difference. She wrote about using salt on water color paintings to make a certain effect. I saw it and thought, "perfect, it looks like rain."

So, this morning I stopped by the store on my way to work to pick up some salt shakers and got ready to show my kids the magic powers of salt. I gave them the directions just like Julie did, "wetter is better" and told them to go at it. When they were done, they brought their painting to me and I showered their paintings with salt. They were so excited to see what would happen next...and were amazed I knew a magic trick.


Here are my student's masterpieces. (Notice the one original vertical page - love the creativity).

You can't really see the effect from far away, so I've also included a close up of one. Rainbows truly are more magical when you add a little rain to them.











Thanks Julie and Cosmo Cricket for letting me stalk you.

I also have discovered my talent for making up and telling stories to my class - today it was the story of Roy G Biv and his gift from the rainbow. Hopefully that'll be on here soon.

Michelle