RB update- 23 weeks

So here is a picture for you all- RB is progressing nicely. I saw my doc this morning for a checkup. It was about 5 min long- and since I was the first one there, I did not wait at all. I walked straight in. The doctor said that everything is normal bli ayin hara. I have been so busy lately that I do not even remember I am pregnant unless I get really hard kicks.

I got another job teaching the preschool at the new Torah Day School in Seattle. They called me to sub last week and apparently, they liked me so much they offered me a job on the spot.

The preschool program here is Montessori. It is very different from the traditional classroom. Instead of assignments and everyone doing the same thing at once- the class is broken up into workstations - usually about 5-10 a day and the kids are free to pick a workstation and spend however long they like completing the task. There is usually a theme for the day- here, it is an English letter and the workstations are built around that. So for instance, this week they are learning the letter "L" so we had a workstation where they could color "L"s, another one for coloring leaves, another one for making leaf prints, and another one with leaf puzzles.

Along with those workstations are skills workstations to help develop motor skills and practical skills- so we have a station where they sort out plastic bears by color, and another one where they practice sweeping, pouring, sewing etc. Along with the workstations, the Montessori classroom also has a wide range of ages. My class goes from 2.5-4.5 years- and you can see the difference in the skill levels. The point is that the older ones can help the younger ones and there is always something for everyone no matter what level he/she is on.

I am one of two teachers for the class. The other teacher, Miss Lee Ellen is a Montessori trained teacher from Billings, Montana. She is in charge of the secular studies and I am in charge of Judaics. So far, I have been sticking to the traditional teaching but as I am planning my week, I am trying to adapt it to the Montessori way. It is easier to teach my class that way so that the younger ones do not hold back the older ones and I can give more one on one time to each student. I have 13 kids and they are all adorable. Most of them dress like Gap Kids models and they are all clean and neat. A few are still in diapers but thank G-d I have not had to change one yet. Miss Lee Ellen has been having rachmanus on me and she changes them but I suppose that will end soon.

So now, I have two jobs- I start work at nine and work straight through til six. I am exhausted when I come home from running around the kids but the commute is great. Both jobs are a mere 5 minutes away. I am really happy and the staff is very friendly so it seems this is a pretty good deal.

Have a good night!

Satan works at Microsoft? Who would have thought...

Sorry about the slacking off on the postings, but you people are so demanding! You think it's so easy to write down a bunch of stuff that happened and push the "Publish Post" button? You're like a pack of hungry wild dogs - always wanting more, never satisfied with the postings you have. For shame. (You didn't buy that by any chance, did you? For real though, I was just lazy)

We are slowly but surely getting unpacked into our new house. The contractor is out this week so there is no way we will be getting our new cabinets in time for Abba and Pat's visit. We'll have to find some other place to stash all our kitchen stuff in the meantime. In other news, Julie and Josh are thinking about visiting us over winter break. We're very excited. You could all follow their lead! And see the beautiful Pacific Northwest! There are all kinds of awesome nature-ey things to do out here (or so we're told. We haven't actually done them yet).

Work is going well. I am now hooked on Starbucks coffee. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to normal coffee again - I'm so spoiled. I bet you're all wondering about the post title... On my way to work the other day, near campus we spotted a car with the license plate "SATAN." Understandably intrigued, we went for a closer look, and sure enough there was a microsoft parking pass on that black car with dark tinted windows. Did anyone doubt that the one person in the state of Washington with the license plate SATAN worked at Microsoft? I bet there's one at Apple too (no offense Abba)... Anyway, can anyone guess the gender of the driver? Of course, it was a woman. I knew it all along! She turned on the street that leads to the parking garage of my building and a few others. Who knows, she might even work right near me. Creepy.

Speaking of cool new kosher products we found, at Costco here they have corn bread mix. It's milchig of course, but we had to buy it. Maybe this isn't really all that novel, but I had never seen anything like it that was kosher. Anyway, we (I!) made it the other night and it was actually quite good, I thought. Rachel said it wasn't so great, but I guess I never had real corn bread before (at least since camp moshava) so it tasted good to me. It was really easy - just add water and bake. So that is the news here. I know you hungry savage dogs, errr, guys all want to see some pictures, so I will post some later. When I feel like it. Maybe.

Ari

Baruch Dayan HaEmet

This morning, I found out my Aunt Ruth passed away after some time in the ICU. She has not been well for awhile- and while this seemed inevitable, it was still a shock to hear the news. I had not seen her in a long time because of her health and because my Uncle Murray (her husband) has been sick for a long time. I usually saw them at Pesach in Teaneck. They would come for the Sedarim with their son and his family. I have many memories of sitting with her during the meals while the men had all gone to sleep. She would tell me stories of family politics- which are always interesting to find out. She lost a beloved daughter many years ago to cancer and she spoke of her often. She was a devoted wife who took very good care of her husband through all his sicknesses, hospital stays and everything else. Her only child married late in life and she was fortunate to live long enough to see her two beautiful grandchildren.

I have been caught up with my pregnancy recently along with the anticipation of an addition to the family (bli ayin hara) that I have rather forgotten what happens at the end of life. It is sobering to be reminded that while there is so much happiness in life, there is also much grief. I guess it is a consolation when a birth occurs soon after a death- the cycle of life continues and the family endures. While my Aunt Ruth is gone, my memories of her still here and while she will never know my children, they can know of her.

May her memory be a blessing.

A pic of RB- taken 10/11/2006

 

RB update- 21 weeks along.

This is going to be short- just wanted to keep everyone up to date.

I went in for my second trimester ultrasound today- it was pretty long and the technician spent the whole time measuring things. Anyways- everything looks good and normal. As for the weight gain- when the doctor came in, he said that the baby is in the 88th percentile for weight- it weighs 1lb already. The average is 14 oz. This is especially good news because I barely eat enough and I was worried about the baby being underweight. I still don't look preggers yet- people are shocked to hear that I'm 5 months along. At least the baby is taking all the calories and not me.

The baby is pretty active. Its in the normal position (head down) and it kicks quite frequently. Anyone know how much longer before other people can feel it? My belly button is slowly popping out but it's got a little more to go.

As for the sex.... we narrowed it down. It's either a boy or a girl. I guess we'll have to wait a few more months to find out!

I have a pic of the profile- I'll try to get Ari to scan and post it. So if you don't see it on here tom. blame him.

That's all folks.

The joys of moving

Finally I got a few seconds to breathe (and post). Let's begin with Yom Kippur. It was uneventful, except for the fact that we moved into our house on erev yom kippur. But that was just with the stuff (or most of it anyway) that we had in temp housing. On Yom Kippur during the day we davened at the old folks home again. It didn't feel fast but it just didn't drag on forever and there was no speech. We ended up having a 3.5 hour break, and they started at 8:40AM. No complaints about that. I think we will be davening there for yomim noraim in the future.

Onward to Succos. I built a fine succah (that we haven't even used yet) on Thursday night, with one late-night stop at Lowe's for some extra wood. All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out, especially considering the fact that this was my first succah building project. Also, the whole thing only cost maybe $175, including an 8x12 bamboo mat. Next year I will probably expand it to encompass our whole backyard. Right now it only covers about 2/3 of it, and most of the schach is over the dirt portion, which I personally would love to cement over. The dirt is totally useless - I think they (the condo assoc.) are planning on putting in some plants, which according to my understanding serve no purpose whatsoever. In any case the entrance to the succah is mostly blocked by piles and piles of boxes, which segues nicely into the move... The movers were supposed to come on Friday, erev succos (Rachel couldn't take off a non-Friday from work so we had no choice). I made it very clear to them that I needed them to be done by 5 PM, and they said it should not be a problem. Except that they said they would come between 9 and 11, but did not actually show up until close to 2. Needless to say they were not able to finish before shabbos, so I had to send them away at around 6:15 (about 5 min before candle lighting) with the remainder of our stuff in the truck and all our furniture still in a state of disassembly ("no disassemble number 5!" - how's that for an obscure reference?). We slept on mattresses on the floor for the chag, but I have since assembled the beds so we'd at least have something decent to sleep on until they come back. But our house is filled with boxes everywhere and it is not fun. We have unpacked a few of them so far, but we want to wait until they come back and finish the job. Also we have no space in our kitchen for all the kitchen stuff, so we are calling in a contractor to put in a few more cabinets. So until then we will live with the boxes.

I called the moving company on Monday to schedule the movers to come back, so they're coming back on Thursday. Annoyingly, I tried to put together my desk and main computer stuff but I'm missing the mouse and some cables, which must be in one of the boxes they haven't delivered yet... (sigh)... Will this ordeal never end? Woe is me!

In work news, today was the last of our biweekly group lunch + deal or no deal series. All the people who hadn't yet played got to play today. They said that all the prizes had to go, including the grand prize that nobody had won yet, the Xbox360. Nobody today won it either, and they had a bunch of smaller prizes left also, so they just gave away the rest. They put each prize (or a piece of paper with the name of the prize) into a lunchbox and called up people in order of birthdays to pick one and get the prize inside. Everyone got to pick one. It turned out that none of the boxes had the Xbox inside - the group manager (i.e. head honcho) had decided it should go to the administrator who has organized these things each week. Most of the other prizes that were left weren't that great - couple pairs of wireless headphones, some DVDs, and the fillers so that there'd be the same number of prizes as people were starbucks and Amex gift cards and lunch tickets for the cafeteria. I got a $20 Starbucks gift card.

Speaking of Starbucks, we are finally getting our iCup machine installed! They closed off the kitchen for the past 2 days working on it, but it is supposed to be functional by tomorrow. I'm so excited! It's like free liquid heaven!

I have noticed that the comments section has been languishing, and it's probably partly my fault since I've been too busy to post lately, but come on guys! If things don't pick up after this effort I will have to hold a PBS-style telethon. "I know you all enjoy family friendly and educational postings here, such as the ones about RB and iCup machines. They don't happen by themselves. They need the support of readers like you. So why don't you show your support by posting some comments? It'll only cost you a few moments of your time. This blog wouldn't be where it was today without readers like you" etc... So if you don't want it to come to that, start creating some action here today! Otherwise it's time to start calling up some potential telethon hosts. Is that what you want?

Ari

P.S. We had a raisin-free succos! My prayers were answered!

RB update... and more!

So much has happened this week! The movers are expected to come within the hour so I will write until then.

First off- RB (see Sept. 17 if you don't know what that means) is doing well!!! I had my appointment yesterday with my new doc here in Seattle. I heard the heartbeat, my uterus is just the right size and I now weigh what I did before I got pregnant. The only problem is that I am not eating enough but I am so busy here setting up our life here in Seattle and working that I often forget to eat. Ari's trying to fatten me up so hopefully I will gain the weight that I need too. I am getting too big for my fat clothes now so I really need to start buying more maternity clothes. I love Gap maternity clothes but the store is downtown and there's no parking plus there are no Sundays to shop for the next two weeks due to yontiff and I'm working all day the Sunday after that. I will have to start wearing Ari's clothes. Oy- this should be the worst of my problems.

Next- Ari is really handy!!! He built the sukkah in about two hours last night including a quick trip to Lowes to get more schach. It looks really nice- kind of like the sukkah I grew up with. He is going to put up pics of it next week cause he's so proud of himself. It is raining now but the forecast for most of Sukkot is mostly sunny so we should get some use out of it this year. So far we have been invited out for almost all the of chag meals so the sukkah is going to be used mostly by Ari to eat dinner on Chol Hamoad. It is in the 60s here and it gets cold at night so I am staying indoors as much as I can.

The move is going well so far. Now we are just waiting for the furniture. We made a few Costco runs and splurged and got expensive toilet paper! If only we had the tornado... that is probably the only thing we miss from our New York apartment. Anyways we have enough toilet paper for a year and I think we shipped all the toilet paper from New York here too so it'll be awhile before we need anymore of that.

I convinced Ari to come with me to the Costco Home (one of the two in country) and we bought a couch, chair and rug for our den. It's very exciting! The first brand new furniture purchase we ever made. They have pretty good stuff there for decent prices. It's supposed to come in 8-10 weeks so now our leather loveseat will be the only seating in that room. We are having a lot of fun planning set ups and home improvements we hope to accomplish one day!

So that’s it for now. Wishing you all a Chag Sameach and a rain-free Sukkot.

Crazy busy

Keren is right - I have not posted in a while because I have been crazy busy with the succah and moving and everything. Thank G-d everything went well... The succah looks really good and the movers are coming today. I will try to post as soon as I get a few free moments, probably after yom tov. Have a chag sameach everyone!

Ari