Inauguration - Through the Eyes of a First Grader

Today my class watched part of the Presidential Inauguration. Our Principal graciously allowed us to witness this historic event. Before the Inauguration, we spent some time talking about Martin Luther King. I thought that it was important that they understand why this was such a historic event. Since MLK isn't really taught until 2nd grade, most didn't have a good idea of who he was or what he worked for. The kids couldn't believe that not so long ago (ok, I thought it was not so long ago, they thought 40 years was an eternity) African Americans couldn't even swim in the same pool or drink from the same drinking fountain as white people. This was such a foreign concept to them - they wondered why African Americans didn't drive cars instead of taking the bus, and why they didn't build their own restaurants that said "Blacks Only." We spent a long time talking about how MLK would feel about an African American being elected as President and how many Americans never thought they would see this day.

The best part of the conversation was when I told them that this was one of those events that people will remember forever. For the rest of their lives, they will remember where they were when they saw the first black President take the oath of office. One of them said, "We'll remember that we were in Mrs. Zahrte's First Grade class!" We witnessed history together and none of us will forget it - that is cool!

For anyone who has worked with 6 and 7 year olds, you know that they have an attention span of about 20 min. Consequently, the 30 min. of Inauguration that we watched was a little much for them. They were most amazed at the number of people that were gathered on the mall in D.C., and how CRAZY everyone went when President Obama walked out on stage. They were not overly impressed with Aretha Franklin - they thought the bow on her hat was too big. The funniest thing happened during the opening prayer. Pastor Rick Warren was a little wordy for most of the little, not-in-church people, and they started getting squirrely. I made the mistake of talking during the prayer and one of them said, "Hey, I'm praying!" Oh sorry! Please continue...

Regardless of any one's political views or who they voted for, today was a historical day for our country. I was thrilled to have witnessed it with 20 future leaders!

Yee Haw - Stock Show!

I find it very funny that for 49 weeks of the year, the city of Denver tries to refute the idea that we are a "cowboy" town. Then, for three weeks every January, we try our hardest to convince everyone that we are. Gotta' love the National Western Stock Show! In all the years that JZ and I have lived in the Denver area, we had never been to the Stock Show. Actually, I went once a few years ago with my 2nd graders, but that was a whole different experience.

Yesterday, we roped (get it - roped?!?) Team Pouliot into joining us for a day-o-fun at the Stock Show. And what a day is was! We had a great time looking at all of the animals, seeing a rodeo, people watching (seriously, stilettos at a rodeo?), and eating way too many treats and processed foods.

23 weeks - This Baby and I are ready for our first Stock Show!

Noah petting a llama at the petting farm.

Eli found a friend just his size - a pot belly pig!

Grace in her new pink cowgirl hat - that is a girl after my own heart!

The three amigos with Cam the CSU Ram

Steve (wearing his Wyoming t-shirt and hat) getting beat up by Cam. Colorado State is victorious again!

We tons had of fun with Team Pouliot - too many funny things happened and were said to even count. My favorite was when Grace told me that she thought the baby would probably enjoy the lights and music of the rodeo, and that I should open my mouth wide so he could hear better. Genius!

Our only hiccups were two trips to the first aid station (one for Grace and one for me. Who knew we were so allergic to rodeos? Good thing they are stocked with Benadryl!) and almost getting arrested by the rent-a-cop. Oops. We were able to avoid Stock Show jail by the skin of our teeth after we kindly (I use that term loosely) explained to him that we were a little lost and just trying to get to the sidewalk that was 50 feet past his guard shack. He kindly (I use that term even more loosely) explained to us that he didn't actually care that we had three short-legged, tired children, one exhausted pregnant gal, and three over stimulated adults. We were going to have to follow the rules and walk all the way up the hill, through the arena, and back down the sidewalk, fifty feet from where we were, adding about 20 min. to our trip back to the car. Our options were to follow the rules or go to jail. After assessing the situation and the children on our shoulders, we all chose option one. In the process, we had to convince a 7-year-old that we were not, in fact, going to jail, and that Jer was not actually going to punch that guy. Aah, memories!

All in all, it was a successful trip to the 103rd National Western Stock Show. Who wants to join us next year?

Better Late Than Never!

I apologize for not updating the blog in awhile. I guess I haven't had much to say (shocking, I know)!

While things are still going well and I'm still being blessed with an "easy" pregnancy, I will admit this was a tough week. JZ was out of town on business for 5 days and I hate being by myself. You'd think that I'd be used to it by now, but I don't think I will ever get used to it, and I KNOW I'll never enjoy it. Luckily, he just called and is at DIA waiting for his luggage! Additionally, some of the yucky pregnancy ailments that I haven't had to deal with up until now, have all come on full force. I'll spare you the details, but I will say that I am now carrying a large bottle of Tums in my purse. I have had to spend a lot of time apologizing to my mom. Apparently she suffered from the same things I am while she was pregnant with me. Oops, sorry Mom!

Somehow, all of the whining I was going to do to the doctor today went out the window as soon as he put the heart monitor on my tummy and I heard This Baby's heartbeat. It's all worth it as long as he is safe and growing well. Luckily, the doctor says This Baby and I are having a textbook pregnancy. His heartrate was 154 BPM and we even heard him kick at the doppler. The doctor looked at our ultrasound results and said everything looks great. All limbs and organs are measuring exactly where they should be. I have really been able to feel him moving fairly regularly. Jeremy hasn't been able to feel anything yet, but the doctor said the movement should become strong enough soon.

Before JZ went out of town ,he spent every spare moment working on the nursery. He has worked so hard and I love how it is looking. I can't wait for it to be done and we can get everything set up!

This is what the wall looked like when we were trying to choose paint colors. We can never choose just based on the sample cards. We have to choose a few and try them out on the wall. Which one do you like? We chose the one in the middle - Cliff Rock.

Jer finishng up the taping

We thought we had a fool proof plan for painting stripes. First we tried using a clear glaze underneath the tape. That didn't work. The paint still leaked under the tape. Next, we tried using painter's caulk. The caulk kept the paint from leaking out from under the tape, but the caulk leaked instead. Jer had beautifully straight stripes that had a line of white caulk on both sides of it. He took a paintbrush and hand painted above and below each stripe. Now we're on the hunt for clear painter's caulk.

Here's what it looks like now. All we have left is the small green and orange stripes that go inside the big white one.

Operation Nursery Phase 2

Today was my last day of break. I planned to do a whole lotta' nothin'. JZ had another idea in mind - Operation Nursery Phase 2! I thought a better plan would be to wait about 6 more weeks. Then my dad will be here and Papa could help instead of me. Nope, JZ was super excited (so cute!) and thought it was a project for Mommy and Daddy. That's me, I'm in!

We have decided to paint horizontal stripes around the room in khaki, orange, and green. Very cool, but yowsa, that's a lot of work! We are far from finished, but but got a great start.

We tried to find a web site that gave specific directions to painting horizontal lines like ours. No luck. That's ok, we have written our own how-to manual!Before: Move all of the furniture out of the room. House it all in the guest room and the hallway (making it nearly impossible for a pregnant woman to get by!).


Step 1: Measure and mark lines all the way around the room. Note: This step does not work very well if your floors and walls are not straight (like ours!)

Step 2: Use the laser level to (try and) line up all of the marks. Again, if nothing in your house is straight, this is tricky!
Step 3: Try not to step on the "helper" dog. Try to get her to lay under the crib. She's sort of out of the way there!
Step 4: Measure 14 inches above the absolutely perfect first line and make more marks. The corners can be a little tight, so you may have to smash your face into the wall to make it line up!

Step 5: Snap chalk lines all the way around the room. Note: Black and red chalk lines are permanent, so use blue. If (like us) you only have black chalk, borrow one from a friend. Make sure to make this kind soul go to Lowe's to get more chalk first. Also, it seems that black chalk is not only permanent on the wall but also on the carpet. Oops, put the tarps down BEFORE you start playing with chalk!

Step 6: Repeat steps 1-5 once more a few feet down the wall. Voila! You have a perfectly chalked room.

Now comes the taping, painting, retaping, painting...

Good thing we have 4 more months!

Halfway There!

Yesterday JZ and I went for our 20 week ultrasound - a great way to ring in the new year I believe! Ultrasounds have to be the coolest invention ever. If this whole teaching thing doesn't work out for me, maybe I'll look into being an ultrasound tech.

Anyway, wowie, wow, wow! This time This Baby didn't even fit on the whole screen. We were easily able to confirm the sex and then the tech showed us all of his body parts and took a million measurements. She checked out the amount of amniotic fluid, the length of all of the major bones, brain circumference (smart, very smart!), etc. Everything was measuring in the "normal" range as far as she could tell, so that's good news. We also saw a 4 chamber heart, his brain divided in half, fluid in his bladder (meaning his kidneys are working), fluid in his stomach (meaning his sucking and swallowing), and lots of little vertebrae along his closed spine. All good news!! The tech told us that the radiologist will read the pictures and call us if they find anything out of the ordinary. If not, no news is good news.

The only creepy part was that he spent most of the time facing out, so the ultrasound machine picked up his face from straight on instead of a profile shot. It looks very skeletal and we could see eye sockets and the lenses of his eyes. Cool, glad they're there, still a little scary looking. One thing Jer noticed, that I didn't, was that we had only seen one arm. While I was looking to make sure he had Jer's nose instead of mine, he was counting finger, arm, and leg bones. He was concerned that we could only see one arm - he had it up near his face waving at us. The tech showed us that his left arm was down at his side and the right one was straight up in their air. I love it - he's raising his hand already. The good teacher is so proud!

The tech took lots of pictures and and burned them to a CD for us. Although we did make our friends at a New Year's party watch the slide show, I'll only make you look at a few.

Handsome, huh? That is his right hand in the air. How polite!

This is the face forward shot the creeped us out a little bit. You can see both eye sockets and the heart.

Yep, this is what you think it is. This is a "spread eagle" shot from the bum looking up. You can see both thighs and his "boy parts" in the middle. Daddy is so proud!

It's hard to believe that we are already halfway though our great adventure. As we rang in 2009 last night, we did so with great enthusiasm and excitement for what the new year holds for us!

(Hope You Had a) Holly Jolly Christmas

I love Christmas - I love the lights, the music, the food, the presents (I'm still a kid at heart, what can I say?), baby Jesus, and getting to spend time with the people that I love most. This year was no exception. We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that you did too.

This is the first year out of the last 5 that we spent the entire Christmas season at home. Normally we spend some part of the vacation in Florida with my family. This year (some of) Florida came to us! My mom and dad arrived on the 16th and we have been having fun, fun, fun ever since!

We started the Christmas week by celebrating with Jeremy's dad, Clark, his girlfriend, Jeannie, his brother, Brett, and his girlfriend, Molly. We had a great dinner at the Olive Garden (my fav!). It had been WAY too long since we had all been together.

On Christmas Eve we went to Jeremy's grandparent's house for lunch with his side of the fam. Gramps was feeling good and looking great. That was the best Christmas present any of us could have asked for!

That evening we went to church and performed our Christmas musical. For the last few years (4 maybe?) JZ and I have worked with a great team of friends to put on a musical/drama with the kids of our congregation. Each year we all freak out and think that it is never going to come together, but it always does. We somehow forget that, only a week before, we were all swearing that, "We are never going to do this again." Somehow, when it all comes together perfectly, we all remember why we do it - to give our kids the opportunity to share the story of Jesus's birth in their own way. This year we performed a musical called Imagine Christmas. It was a modern twist on the biblical story - I think the electric guitar, fog machine, and lights made it modern. Pretty much it just rocked! Even with the twists the story was still the same and seemed to touch the hearts of the audience members. Also, our kids are great. They are cute. They are endearing. They love Jesus and wanted to celebrate His birthday the best way they could. This was their gift to Him. What's not to love about that? For a more detailed version of our performance and some pics, check out my friend Amanda's blog (http://www.lifewiththethreeamigos.blogspot.com/).

No mater how old I get, Christmas morning still makes me feel like the kid at heart I am. It takes all the restraint I have not to leave cookies and milk out for Santa and get up as soon as my eyes pop open at 5 am. This year I made it until almost 9! Now, I know the true meaning of Christmas. I know it is not about the gifts and presents under the tree. But this year a few of the gifts under the tree were so meaningful and sentimental I had to share them.

I have never cried so much on Christmas morning - I cried at a gift we gave my dad, a gift my dad gave my mom, and twice at gifts that were given to me. Here are my favorites:


This is a crystal stork with a baby in the basket that my parents gave us. Not only is it beautiful and sparkly, but it has a great story too. When my mom was pregnant with me, my dad found this man who made her a crystal stork and baby and gave it to her for Christmas. A few weeks later it got knocked over and one of the teeny tiny stork legs broke. She cried and cried. My dad fixed it for her, and to make sure it didn't break anymore, masking taped the stork to a 3x3 piece of cardboard. She still has the stork on her dresser today. Growing up, I always knew it was a "treasure" I was not supposed to touch and that the baby in the basket was me. I never understood why this pretty crystal stork was making taped to cardboard, but now I know and now I have one of my very own (minus the cardboard - they have made the legs stronger now!).




I also blubbered at a gift JZ gave to me. A few years ago, he bought me a new wedding ring (I know, spoiled Princess!). It is so beautiful, but we never got the wedding band to go with it. For the last four years I have been dropping oh so subtle hints about how much I would love the band that goes with it. Since I've gotten pregnant I say things like, "Sure would be nice to get married before I have your baby," etc. Lots of you are probably thinking that I just wanted more jewelry, but the truth is that I love the symbolism of the band. I love that it goes on forever without end, just like our love. I love that it is an outward symbol to the world that I am a "taken" gal. Cheesy, old fashioned, I know. Can't help it, I love tradition. Anyway, I thought my Christmas was pretty much over. All of my presents had been opened - just my stocking left. Normally my stocking has things like bubble bath and candy. This year it had a pretty black box in it. Even before I took off the bow to see the name on the box, I knew where it was from. It's not Tiffany's, but it still has the same automatic recognition for me. Inside was my pretty little silver band. Even being fat, emotional, and tired all the time, he still wants to marry me. That is a sign of true love! After 6 years of being married to JZ I can honestly say that I was lucky enough to find a man with integrity, compassion, honesty, humor, and humility. I told him I'd think about it. :) Just kidding, everyone knows I'd marry him again in a heartbeat!

From our (growing) family to yours, we wish you a belated Merry Christmas, and a safe, prosperous, and peaceful New Year!

Operation Nursery Begins

Yesterday, the first phase of Operation Nursery officially began. JZ and my dad worked extremely hard moving lots of furniture. We had two guest rooms upstairs with a set of furniture in each room. Of course, I wanted the furniture that was in the soon-to-be nursery moved into the other room, and the furniture in the other guest room moved downstairs. In addition, our basement is a DISASTER and space had to be cleared for the bed. To their credit, neither one of them argued with the pregnant woman, and they worked like busy little bees getting it all organized and arranged before I got home. Thanks JZ and Dad!

Here's what the nursery looks like now

As a point of clarification, the boys say that they did not "arrange" the furniture - girls arrange, boys "place" furniture.

We still have a lot of work to do, but it sure feels good to know things are moving in the right direction. We are working on a vision for the painting. I think we have narrowed down the theme and color scheme of the nursery. We are leaning towards baby jungle animals in green, brown, and yellow. Here is a picture of the bedding we have picked out:

It's called NoJo Jungle Babies and we found it at Babies R Us.

We got the crib about a month ago, and we got the steal of the century! The set was used by a student in my class. Her mom and I were talking on one of her volunteer days, and she told me she would make me a great deal on a set that she was about to post on Craig's List. Jeremy and I went to look at it and fell in love with it. It's so beautiful and in perfect condition. You can't even tell that two kids used it! It is a sleigh crib and dresser/changing table in pecan wood. It's a little lighter color than we thought we wanted, but we got over that quickly when we saw it (and heard the price!). The package also included a glider and ottoman and a pack-n-play. It is a perfect set and we can't wait until This Baby can use it. Until then we're letting Curious George take the crib, changing table, and glider for a test drive. The set was purchased as a gift for us by JZ's mom and boyfriend - thanks Donna and Kim, we love it and you!