7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 10)

1) I finally managed to sign up for a "Childbirth and Baby Care" class this week. Apparently, I called much later than most couples because the next open class was for June 25/26 (unless we wanted to do a 6 week class that met every Friday night). Uhh...that's literally 2 weeks before my due date. Yes. TWO WEEKS!!! I wish someone had warned me to sign up in like the 4th month of pregnancy (I'm only a couple weeks into the 6th month). 

As I was calling later in the week to schedule my breast feeding class and a maternity tour I had the presence of mind to ask if there is a waiting list for classes that were already full. I mean SURELY people cancel on them occasionally! Luckily, they DO have a waiting list. And, in fact, the class for this weekend had one open spot. So, I quickly called and emailed my husband to confirm with him that it would be ok with him if we took the class this weekend. I realize it's a LITTLE early (they suggest finishing the class 3-5 weeks before you're due) but seriously...I don't want to walk into that hospital in labor without having SOME clue as to what I'm about to do/what I'm getting myself in to. Bullet dodged.

2) I tried several new recipes this week. You can find the first one here. The other two will be posted in the near future. One will be for peanut butter pie while the other will be for baked ziti! Yumm!

3) I *think* I've figured out why my back has been hurting, but I'm still in the process of testing my theory. My (current) theory is that it's all the driving I've been doing that's causing this one particular back pain - in one very specific spot toward the top right of my back. I think it has to do with DC traffic and my driving a stick shift. I just noticed yesterday that when I put the clutch in it puts an extra strain in that specific spot on my back. So, I decided to try moving my seat closer to the steering wheel (only by 1 notch even!) this way I wouldn't have to push as far or hard to push in the clutch. I tried it out for the first time on my commute home from babysitting yesterday, and it seemed to help. But, the real test will be if this continues to help and if the pain goes away completely. Only time will tell.

4) The ants are getting on my last nerve. The baits aren't working. Or they at least don't seem to be working. I noticed yesterday that they got into my flour canister (which has a rubber seal!). Those pesky little monsters. I'm sooo ready to enlist the help of a professional to take care of this problem once and for all - even if this means I'll have an exterminator come to my house several times a year. I'm just so done cleaning the counters 2-3 times a day, not leaving food out, being diligent about washing dishes right after they've been used, etc and still finding ants all over the kitchen. 

5) Many of my friends seem to be talking about the start of baseball season lately. Sadly, baseball just isn't a sport I've gotten in to. I mean, it's not that I dislike the sport, but seriously the season seems to last FOREVER!! It's not like we've gone ALL that long without it. I can't seem to wrap my mind around the obsession. Can anyone out there please explain this to me? I just don't seem to get it.

6) Happy April Fool's Day!! There are days when I'm happy to not be teaching and this is one of them - even though none of my students ever did anything bad to me I definitely can't say that about what they did to each other or even to other teachers. I'd like to share one particularly funny April Fool's joke a couple of my students attempted to pull/pulled (you can be the judge of their success) on the entire school community a couple years ago.
To give you a little background the school I worked at was set up much like a college campus in that it had several buildings (6 I believe) where classes took place, and they would go from building to building depending on where their next class was.
This particular year two students came up with the brilliant idea to post a sign on every bathroom door on campus that read "Out of Order go to [insert another building here]." So, someone would try to go to the bathroom in one building, realize it was "out of order," then head to the next building only to find the same sign, then head to the next building, etc. The teachers figured it out pretty quickly. After one teacher went to 3 different buildings in an attempt to go to the restroom s/he emailed the entire faculty asking them to check the bathrooms in their respective buildings for these signs. Sure enough there were signs in every building (which were promptly taken down, of course).
What about you? Do you have a favorite April Fool's joke/story?

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Lisa. I think it speaks for itself. Oh - and when you're finished reading this you should check out her blog.
"I fly out to Boston tomorrow at 1:00 for Faith & Family Mom's Day Away...I can't get myself to start packing because I don't know how to fit Elena in the suitcase. Should I strap her to the outside or put a little doggie bed in there??"