Making Connections

Best Day of My Life

            One of the best days of my life was when I had my first born daughter Natalia. I had always wanted to have a child since the age of seventeen. I remember yearning to have a little baby cradled in my arms, and to have it look back at me, ever so lovingly. Yet, it was seven years after that first maternal instinct kicked in, that I decided that I was truly ready to have a child.

            I was “fortunate” to have the healthy symptoms; feeling nauseous all day, sleepiness to no end, oh and yes the constant throwing-up at all hours of the day. The doctor told me it was the hormones in my body telling me that the baby was healthy. I could’ve been told in some other way, a minor headache here or there or longer nails, healthy appetite, even larger breasts. All would have been very welcomed, all except the vomiting.

            Nine months after the fact of being miserable all-day-everyday, I was scheduled to have a c-section, due to my baby being breech. It was a cold November morning; it had snowed the week earlier, so snow still covered the ground. I was all ready to go; I had everything packed in my miniature suitcase. As I left the front door of my house, I remember feeling very anxious, and nervous and tired. I hadn’t much slept the night before, because I kept thinking about “D” day. It was a ride I had done hundreds of times before, it only took about 30 minutes to get to the hospital, but with my ex-husband it took only 15 minutes, yet it felt like 5 minutes. Before I knew it we were in the hospital filling out some last minute paperwork. My heart pounded so hard, that I felt as if though it was going to pop out of my chest, my hands were sweaty, my throat was dry and I had shivers going all down my spine. I said to myself that I wasn’t ready, that I wasn’t feeling well that day, that perhaps we should wait a day or two. I confided these thoughts to my then husband, and said “Maybe we should come back tomorrow instead?” He looked at me for a split second and simply replied “no.” Automatically, I thought “darn it, I thought he would he was going to say okay!”

            It was now or never. I got hooked up to the IV, an hour later I received a shot to numb the entire bottom half of my body and then when it finally kicked in, away we went to the operating room. I remember seeing nothing but white lights, and felt ever so cold…didn’t they carry blankets in this place? If I had thought that my chest was pounding before, that was surely nothing compared to that very moment!

Doctors were all around me, as well as nurses, and my husband was there at my side too. I felt suddenly a tugging sensation, and I felt as though I was being rocked back and forth, I couldn’t see anything because a sheet was covering the view of my stomach. Then I heard a loud shriek, it was my baby girls first cry! Just then, I felt my heart stop! That was until the face of my little Natalia. She was so little, her eyes were still shut, and she was covered in a blanket and carried a pink little hat on her small head. She was beautiful; it was love at first sight!

My daughter weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 21 inches. She had a full set of thin, soft black hair and she smelled…well, like a baby. Four years later, I had another best day of my life…the day my youngest daughter Abigail was born.

Vocabulary

yearning: an instance of such longing.

fortunate: having good fortune; receiving good from uncertain or unexpected sources; lucky.

nauseous: causing nausea; sickening; nauseating.

hormones: A chemical substance secreted by an endocrine gland or group of endocrine cells that acts to control or regulatespecific physiological processes, including growth,metabolism, and reproduction.

breech: a baby whose buttocks or feet are presented first during the birth process.

shivers: to shake or tremble with cold, fear, excitement, etc.

automatically: occurring spontaneously.

IV: an intravenous device for delivering electrolyte solutions,medicines, and nutrients.

shriek: a loud, sharp, shrill cry.

Vocabulary Exercise:

Great game to practice your vocabulary with the class!!!

Vocab Pyramid:

Put however the eight vocab words in a pyramid and number the pyramid blocks. Students are set up in pods so they go up four at a time (two guess, while the other 2 describe). They start with block one and begin making attempts to get their teammates to say the correct word by giving them clues (definitions or words related to). Once they get a block correct they move to the next block. They get 1 minute and 30 seconds to get as many as possible (that's with an 8 word vocab list). They are permitted to pass a word if they get stuck and they can come back to it.

Hope you enjoy playing!

For more vocabulary ideas visit:

http://www.proteacher.org/c/694_Vocabulary_Lesson_Ideas.html

Grammar Point

An article is a kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some information about a noun. There are only two articles a and the, but they are used very often and are important for using English accurately.

The word a (which becomes an when the next word begins with a vowel - a, e, i, o, u) is called the indefinite article because the noun it goes with is indefinite or general. The meaning of the article a is similar to the number one, but one is stronger and gives more emphasis. It is possible to say I have a book or I have one book, but the second sententence emphasizes that I do not have two or three or some other number of books.

The word the is known as the definite article and indicates a specific thing. The difference between the sentences I sat on a chair and I sat on the chair is that the second sentence refers to a particular, specific chair, not just any chair.

Many nouns, especially singular forms of countable nouns which you will learn about later, must have an article. In English, it is not possible to say I sat on chair without an article, but a demonstrative or possessive adjective can be used instead of an article as in the sentences I sat on that chair and I sat on his chair.

For More rules on Grammar visit: http://eslus.com/LESSONS/GRAMMAR/POS/pos9.htm

Grammar Exercise

Fill in the article >a<, >an< or >the< where necessary. Choose >x< where no article is used.

1) I like blue T-shirt over there better than red one.
2) Their car does 150 miles hour.
3) Where's USB drive I lent you last week?
4) Do you still live in Bristol?
5) Is your mother working in old office building?
6) Carol's father works as electrician.
7) The tomatoes are 99 pence kilo.
8) What do you usually have for breakfast?
9) Ben has terrible headache.
10) After this tour you have whole afternoon free to explore the city. For More exercises or other grammar points visit: http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/nouns_articles/a_the.htm