So, to expand my children's understanding of the human body, I made a trip to the Wampler's Sausage Factory. I thought I would stop by and pick up a couple of pig hearts. Yep. Pig hearts.
At the factory, this was my conversation with the receptionist at the Sausage Plant:
Me: Excuse me, Ma'am. I thought I would stop by and see if you might have some pig hearts I could purchase for a class that I teach to homeschoolers. We're learning about the human body, and the kids would love to see a real heart.
Receptionist: (Now, remember I do live in Tennessee.) Well, I think they just shut down the "Kill Floor," but I'll see if I can get 'cha one.
Me: Oh, that would be great. (I think!!!!)
The receptionist then tracks down a kind gentleman to help me. He arrives in the office in his work attire. (I would describe it, but I'm afraid I'd lose most of my readers!) This sweet man says he will "find some hearts for me in the barrels."
This kind gentleman arrives back in the office with a clear plastic garbage bag full of some kind of meat and quite a bit of liquid...ummmm...blood. As he hands me the bag, he says, "I got 'cha two hearts. We had plenty. Now, these ain't been dead very long. They're still warm."
Warm pig hearts? Oh, oh, oh my gosh! Uhhh....Once the world stopped spinning, I was able to focus and walk back out to the van to head home.
Our vehicle was full of extra children, so Franklin had to hold the warm pig hearts on his lap for the 30 minute drive home. I think he secretly thought it was "neat."
Fast Forward...
I took one of the the hearts to my Human Body Class (next blog entry). I kept one at home because Mason is not in my class, and he really wanted to see it. We spent an afternoon on the driveway learning about this amazing organ!
Rhonda, Kaitlin, and Jake came over to assist with the science lesson. We examined the whole heart, talked about the parts and their functions.
The kids stuck their fingers into the pulmonary artery. Isn't it lovely?
We realized that we were not able to view the ventricles or atriums, by only examining the outside of the heart. It was Robin to the rescue! Wha-ha-ha! I grabbed our electric knife and cut the heart in half. Yes, I did. Uh-huh! Oh, yeah! (Does this picture look like I am enjoying this? What has happened to me? Oh my goodness!)
Rhonda - who loves all of our driveway science lessons - helped the kids find the right and left atriums, and the right and left ventricles. 
Here you go...now you can see for yourself.
The boys (and Rhonda and Kaitlin!) thought the pig's heart was "very cool!" They took it down to our neighbor's house. (And, I let them! What was I thinking?) I had to share this picture to show you our neighbor's face!?!
I'm quite sure there were some people reading this entry making the same faces!I probably should have started this blog entry with a caution, "Viewer Discretion Advised."
Sorry if I grossed you out! However, if you know me, you know I would find some humor in that fact! Ha-ha!
3 comments:
Ok - So after I picked myself off the floor from laughter, I became completely grossed out. Ansley would have LOVED it. She is certainly smiling! Still warm, huh? Boy, that's some good eatin' there in Tennessee. The kill floor - what great blog fodder!
Nice look to the blog. I gotta get working on mine.
First of all, you enlarged the photo of me as a JCPenny model....thanks! Second of all, all this pig heart and blood stuff from someone who couldn't even bandage her own husbands armpits! Come on.......you are kidding me! You grossed me out, and that is hard to do my friend!
um.....thanks for the lesson?!
haha, pretty funny actually, and YES, you managed to gross me out, too. Thanks!
I like your new blog look, too!
B.
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