Week 39 and lots more snow

I’ve moved from my regular belly-watch backdrop for this week’s shot. Here I am in the front yard this morning, with Joe’s truck and lots of snow behind me. It’s so deep!

Our poor magnolia tree was completely bowed down this morning (since it’s an evergreen, its giant leaves were acting as saucers to hold on to the snow). Joe went at it with a broom to rescue it:

I took these pictures yesterday when the snow wasn’t quite so deep. Here’s our sedum and nandinas:

And a closeup of the smoke tree:

Mostly I’ve been at home for the past five days. I didn’t make it to half the appointments I listed on my last belly watch update, due to the road conditions. I have a renewed respect for the businesses within walking distance: the Hilltop Safeway (we spent more money there yesterday than ever before, in an attempt to keep our fridge and cupboards stocked in case birth is imminent), Le-Le (old standby of Thai-Vietnamese delicacies), Johnson’s Candy (the most cutest chocolate and candy store on earth), and the Hilltop post office (where I have become re-acquainted with the grumpy counter man while mailing Christmas packages the last few days). It’s been great to get out and walk, especially because it hasn’t been that cold (low 30’s) but sometimes it feels just as dangerous as driving, because no one has snow shovels to clear the sidewalks.

I ran across a guy trying to clear his sidewalk with a window squeegee on Friday. He said “I don’t think I have the right tool!” and then cracked up. He asked me if I was having a boy or a girl, and when I said girl, he said “bless your heart!” A little later on, a younger guy actually said to me, “what’s happening, shawty?” I thought people only said that in songs they play on KUBE, so I was pretty amused and started laughing.

We’ve gotten lots of projects done around the house in our semi-trapped state. I keep wondering if we’re officially nesting (and whether each nesting project I take on is due to the burst of energy one experiences at the beginning of labor). As I look back on one of yesterday’s projects, soaking our kitchen blinds in the bathtub to clean them, I’m pretty sure I can chalk that up to hormone-induced nesting.

Another project involved Joe venturing under the house to check out the pipes, because our “new” washing machine was doing the same thing as the broken one: attempting to turn on, but not getting any water. He put a space heater under the house, and it cleared up right away. Guess we need to insulate those pipes in case we ever stay below freezing for seven nights in a row again. For now, I miss having the space heater in our bedroom.