today

Big fat flakes of snow cover up the driveway we've already gone over once. It's a beautifully white Sunday morning.

A year ago I was counting down the days until I left to see Rew in Jerusalem. And now? Just wondering when this baby of ours will arrive. There's no counting down of days because he could come in five days or twenty. So there's no counting. But there is a lot of excitement and bewilderment; sometimes I still can't believe it's really happening--I'm going to be a mom. Wow.

I got to see some lovely friends yesterday--all friends because of our Russian speaking missions. It was fun to be with them and talk with them. They all gave us wonderful gifts for Baby. We've been so spoiled by people giving us gifts.

I started off yesterday with a nice solo walk. Well, it was solo for the first ten minutes. After completing a hill before some flat and down, I gave Si a ring. She was in DC and en route to taking Eli to the playground. We talked about our Thanksgivings, among other things. I got to hear Eli say, "Thomas." He's in love with trains and knows all the names of the train characters associated with Thomas the Tank. It makes me wonder what our little one will fancy.

Well, that's all for now. Happy snowy Sabbath!

pictures

Just going over some photos to print and album away before we truly go snap happy with Baby's arrival. These are some of my favorites:

Akko, Israel

Caesarea, Israel

Jerusalem Zoo

happy because

• It's the first Friday in a month and a half that Andrew and I don't have birthing class. Not that we hated it. It just meant we didn't have Fridays free for a while.
• Josh is a cutie still. I got him off to school this morning because my mom's off traveling with the team and my dad had early meetings. Josh hugged me before hopping on his bike. I said, "Be safe." His reply? "I love you." What 12 year old boy still tells his sister he loves her? Just a perfect way to start the day.
• Waffles are yummy. That's what Josh and I had for breakfast.
• Now it's lunchtime. Yay! Time for some leftovers.

Happy weekend!

books

So I bought some books. Two of them are for book group nights coming up and one I've wanted to read for a while now. I splurged so I could mark them up if I wanted and I won't have to worry about returning them to the library. My hope is I'll manage to master nursing well enough to be able to read at the same time, so that's another reason. I hope they're good reads. We'll see. Anyway, here are them books:

Crossing to Safety
by Wallace Stegner

The Space Between Us
by Thrity Umrigar

The Help
by Kathryn Stockett

Images taken from here, here, and here.

nothing to write?

I feel like my days are very much the same with not much variation and so I find myself not writing much. I don't like that. I need to write more because it helps me relax, helps me figure things out, and helps me observe better.

Coaching is going well. I'm ever more impressed with my mom and the way she handles things on deck. She certainly is a pro. We had to settle a scuffle between a couple swimmers yesterday and everything she said was right on. I can't go into details, but I stood there all frozen, not knowing what to say to help the situation. I looked to Marmee and she said all the perfect things that needed to be said. She amazes me.

I'm trying to find flatter and flatter morning walks because the uphill and the downhill aren't very kind to my hips and to my gravity's center. I think it was Tuesday morning when I went and it was still dark enough to see Orion and the dark side of the moon. It was a delicious morning.

35 weeks. We're almost there. I'm starting to pop out of my maternity clothes. We think we have Baby's name, but still want to meet him before we proclaim it to the world. It is one of the ones I listed on our family blog, though, if you really are that curious.

I miss my bike and hope that the beginning of 2011 has some warm days that will let me venture out a few times to try and find my biking muscles again. I also miss the pool. I haven't gone swimming for 3-4 weeks; for some reason swimming made my hips hurt more than walking does. But I'm not complaining. The walking is good. I just miss those things and look forward to enjoying them again when it's the proper season to enjoy them. Now is my season of softness.

I was going to put up pictures from Halloween, but I don't see where they've been saved on here and Andrew's still snoozing, so that'll have to come later.

Happy November! Last full month before we meet Baby Smith!