Shiver

Did you think my weekend silence might have indicated labor and delivery? Wrong!

It hasn't been all thumb twiddling, though. We did have an ice storm on Friday night. Ellie and I went to lunch with Paul at his office's cafeteria (they make individual pizzas on Fridays) and during the 45 minutes we were inside, the temperature fell from 60 to about 40. Overnight it continued to rain and get colder, so we awoke on Saturday to a fantastic wonderland, all the trees perfectly encased in gleaming ice, all the flags frozen stiffly in place.

Ellie enjoyed throwing the ice to watch it shatter on the driveway, brushing her unmittened hand against the frozen evergreens, and splashing in the puddles. It's been especially lovely because the ground hasn't frozen so it's not treacherous to get around. Branches and entire trees are falling everywhere, though. We've lost several branches from our trees, and lost power for a few hours yesterday. We are among the lucky ones; 60% of our suburb was without power this morning.

Paul and I often claim that there's not enough cold and snow around here, but it's also true that the beautiful ice storm we get nearly every January is a stunningly impressive part of the weather here that's much less common where we're each from.

So. Under 13 hours until my doctor comes back on duty. I'm thinking I can make it, given my lack of progress over the weekend.

At church this morning, everyone was surprised to see me. The woman who usually sits in the pew behind us has been asking me "how many weeks do you have left?" since my 20th week. Last week she commented on my plaid jumper, and this week she just looked at me and threw up her hands. I used to be annoyed by this; now I think it's funny. Really, without a sense of humor, what do I have?

I'll be laughing especially hard when I deliver a 7 pound baby instead of the 10 pounder that everyone seems to be expecting.