Alaska Update.

It is so fun to have such a handy husband that when he says, "I want to make you a crib," it actually comes out pretty awesome! I love it! We are still working on getting the rest of the room put together so keep an eye out for more photos in the next few weeks. Speaking of weeks, I am in the single digit countdown with about 7 weeks to go. I have no doubt that she is growing strong and healthy because each day I feel like my belly gets bigger and bigger and she can pack quite a punch when she wants to. I'm finding the most difficult things to do are finding a comfortable sleeping position, getting off the couch and surprisingly leaning over the bathroom sink to try to wash my face. Steve has even had to tie my shoes a few times. He is a good husband.

Last week we took the 9 hour birthing class and now I'm not sure if I feel more comfortable about the whole delivery process or more scared. Luckily, our teacher avoided talking about how painful it is and focused on pain management techniques - including the nice big bath tub at the hospital you can get into, and encouraging back and feet massages from the husband. Later Steve said delivering a baby didn't sound too bad, kind-of like a day at the spa. Humm...perhaps our teacher should have been a little more direct about the reality of labor.

We are getting about 14 and a half hours of daylight now and it is sunny more often than overcast. It is so nice! We still have lost of snow still but it is slowly melting away in the 40 degree weather. I think I can finally put my down jacket away in the closet...it stopped zipping up a long time ago anyway.

With the melting of the snow, we get lots of slush and slippery surfaces. The grocery store parking lot is a layer of gravely, uneven asphalt, covered by a layer of uneven ice, covered by a few inches of slush mixed with gravel, spotted by large puddles of water...it is like an Olympic event trying to push a cart of groceries through it. I usually pick my parking spot not by proximity to the front door but to where the easiest path might be to get a cart through. At least I get my exercise in!