Oh my achin' back!

Well, I finally did it... I threw out my back. It's been a very grim last few days here in the Nelson house while Jared has taken over the roles of Mr. Mom, Nurse, and Physical Therapist. He's been wonderful, but I must admit I haven't been the easiest "patient" at times. It's funny how the pain and near paralysis aren't nearly as bad as the feeling inside of having totally let down my family! I have had a hard time just letting go and letting others do for me, but in the end I know that it's the best to get me back to normal as soon as possible. We have been SO thankful for all of our friends here that have rushed to our sides with meals, groceries, company, and babysitting. It really dazzles me how everyone has been so willing to drop everything in my time of need. What a blessing!

Since I am still not able lift much, or walk for that matter, we decided that it would be best if Ruby spent the day with Claire and Carter. Although it was a bit rough on all of us to get out the door bright and early this morning, I'm sure that she'll have much more fun there than she would with a "Bum Mommy". To make things a bit more interesting it's finally decided to snow after weeks of rain, so it will be interesting to see how Jared fairs pushing/pulling/carrying the stroller through the drifts tonight! I'm sure glad it's not me!

On to other topics, last weekend we went ice skating at Kongens Nytorv in the city. They have several of these public skating rinks where you can skate for free. The only drawback is that since the weather had been so warm the ice was quite wet. This is, of course, primarily a problem if you fall! Jared stayed on his feet the whole time (thankfully!), though I did have one lady wipe out right in front of me. As much as I tried to halp her up, I think I just made things worse--spinning her around in the muddy puddles at the edge of the ice. She did seem appreciative of my efforts though! I didn't risk it skating this year with how sore my hips and back were already feeling and stayed on the side-lines cheering on Jared and Ruby. Ruby thought that "shoe-skating" was pretty fun, but I think that she liked being whisked around the rink in Jared's arms even more.

This week, however, the temperatures are finally dipping to around zero (Celcius), so maybe the rinks will finally get hard. We were happy to find that the skate rental place did have skates to fit Jared's size 15s, so we'll have to go again on a sunny day. Maybe this time we can convince some of our friends to go with us...


I suppose I'll leave you with this self-portrait of my growing belly. This was taken last week (29 weeks along) and isn't exactly the most flattering shot, but I feel like I have to post a few of these just to remind myself how big I get while I'm pregnant! (Not to mention all those lovely stretch marks!)