Snow snow snow!

The weather here has been totally crazy for the last few days. Snow had been predicted from last week but I don't think anyone guessed we could get as much as this! I woke up yesterday morning and everything was white but the roads seemed to be okay so I decided to head into work in the city normally. As I'm sure I have mentioned before we live a bit out of the city and have to drive 20 to 30 minutes into Yamaguchi city. There are two main ways we can go and one has quite a high mountain to go over so I decided to avoid it and take the other route yesterday. The roads or should I say drivers were crazy though! So many people have taken their winter tyres off as I guess they didn't expect anymore snow so cars we slipping all around the road and others couldn't get their cars up the mountain. I was supposed to teach at Liam's daycare at 10:30 but we didn't arrive until 11:10 so that was cancelled. I didn't have to teach again until 1 so went to get my haircut and then headed to school. I was five minutes from school when I got a phone call saying that classes had been cancelled for the afternoon because of the snow. It had been snowing all morning and there was talk of 30cm accumulating. I was supposed to teach a private class later in the afternoon but decided to cancel it and head home when we could.

So I picked up Liam from daycare and after talking with Ryuji decided to take a round about way home that didn't involve going up or down any big mountains. It turned out to be the drive from hell though. We got within about half an hour of being home and there were trees and branches all over the road and basically just enough room for one car to go through. Then the road was closed as trees had fallen down. Ryuji had left work early and just got through before I did. He told me about another road I could take which I did but was totally freaked out. It was so narrow and I had to drive under half fallen down trees and bash through branches. There was a car behind me which was reassuring as I could just imagine us being stuck in the snow, in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone range or something. We made it out though and thankfully got home in one piece. Liam and I were both mentally drained. He didn't even want to play and requested to just sit quietly and do his Leapster. Very strange for him!

So today there is still snow everywhere! It has been quite sunny so I expected it to melt but I think the sheer amount of it has stopped that happening. We have lived here for 4 years but I have never seen so much snow. Crazy considering it's March! We haven't had to leave the house today though which was a relief. I usually have school on Thursdays but the students had exams today and my private student who I teach in the morning emailed me last night to say not to risk coming in. Liam was of course dying to go out and play in the snow so I let him go out into our backyard while I watched him from inside. I teach 3 classes from home on Thursday afternoons and only 3 out of 12 students ended up showing up. Liam usually goes to Ryuji's parent's house but as I knew so many kids were going to be away he just stayed with me. Only one girl showed up to the second class and as she is only a year older than Liam I let him join the class. He was a bit of a show off but otherwise it worked pretty well. I was then expecting just two students to come to the last class but they cancelled at the last minute so I could finish an hour early. One good thing about the snow I guess.

It's supposed to be sunny and quite warm tomorrow so I hope that means the rest of the snow will disappear. I am so so over it. We don't have to leave home until about midday so fingers crossed the roads will be snow and ice free by then. I am off to lunch with a woman to talk about an interpreting job I am supposed to be doing next Friday. I don't really know the details yet but it's apparently for a group of doctors who are visiting and will be doing some sightseeing around the area. It had only better be sightseeing as there is no way I can interpret medical terms. It's from 9 to 4 and the pay is 30,000 yen which makes it very appealing. The extra cash will definitely come in handy once baby arrives and we will be living on one salary. I am actually quite stressed about our finances as we definitely use much more money than Ryuji's salary every month. We have savings which we will use but it still scares me when I think about it too much.

I was 34 weeks yesterday so only 6 weeks to go until my due date. It still seems like ages away though and I'm sure the time is going to drag by. I am actually feeling really good though. I am sleeping much better than I was a few weeks ago and the heartburn has gone away for now. I don't seem to be getting that much bigger either so am not finding it that uncomfortable to move around. We are pretty much organised with baby stuff. We bought a car seat last weekend and I have ordered a sling online which should arrive soon. I want the cot to be put up around the end of March and then I think we will basically be set. I still haven't got the list of stuff I need for my hospital stay though so I had better get that soon.

Anyway, hub will be home soon so I had better go and get the last of dinner organised.