A Sea of Popsicle Sticks

I'm writing this post while eating a popsicle. I've had mad cravings for popsicles for several weeks now. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that I'm missing my margaritas like you wouldn't believe. Frozen fruity goodness.

Laura emailed and is going to be home earlier than expected. Since November, she's been in the Mexican Riviera and down to Panama. Currently, she's on the Hawaii/South Pacific route. She just spent 4 days in Hawaiian ports and was able to call me several times. She spent her 28th birthday crossing the Equator. She said the ship's captain gave her a nice card and invited her to lunch. Later that night, they had a birthday party for her in the Officer's Bar. The ship is now enroute to Tahiti, French Polynesia and Marquesas. She has a great eye for photography so I asked her to get me some good shots that I can have blown up for my bedroom!

Anyway, they are doing some shuffling around of the crew on her ship, and when she returns to San Diego on Feb 5, she will fly home for a couple of weeks rather than return to Mexico. She'll then be in the Caribbean Feb 17-April 13. She made this arrangement so she'd be home in time for the baby's arrival. This means so much to me. She's the only aunt so it will be special for her to be there.

Speaking of the baby, he's definitely getting stronger because Chris was finally able to feel the movement a couple nights ago. I've felt a couple of big kicks tonight. Chris and I have had a rare 4 days off together so we decided to start a registry. We attempted this feat a couple weeks ago but I started to panic a little! Thankfully we went to a squad party and I was able to pepper a few of the wives with every question I could think of, and I learned a lot. Plus, Dawn bought me a great book on baby products which is my new Bible, so when we went to the store a few nights ago, I felt much better. We even (tentatively) picked out a stroller and car seat, the two things we were most dreading! We changed the theme/colors of the room which surprised us both, but we're happy with what we're going to do.

Mentioning that squad party reminded me of something...one of the guys in the squad brought the PBT for measuring blood-alcohol levels, and it was the hit of the party. Just thought you'd all like to know what your police officers are doing on their time off :)