May 17 & 18

Saturday, May 17th

Sadly, we had to leave our nice room at the Embassy Suites (and the free breakfast bar) and move to the much cheaper room at the Royal Garden. Don't be fooled by pictures on their website--yes, the foyer is gorgeous, but the rest of the place is crappy. It looks like at some point it was a very nice hotel, but that was maybe 30 years ago. Maybe.

However, it did have a king-sized bed, and the hotel staff found a microwave to put in our room (thank heaven, or we would have starved). We stocked up on frozen dinners/pizzas at Wal-Mart so that we wouldn't have to eat out. I never want to see that alfredo again. Neither does the baby.

Sunday, May 18th

Since we ditched church the week before due to not having a car, not having our luggage with our church clothes, or knowing where the building was, we decided to go. We still didn't have a car, so it was a bit of a walk. Almost two miles. And there was not a breeze. My tolerance for heat is naturally low, so add pregnancy on top of that and you have a very grumpy Megan. The first thing I did when we got there was to run into the restroom and sponge myself off with a damp paper towel. I informed Jon as we walked toward the chapel that if it wasn't air conditioned, we were leaving. Thankfully, it was, but I still didn't sing, move, or let Jon touch me until sacrament meeting was halfway through.

We took some pictures at the church because we found it intriguing. First of all, this wasn't a normal building. It was more like a compound. You walked outside to get from one place to another. Secondly, we were fascinated by the Jesus mural on the chapel. Jon thought it seemed more Latin than Hawaiian. Third, it had beautiful grounds--more like a temple than a stake center.

The walk home wasn't as bad, though I did plop myself directly in front of the AC unit in our room for quite a while. We spent the afternoon sitting in the shade near the beach, enjoying the gorgeous view of the water.

That evening, I convinced Jon to walk down to Waikiki Beach to watch a free hula show and traditional torch lighting. Conveniently, this coincided with a lovely sunset on the beach (still not as beautiful as the ones in Arizona, though). We didn't have a very good view of the dancers, but it was still fun to watch. Especially the little girls. The old women weren't nearly as cute. I was kind of ticked off that they didn't get around to lighting the torches while we were there.

We did get some nice pictures by the beach, including (SHOCK) a shot of us together NOT taken by me. And Jon got soaked by a wave right before we left, which was always enjoyable. A very nice, relaxing Sunday overall.

The Birthday Celebrations

First of all, I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone who remembered our birthdays. We really (me especially) appreciated your gifts, cards, phone calls, and messages. It's kind of hard to really celebrate when no one in the state knows it's your birthday, so it was so nice to know that people still love us enough to remember our birthdays even though we (in some cases) haven't seen them in years. Seriously--you're awesome.

May 28th--Meg's 23rd Birthday
Jon & I aren't really big into celebrations, but I still try to make our birthdays special. I celebrated being 23 by making myself some cinnamon struesel muffins for breakfast, which immediately sent the baby into kick-boxing mode due to a high sugar content. But it was my birthday, so I ate two anyway. Sorry baby.

I then took a celebratory 2 hour birthday nap, woke up, and then proceeded to NOT shower, nor remove my pajamas. All day long. Not my original plan, but whatever. I spent most of the day catching up with friends I hadn't talked to in ages, and making my birthday "cake"--strawberry crepes.

Around 3 pm there was a knock at the door, and Joyce, my co-Activity Days/Primary teacher was at the door with a strawberry pie for me (can you tell we picked strawberries for our last activity?). Luckily she didn't mind that I was totally disgusting. It was my birthday, after all. I was actually really touched that she would think to do that for me, since I tend to make a point of not announcing my birthday to anyone. Plus, now I had something to stick candles in (although I was trying to figure out how to put candles on crepes).

Since we designated our second week in Hawaii as our birthday presents, we had a really low-key evening. I cooked a yummy dinner, blew out my candles, and spent the evening on the phone. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy my birthday massage from Jon.

May 29th--Jon's 26th Birthday
As much as I didn't want to, I got up in time to have blueberry muffins ready for Jon's breakfast. I sent him off to work with 3/4 of a strawberry pie and a bunch of crepes (they were having a work meeting and had to provide nourishment. No way we were going to eat all of that).

To celebrate Jon's birthday, I DID shower and get dressed. I even did my hair and makeup. My plan was to surprise him by having the bedroom and upstairs hallway all cleared out (they were full of Hawaii/moving stuff), but he walked in the door just as I was finishing up the hallway.

He got his requested Chicken Parmesan for dinner, and a chocolate pudding pie I made for dessert. Sadly, the pie wasn't exactly what he wanted. He would have been happy if I had just plopped a bowl of chocolate pudding down in front of him, but I had insisted that it had to be in a pie so we could put candles on it. Oh well, lesson learned. Anyone want some pie?

We celebrated his birthday by going to bed early (Jon's favorite activity).

Funny story about Jon's birthday present: Back in March, I asked him what he wanted, and he told me he'd like the Starcraft Expansion--Brood Wars. So I sat right down and ordered it off Half.com before I forgot entirely. A week or so later, he asked me what this strange package was that came in the mail. I (stupidly) told him it was probably his birthday present, at which point he RUNS into the bedroom, LOCKS the door, and HIDES the CD. The punk! Lucky for him, I gave in and let him keep it. So he's been playing with his birthday present for two full months now (and has almost beaten it). He still thinks he's pretty clever for that stunt.

And there you have it. We had a nice, relaxing couple of birthdays. I'll finish with my thoughts on turning 23, since I know you're all dying to hear them. First of all, 23 sounds significantly older than 22. This is nice when people (noting my belly) ask me how old I am. And no, I am not a teenager, thank you very much. Secondly, life is just interesting. Did I ever think that at 23 I'd be married, own a house, and have a baby on the way? No. Maybe I'd be married, or engaged, but not having a kid! Am I happy with the way things have turned out? Absolutely. It just makes me glad that Heavenly Father knows what we need so much better than we do. So here we go! Year #24...

Ode to Jon

Despite the title, I'm not really going to write a poem about Jon. My brain is just not up to it at the moment.

Today my fabulous husband turns 26. As he noted, this now puts him closer to 30 than to 20 (which actually kind of freaked me out). For his birthday I managed to drag myself out of bed in time to have blueberry muffins ready for breakfast. Thank you, Jiffy Muffin Mix. For dinner tonight he has requested Chicken Parmesan with a chocolate pudding pie for dessert. He also gets to open the birthday present my parents sent us--a real thrill considering we already know what it is (a video camera! YAY!!!).
In honor of today, here are 26 things I love about Jon:

1.) He gives fabulous massages. I would have married him for that alone.
2.) His fro.
3.) He does the dishes and sweeps the floor when it gets too gross for his taste.
4.) He's smart. As in "I teach myself programming languages for fun at work" smart.
5.) He bought me this beautiful house and doesn't whine (too much) that it's still not unpacked.
6.) The way he looks in his glasses.
7.) If he's sleeping in, he'll completely cover himself with the sheet to block out the sun. I'll walk in the room and find this Jon mummy asleep in the bed.
8.) He's brought a snack to sacrament meeting for me every week since I've been pregnant.
9.) He loves his family and always has such a good time with them.
10.) He loves MY family and puts up with all my sisters (and the animals, though only grudgingly).
11.) He takes me out to eat even when it's not date night if I whine loudly enough.
12.) I told him that the baby could hear voices now, so every once in awhile he'll bend down close to my belly and say, "HI BABY" in this really, really deep voice.
13.) He's so excited to be a dad, and he's going to be a great one.
14.) He'll stay up past his bedtime just to answer a question I'd been pondering about.
15.) When he comes home, he always gives me a kiss and a hug, and then pops my back. It's wonderful.
16.) He pretty much hates all the books I like, but sometimes he'll try to read them anyway. If he's bored.
17.) He tries to teach me how to use Excel properly and how to mess with the HTML on my blog.
18.) He looks really good in green. And blue. And dark red.
19.) He has a great laugh, so I don't even mind when he's laughing at me. Like when I couldn't remember what the third religion was that thinks Jerusalem is the Holy City. Believe it or not, I got Christians and Muslims and then drew a blank. He laughed at me for 20 minutes before he answered me.
20.) He introduced me to MST3K. Specifically, "Future War".
21.) If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he'll cover up my toes so I don't get cold.
22.) He's a fabulous teacher and basically writes my Primary lessons for me every week.
23.) The first time they see him, little kids are terrified of him. The next time they see him, they won't leave him alone.
24.) He thinks my fat belly is cute. And laugh-out-loud funny.
25.) He's my best friend. Ever.
26.) Remember those stupid lists they made you write in Young Women? "What I Want in my Future Husband"? It still amazes me that I got EVERYTHING on that list, plus so much more.

Happy Birthday, Jonny. I love you.

May 15-16

Jon's workload decreased significantly once the part broke. He went to the barracks for three hours on Thursday (15th), and not at all on Friday (16th). I was thrilled to pieces, because that meant he got to hang out with me!

These crabs were all along the pier on Waikiki. I actually found them quite disgusting--like giant, black spiders.

Since Jon didn't have to go into work on Friday, we figured it was the perfect day to hike Diamond Head. If you look at the mountains on the right side of this picture, Diamond Head is the crater you can see sticking up. We were warned in advance that there was basically no shade on the hike, so we decided to get an early start.

As in a 4:30 am early start. Granted, this is 10:30 am Maryland time, but it still felt early. We were out the door by 5:30 am to begin the 3.5 mile walk TO THE TRAILHEAD. That's right--we walked almost four miles just so we could hike a 1.6 mile trail. And, of course, it was slightly uphill the entire way.

We reached the trailhead at 6:30 am and began the .8 mile hike to the top. Luckily there was some sort of wind tunnel going through the crater or I would have died from the heat. Well, actually, it was the humidity that really got me. It may only have been 85 degrees out there, but it felt a LOT hotter than that.

The hike itself wasn't too bad, although I did have to take a few breaks (I was almost 31 weeks pregnant--cut me some slack). The switchbacks, while obnoxious, didn't really get to me. And then I saw these:

74 stairs.

(I took this picture on the way down, in case you're confused as to why we were walking DOWN stairs). This baby hates stairs. He likes to set me off into Braxton-Hicks contractions if I even think about walking up stairs. But hey, he needs to be toughened up, right? So up we went.

At the top of the stairs was a tunnel. I love tunnels. Not only do they block out the sun, they also have this fabulous breeze going through them. I took my precious time walking through it. It ended all too soon, letting us out at the base of these:99 stairs.

Straight up. Lucky for me, they had a rest area at the bottom of the stairs where fat girls like me could sit and contemplate how we could get our husbands to carry us up to the top. No such luck. I finally got up the courage to do it, and made it up without a single break (although the toddler behind me was riding my heels by the time we made it to the top).

As a final test of willpower, the trail then takes you to a set of spiral stairs. You stand at the bottom, silently (or not) curse, and start going up, only to realize that the stairs are blocked off 1/3 the way up. Instead of going all the way up, you turn around and realize you're practically at the end.

Sadly for all of you, I don't have a picture of me or Jon attempting to make it through the crawlspace that leads to the top. Picture this: Diamond Head was once used as a military installation. The peak, where we now were, was a sort of bunker. People in bunkers don't want to get hit by artillery, so they have small spaces to crawl in and out of. As in 3.5 feet off the ground, and about 2 feet high. Now imagine me, with a 31 week pregnant belly, crawling through this hole. Like I said, it's just too bad for all of you that I don't have pictures.

We were actually kind of disappointed by the view at the top. We happened to pick a day with bad vog (volcano haze), so we didn't get the spectacular view we anticipated. There were still some good shots, but we couldn't see clear across the island. By the way, you are all extremely lucky to be seeing this picture. I look absolutely disgusting, but I wanted to prove that I did it.

The way down was much easier (minus the part where I had to crawl back INTO the crawlspace). As a testament to my continuing pregnancy stupidity, Jon noticed that I no longer had my visor or sunglasses. I, of course, had absolutely no memory of taking them off or putting them down anywhere. We checked every possible place I could have left them, but to no avail. I can only hope someone out there is now enjoying my sweaty visor and glasses as much as I did.

We booked it back home (okay, not really--the baby was letting me know he wasn't pleased with me) and made it to the hotel just before the breakfast bar closed. Let me tell you--this breakfast bar is the sole reason I gained 9 pounds in the last 5 weeks. All you can eat, every morning from 6:30 am to 10 am. I went twice daily--once at 6:30, once at 9:30. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, muffins, danishes, fruit (the pineapple was AMAZING), bagels, and made-to-order omelets. How we missed that breakfast bar when we went to our other hotel.

After the hike, I managed to get Jon down to the beach, which is a much harder task than one would expect. The water felt fabulous on our feet, and we managed to escape with only slight sunburns, thanks to the purchase of an $8 beach umbrella at Wal-Mart. Needless to say, we slept REALLY well that night. Good thing, too, as it was our last night in our nice hotel. Let's just say that I didn't sleep that well again until we got home.

More to come. I'll leave you with a picture of these sweet trees that were all over the place. If only pregnant ladies were better tree-climbers...

We're Back...

...and still jet-lagged. Six hours is a big difference in time zones, not to mention the fact that we were at one airport or another for 24 straight hours. Note to self: never fly across the country in your third trimester, EVER AGAIN.

As our hotel only offered "free" internet if we wanted to rent a modem for $10/day, my updating was non-existent last week. Which means you will all have to suffer through it this week, and possibly next week too.

Hawaii was awesome. You should all go.

A change of plans

The whole reason we're here in Hawaii is because Jon was sent here for work. Don't ask me to explain what he's doing--chemistry was my least favorite science. Or maybe it was biology. Anyway, he's been watching the people destroy some kind of chemical weapon or something (he's going to get on here later and tell me I have it all wrong). Everything went smoothly (minus the 13 hour days that left me all alone) until Tuesday afternoon. With just 6 rounds left, something broke. No problem, right? They'll just fix it and finish on Wednesday.

So Jon shows up on Wednesday and finds out that whatever broke was something major. As in it has to be shipped to the island and won't be ready until July. Fabulous. So now the government will only pay for us to stay through Friday night. Changing flights is no problem for Jon, since they'll pay his expenses, but it was a MAJOR problem for me. Word to the wise--don't ever fly American Airlines. Ever.

After much deliberation, we had two choices. #1: Pay $700 and fly me home early, or #2 Pay $500 to get a hotel for 6 nights and stay here as tourists. Sounds like an easy choice, right? Well, it was a little more complicated since we were hoping to have some of the money from the trip left over for a sofa, and Jon would have to take vacation time that could potentially limit our time at home over the holidays. But, in the end, we decided to stay. Which means Jon will actually be able to hang out with me! Believe me--it's no fun being a tourist by yourself. Especially when you're a very obviously pregnant tourist who constantly gets strange looks from passersby.

So now we're going to be official tourists! Downside: we're going to be really cheap official tourists. No PF Chang's dinner for me. I told Jon to consider this my birthday present. What could be better than a week in Hawaii together?I swear there are some fish in this picture.

Sunday, May 11

Continuing directly from my previous post...

Sunday afternoon was fabulous. We spent the afternoon on the beach, reading and playing in the water. I felt slightly guilty for missing church, but Jon quickly pointed out that we didn't have our clothes in time for church anyway. Yay for valid excuses.

The water here is gorgeous--blue and clear (not to mention incredibly warm). After spending all my beach time in Southern California, however, I was thrown off by a few things. First, the water is extremely shallow. We were out pretty far from the beach and were still only up to our waists. Second, the waves on Waikiki are crappy. Apparently they're better on the North Shore, but the odds of us getting out there are slim (no car). Third, you have to watch your step. There are giant patches of rugged coral/rocks waiting for you to gash your foot on them. Or your toe, like Jon did. A very kid friendly beach, as Aunt Lori said (as long as you keep them away from the rocks).

Later that evening, however, we reaped the consequences of our actions. As a redhead, I've had more than my fair share of serious sunburns. As my mom pointed out before we left, the last thing I needed was to be pregnant AND burnt. Thus, I was religious about my sunscreen application. I covered myself from head to toe--literally (I put sunscreen on the part of my hair)--with SPF 45. I also wore a wifebeater over my swimsuit and a visor at all times. Jon wasn't as worried as I was, but I still made him put on sunscreen. And we both reapplied after an hour out there. Unfortunately, we missed some spots. Well, Jon missed his legs and feet entirely. These pictures don't do justice to the painful red coloring we've acquired (although you can kind of see my awesome cankles). And they were taken two days after the fact. We broke the Sabbath and bought some much-needed aloe.

Bedtime is early for us (8 pm) because Jon has to be up at 4 am and out the door by 5 am. Luckily the fan in our room drowns out the sounds of the elevator right next to our bedroom. I don't think I'm going to be happy going home to our queen-sized bed after two weeks in a king-sized.

More tomorrow. If I feel like it.

The Bad Beginning

Disclaimer: This post (and probably the next few) are for journaling purposes. Which means you don't have to read them. I skip over other bloggers' travelogues, so don't feel guilty about skipping mine.

As excited as I was to be going to Hawaii, I was less than thrilled with the prospect of flying for 11 hours (3 hours from Baltimore to Dallas, 3 hours from Dallas to LA, 5 hours from LA to Honolulu). I hate long flights anyway, but trying to do it while 7 1/2 months pregnant sounded like extra fun. And it was.

There were two factors that added significantly to my discomfort: First--seating arrangements. Unfortunately, Jon was unable to get us seats next to each other. This was not a problem on the first two flights, but the last one (the LONG one) was a different story. Second--food issues. American Airlines gives you NO snacks. Not even a bag of peanuts. You can BUY a snack (like a giant cookie) for only $3! $3 for a cookie? No way. We loaded up on snacks and figured we'd eat dinner in LA before our flight left. Hah.

I also discovered the joy of edema during this adventure. I knew the rule about getting up to walk around every hour, but our first flight had us right next to the stewardess station, so there was always a cart or a grumpy stewardess in my way. When we got off the plane, I noticed that the top of my feet were hurting (weird, I know). I looked down and saw my GIANT, SWOLLEN FEET and kind of panicked. I called my mom and was pleased to find out that no, I did not have a blood clot in my leg. I'm just a fat, pregnant lady who got up religiously every hour on the next two flights. And who still has cankles two days later.

Everything went smoothly until we were leaving Dallas. For some unknown reason, they took their precious time loading the bags on the plane. We sat on the plane for 40 minutes while ONE MAN slowly loaded the luggage. Usually delays don't bother me too much, but when you only have an hour between when you're supposed to land and when your next flight leaves, a 40 minute delay is bad news.

We landed just in time for us to board our plane to Honolulu. Which meant no food for us. We hadn't eaten anything substantial for for 8 hours, so I was very grumpy. Not to mention that my pregnancy hormones seems to be getting more intense the further along I get.

And thus began the worst flight I've ever been on. Jon & I were unable to negotiate a seat swap since we both happened to sit next to couples. That alone was enough to make me almost start bawling in public. Unfortunately, it gets worse. The couple I happened to sit next to consisted of a grumpy lady who sat by the window, and an obese older man who sat in the middle. Right next to me. And proceeded to hack up phlegm the entire flight. I sat on the edge of my seat the entire flight trying to avoid touching his leg (which was blatantly in my seating area) or breathing in any of the air he was breathing out. Absolutely the worst flight of my life.

We finally land in Honolulu, and, just to top things off, they inform us that our luggage wasn't put on our flight because our plane was so late. So here we are in Hawaii--it's 3 am our time, we haven't eaten for 16 hours, we're totally gross from traveling all day, and we have no luggage. Which means no pajamas, and no toothbrushes. They told us our luggage would be delivered to our hotel at midnight (6 am our time). And they don't give you any sort of "we're sorry we screwed up on your luggage" gift unless it's gone for more than 24 hours. Losers.

Well, at least we could get some food now. Jon's team leader, Kevin, picked us up and took us to McDonald's, where I ordered a bacon ranch salad (salads always sound good after flying all day). Yum, yum. We got to our hotel, got our room (which is very nice), and sat down to eat. I pull out my salad, open up the dressing, and realize that it's not ranch. It's some Sesame Ginger dressing that makes me want to puke. So I ate Jon's fries, and the chicken and bacon off my salad. I am not the kind of person who will eat dressing-less lettuce. Sick.

We decide to sleep for a few hours until our luggage arrives. Imagine our surprise when we woke up at 2:30 am and discovered that our luggage was still not there. Nor was it there at 6:30 am when I woke up Jon and made him come eat breakfast with me. (I've never eaten so much food in one sitting). We gave the concierge our cell number and went for a walk on the beach (in our day-old clothes with unbrushed teeth. Yummy). A few hours later we get a call informing us that our luggage actually did come in at 3 am this morning. They just didn't want to call and wake us up (we were up) and then somehow forgot to pass the message on to the next concierge. At this point I was just grateful that it was all there.

And that's how we started our trip to Hawaii! I'm thrilled to announce that it can only go up from there. Sorry once again for the lack of pictures--no way I was going to visually document any part of this lovely day.

More to come...

Short & Sweet

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It's been one of those weeks where I feel like I'm never at home. I hate weeks like that (Jon & I are both homebodies). And I don't have any pictures, so you'll have to use your imaginations.

Jon took last Friday off work so we could get some maintenance taken care of around the outside of the house. We had a grand time shoving rocks and dirt under the A/C unit to level it out, waterproofing the deck, and re-caulking the mantle above our front door. By the way, scraping old caulk off of brick? Not fun.

So when I say "we", I basically mean Jon. I helped as much as possible, but the sisters needed someone to go with them on Friday, and then I had this horrible stake Activity Days shindig on Saturday. Biggest waste of 3 1/2 hours EVER.

Saturday night we had our traditional Cinco de Mayo party with a couple from our ward. Unfortunately, it was slightly marred by the fact that I couldn't find Sangria ANYWHERE. I went to 3 different stores looking for it, but it was useless. I found it in Utah, Arkansas, and Iowa, but Maryland? Nope. At least my enchiladas were awesome (and gave me beastly heartburn that night).

Just a quick note about my Primary class: I teach the 8-9 year olds, and the boys in my class have decided that their new favorite word is "smitten." I think they think it's a naughty word because they hunch over and giggle every time I say it...

The highlight of our week thus far was making 60 individual servings of fried ice cream for our ward's Activity Days Cinco de Mayo party. I give Jon full credit for figuring out 1) how to fit 60 balls of ice cream in our freezer at once, and 2) how to get said balls of ice cream to the church (15 minute drive) without melting them. At least they were a huge hit that night (meaning we didn't have to take a single one home).

Today our day is dedicated to finishing all the little projects we need to do before we leave for HAWAII TOMORROW. I have to be honest--my excitement level dropped a big notch when I found out the flight from LA to Honolulu is 5 1/2 hours long. Not to mention the 3 hour flight from Baltimore to Dallas, then the 3 hour flight from Dallas to LA... I'll be doing a lot of aisle-walking. And did you know that American Airlines doesn't give you ANY food for free? Not even peanuts? Not even on a 5 1/2 hour flight? Neither did I. Half our carry-on weight will now be snack food.

Next post will be coming from Waikiki Beach...