Paul's promotion

Paul was officially promoted to Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) today! I went to the pier to assist with the pinning ceremony. It was a very tough job, lasting only 2 minutes or so. But, it was nice to be able to be there. Congratulations LCDR Reinhardt!!



XO carefully checking my placement!

Baby Shower

The good, always happy folks at work held a baby shower for me today at lunch. It was great fun! I got some really cute stuff. Everyone there is so generous. I will miss them!

Check out the cute quilt Ellen made!

Tomato plant

When mom was here she pointed out that we have a tomato plant in our front flower bed. Glad she told me because I would have had no idea. Apparently, it is a very healthy tomato plant because it is growing like crazy. And, now it finally has some little bitty tomatoes on it! Check it out!

A big stick

Alex was very proud of the big stick he found in the yard today. Boy does that dog love chewing on sticks!

Yes, we are very proud parents of Alex. I think he will always be our first "baby." Of course, if our real baby ever becomes obsessed with sticks, we'll post that, too!

Sub Ball

Last night we attended the annual Submarine Birthday Ball. This year marks the 107th year of the United States submarine force, which began with the first submersible, which was apparently called the Turtle. It was a great time for the guys to kick back and relax before their upcoming deployment.

Each year there is a contest to see which boat can create the best centerpiece. Usually they aren't really centerpieces, but instead big contraptions off to the side that are engineered to dispense some sort of hunch punch. Below is a picture of ours. It is supposed to be the Sears Tower (from Chicago) and you can see the red punch shooting out of what is supposed to be a submarine missile tube. Needless to say, we didn't win any award!!

M.A. Coulter??

The other night I was ranting and raving about gun control. You know, stuff like, "If just one of those professors had been packing heat, how far do you think that Cho guy would have gotten??" and "If you can't kick kids out of college for being weird and mean, then you've got to protect yourself."

And Paul said, "Hmm...I didn't know I married Ann Coulter." hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..... The next day I ran across her April 18, 2007, column and I laughed even harder!

http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/welcome.cgi

Hair cut

I'm gone for one afternoon and look what happens to poor Alex! :) Doesn't he look cute with his close new hair cut! And, he got a bath!

Belly update

Here's my belly at 7 months!

Visitors!

Angela and Sam were here last week and it was great fun. Thought I'd share some of their 250 pictures!! Here we are at Angela's birthday dinner at Aaron's. Yummy! We all ate too much!

This is my favorite picture taken by Angela and directed by Sam. It is at Hickam Air Force base where we were waiting for Paul's submarine to come in.

Sam and Angela got to see the USS Chicago pull into Pearl Harbor. We even got a wave from someone on the bridge.

Alex absolutely loved Sam and Angela. Especially because they gave him a lei. I can't wait for Alex to meet their little dog, Ollie. Should be interesting!

Below: Sam and Angela at the Pali Lookout and bro and sis at Punchbowl.

Sweet Story!

The Road to Rescue: Shelby Humane Society saves animals with long hauls

Long time, no ring!

I'm such a ding dong! I met a nice lady who asked me if I would be interested in ringing hand bells at her church. They were looking for someone to ring two little bells. I used to play hand bells at church in Mobile, so I thought it would be fun.

My first practice was last night. Little did I know how much I had forgotten about hand bells and reading music in general. It was pretty bad. It wasn't just two little bells I was in charge of, but four. Thank goodness I did not need to use all four in one piece of music.

At the beginning I was totally lost and I was barely ringing my bells at all. Everyone said it was ok and the ladies on either side of me kept trying to tell me where we were in the piece. They were so nice. I think the only reason why they weren't really annoyed with me is because four people were missing from practice that night. So, they were just happy to have anyone minding those four bells.

By the end of the practice it all started to come back to me. "Oh, that's right! The numbers at the beginning of the bar tell you how many beats per measure! That's why the director is counting!!!" "Oh!!! The little symbol that looks like a 'b' means 'flat'!!" It was insane.

I've got to go back to practice next Monday and actually ring my bells at church on the 15th. Wish me luck!

Mr. Popularity

Who knew that your dog could know more humans than you do! Today we went on our walk. A girl on a bright orange moped who I have never seen before slowed down when she got to us. She said, "Is that Alex? Aww...hey Alex!" And then drove off.

Wynonna

Went to see Wynonna Judd last night with the Honolulu Symphony Pops. She seemed surprisingly upbeat considering what's been going on with her lately. She was funny and very sincere. She sang a couple of old school tunes like "At Last" and "L-O-V-E" and I was surprised how well she pulled them off. She's actually really good at singing that kind of music. We did get some classic Judds when she sang "Love Can Build a Bridge." At the end she even sang an interesting rendition of "Ave Maria." Wynonna's got a fabulous voice, but one thing I will say is that she needs some major fashion advice. I know she doesn't have the best figure in the world to work with, but I bet Clinton and Stacey from What Not To Wear would love to get their hands on her. She wore this sparkly black outfit with one of those classic Wynonna long jackets. The problem was that the jacket didn't button and she looked like a sausage in there!! Bless her heart.





Did you know that Honolulu has a Bluegrass scene?? I didn't either. But, last night a bluegrass band called The Saloon Pilots opened for Wynonna. They played with the orchestra and were great. The banjo player was fabulous. What is a Saloon Pilot you ask? Well, apparently it is some kind of cracker. ha!