June 25: What was your favorite baby item that you could not live without?

My favorite baby item was the old cloth diapers. We used them for his burp rags, his bibs at times. He was a very messy eater and the cute little bibs that they had then just were not enough. I went through so many of those things before he got a litter neater, now I can honestly say that whenever I go to a baby shower, I include those as one of my gifts.

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I would just like to say that we had the nicest weekend. It was so relaxing, on Saturday we got together with some of Ray's friends on base and went to Shark's Cove to go snorkeling, well they did the snorkeling and I did the basting in the sun thing, but it was very nice. The guys/girls had a good time snorkeling they got to see alot of sea turtles and lets not forget the jumping off the huge rocks into the water, I sat and watched from a distance and prayed that what my son hit would be water and water alone. (See I could not see what they were jumping into only that they were jumping, it was too dangerous for me to try to climb to the top)LOL.. But they all had fun and Nathan was so excited about the day. The only down side to the trip was that I got bit my a crab on my bottom while sitting on the rocks in the water! No joke the crab came up out of one of the holes I was blocking and pinched me, of course I jumped off the rocks and told everyone and no one believed me until they saw the crab run away and lets just say the crab was very kind to me because he could of hurt me with those things he had! He was too big for comfort! Then afterwards everyone came over to our house and we barbecued and had a nice little dinner to finish off the evening.
On Sunday I skipped church and slept in, while Ray and a bunch of the guys chartered a boat and went deep sea fishing. Nathan and I hung out here at the house and played games and went for a walk, that kind of stuff while they were gone, it gave us a little mommy and me time. The boys had so much fun and I got a phone call when they were like an hour from coming back in saying "please bring your camera we caught a big one." I laughed and said sure thinking this is going to be some BIG fish story that we get to hear. So we get there and they pull out this!

this "big fish" ended up being a 250+ yellow fin tuna! Holy cow. It makes all of the other fish look so little and the littlest one weighed 23lbs. By the way just in case your wondering the smalles fish that they caught is the size of fish that the big tuna was eating on! How crazy is that! They were all so proud! Since all fo the other guys lived in the barracks and just Ray lived out in town they did not keep the big fish they gave it to the guy who chartered the boat (since that was too much fish for them) and he took it to the market and ended up getting like 500 bucks for the meat off that thing! Isn't that crazy! The local restaurants are eating the tuna that they caught. LOL... Everyone was going crazy over this fish, I think every man within a 5 mile radius showed up to look at this thing, and all the while I was trying to hold my cookies because of the smell of the fish! They cut the other fish up right there for them and I wish I had pictures of what was there to eat the left overs (they just tossed it in the water) but I didn't not want to get that close to the smells. I think for me the worst part of the whole thing was watching my 11 year old son eat the fish that they had just sliced for him right there on the dock! They all loved it and said how good it was and I learning that this is a pretty common thing to do, I think my problem is that I just like my sushi on a nice plate of cabbage! We ended up letting the boys go home and take showers while my next door neighbors, who I love so much for this, helped me fix most of the fish Hawaiian style and we invited the boys and some of my neighbors friends who we know real well for a wonderful dinner! The guys loved it, we had everything from a salad (for me) all the toppings and raw, baked, fried, and grilled fish to poke (pokee) which is a raw fish mixture that the locals love here! The marines are not used to the Hawaiian culture so much because they only see the tourist side of it so it was nice to see them interact with the neighbors, they were like sponges taking in everything and asking all the questions like what is in this again? Like I said everyone had such a good time and we had so much left over fish that we are doing it again this weekend, with the crab and shrimp and some dishes that just plain scare me to look at! LOL
Then as if that wasn't enough this morning at 7 am the man across the street knocked on our door and said hey put on your suits were are going to the sand bar on the boat so come on lets go! And we did, we spent the entire morning out in the middle of no where, you take a boat out in the ocean and then all of a sudden there is one big patch of sand, the kids had so much fun, his wife and sat on the beach and played with there littlest one Joe, who is 2 while Rick and the Nathan and Jake (who is 4) went snorkeling and all kinds of stuff! If you ask the boys what was the coolest part they both say the puffer fish that they got too see! Go figure! The only bad thing is Ray has been wanting to go out the sandbar but we have not been able too so I had to call him while he was at work and tell him sorry I would not be there for lunch because I am on the island that you want to come see, he goes your with Rick and them aren't you and I said uh huh! You could tell he was jealous that were did that without him, I felt bad! But he went fishing without me right! LOL. Does that justify it? (He seriously was OK just not happy about being at work on Monday right!)
So that is it that was my weekend, it may have been busy for some but oh my goodness was it fun!
Now I just need sleep!