We're a 1" Raspberry!

Baby is a 1" inch large large Raspberry (the sonogram says so)! And, my uterus is (ewwww!) the size of a grapefruit right now.

I'm craving sugar like crazy and have eaten more sugar in the last two days than I think I ate all year (literally). I packed a healthy lunch for tomorrow, jammed full of protein, vegetables and good food to try and cut down on the sugar. I may be craving it but it doesn't mean it's healthy!

My husband ate an entire pint of Pink Grapefruit sorbet tonight so he's obviously going for the sympathy weight award.

Baby Sprout is an INCH long

The baby is almost a full inch long and the heart rate is 122 BPM. Not that I'm counting my chickens before they hatch, but I bought a bunch of new baby outfits yesterday. Sure hope it's a girl or else Jake is going to be feeling awfully silly on the playground.

Chris is calling me 'Freckles'

The sun has done no favors to my normally pale skin. I am 'Freckle Girl!' And, I appear to be developing a strange second line around my entire lips. Is it a blister? Did I get collagen injected under duress? Do I have a strange tattoo spontaneously appearing? No one knows but my lips are getting fat. Chris is (jokingly) refusing to kiss me just in case the 'big lips' disease is catching.

We did our final two dives today and they were INCREDIBLE. Stupendous. Amazing coral

reefs. Awesome fish life. And no big anything. We saw a few turtles, a bunch of barracuda but no huge things (like eagle ray or shark). It didn't matter though. With 81 degree water and 60 foot

visability and a small group of just 4 very experienced divers, it was practically heaven in water. We just floated - our last dive was an hour long. And in fact, between all 7 dives this week, and the last dive an hour long, we literally error'ed out my dive computer. It was so angry with us for not doing an 8 minute ascent with a 3 minute safety stop from the bottom that it just beeped and beeped at us with a big flashing 'Error! Error!' It won't work again for a day to ensure I don't dive again. The other couple we were diving with both had dive computers that said we were just fine (we did a 5 minute ascent with a 3 minute safety stop) so we felt comfortable surfacing before my computer said it was okay.

We also visited the Aloe Vera Farm and the Butterfly Farm. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 3 and we are going to get in one last trip to the Butterfly Farm before we return our rental car. Today, we went to the national park, toured the caves and visited the natural bridge and an old gold smelting factory. That plus the two dives made for a busy day. But my husband didn't quit - he took $100 and took it to $150 playing Blackjack. My hero ...

See you all soon. We're both excited to be coming home.

And Then He Left Me

Chris is typically a great dive buddy, very conscientious and aware of where I am at all times. He's an engineer so that seems to translate to detail oriented and hyper safe.

That is, until you get him underwater in the dark. Then, he turns into a dreamy diver, unaware of anything, including where his partner is.
We did a night dive tonight. The dive itself was incredible and the conditions could not have been more perfect - no current, little wave action and decent visibility on a wreck dive from the 2nd World War.

The exciting thing about diving at night is that different creatures come out at night. We saw moray eels swimming (typically, they stay holed up in their caves), rare teensy red crabs (the size of a nickel) and mindblowing biolumenscent squid. And, when you turn your flashlight off, the biolumenscent plankton 'spark' all around you when you move - the more you move, the more neon green sparks fly all around you.

It was an incredible dive - definitely one of the best I've been on.

Except for my wandering buddy. When you're underwater, you can literally see your flashlight beam in front of you. There's not much else you can see. And when your buddy (AKA Chris) doesn't keep track of you, you find yourself alone in the pitch blackness wondering which way is up.

He left me not once, but three times (!!!). He insists that I simply was too slow and couldn't keep up.

Chris's story, by the way, is vastly different than mine. He blames losing me on ... me. I say he was being an inconsiderate lout.

Either way, it was a magnificent dive - truly one of a kind and I feel so fortunate that we were able to experience a night dive with so much unique sea creatures and a calm, clear night.

We dive tomorrow at 9 a.m. - our 7th dive of the trip. I can hardly wait...

Beach & Aloe Time

We snorkled Baby Beach this morning and now we're headed to the Aloe Vera Plantation.

Night dive tonight.

More details later ...

=)

Scuba Diving with the Cattle

Argh! Despite getting recommendations, I still ended up booking us on the cattle boat.

Our first dive yesterday was a disaster in planning. I have never dove with an organization that does 1 divemaster for 10-12 people. It's not very safe to have 12 divers under the water with just 1 truly experienced, will-save-your-life divemaster. But, this group does it.

And when I questioned it, they implied that I was asking it because I was a new diver. I casually shot back that I had been diving for 16 years and you don't have to be new to want to be safe.

So, Chris and I were extra careful with taking care of each other above water and watching out for each other under water. My tank had its O-Ring blow out (above water) and on my 1st dive, my regulator quit working so I had to breathe off my backup regulator for the 2nd dive. The O-Ring is what keeps the air from leaking out the back of your tank and instead, flowing into your regulator. Neither of these occurrences made us feel very good about this dive outfit.

The actual diving yesterday was okay. We saw some barracuda, giant pufferfish, a nicely submerged wreck, and (best!) a very very large stingray. Viability wasn't very good - 25 feet max. The water is warm (81 degrees).

The diving today was much much much better but still, the Red Sail Sports was a joke. 1 divemaster for 12 divers, 2 blown out O-Rings on tanks and again, a faulty regulator (this time not mine). We have one more pre-paid dive with them and then we're switching dive operations.

Today, we dove the south side of the island - the waves were very choppy and getting in and out was a serious struggle but the dive was worth it. The first dive was 'Skalahein' where we saw some amazing, incredible coral formations and some baracuda. And the second dive that we did was 'Sponge Reef' which had many coral formations and we also saw 2 mating octopus (who got angry and inked our dive master). There were a few squid that floated by. Visability was about 50-60 feet and both Chris and I really enjoyed these dives.

We're scheduled to do a night dive tomorrow and then we'll switch dive outfits for our last dives on Friday. And right now, after Chris finishes his nitrogen-induced nap, we're off to explore more of the island via car.

And no, I didn't take the underwater photos on the blog. They are from various other diving sites on the 'Net. I just wanted you to see the types of animals we saw ... =)