After thirty-one years of pretty much nothing special happening with my breasts (no offense to those few lucky men they entertained), they suddenly can produce a liquid that our baby will need. You may be thinking, “duh, breastfeeding” but I will tell you what, when it happens to you, it is a whole other ball-game.

“Rejoice” is, in my opinion, an underused word in today’s day and age. I was reminded of this word yesterday at the wedding of Jill Aldalpe and Xanti Alcelay. The ceremony was at the remodeled version of the same church where Andy and I were married, St. Mary’s on State St. in Boise. It was a packed house full of people excited to “rejoice” in the union of two of Boise’s awesome citizens with Basque heritage.

I immediately occupied what I dubbed the pregnant lady hammock. It was a hammock similar to those I have seen at Art in the Park where you can comfortably sit upright. It was awesome and I spent almost the entire morning reading in it. Some people walked down the beach and beach combed while others also slept or read in hammocks. At some point, Derik asked the “guides” (who really didn’t do much but drive the boat and cook/serve us lunch) if there was snorkel gear.

I about jumped out of my shoes when the minister started reading a scripture about how the wife must submit to the husband and the husband must love his wife. Why and the hell must the only the wife submit? I knew that the minister had not gone over this prayer with Anna as she would surely have put the kibosh on this reading. In talking with her later, I found out that this was literally the only part of the ceremony that the minister had glossed over in the rehearsal.

We spent the morning in the best palapa in the world which Andy is now dubbing “the love shack”. After a short nap, I hung out with Anna and then Vicky in the pool and Sereana, our daily pool bartender made me another of her signature fruit smoothies.

Later Anna and Derik met up with us at our hotel and we pretty much spent the day hanging out by the pool and ocean, reading, swimming, enjoying food and drinks and relaxing in chairs and hammocks. It really doesn’t get much better than this. Later there was the usual afternoon downpour and it was probably good we all went inside for a bit as our skin had gotten more sun than we had expected. It is always crazy how easy it is to burn this close to the equator. My mom is still talking about how she cannot understand how she fried herself. It is quite easy to do here.

“Dear God. If you exist, cool. Um, can you please do the following three things: Most importantly, allow this plane to land successfully in Fiji. Also, please don’t let me go into labor on this plane or actually during the whole trip. Finally, can you please make this turbulence stop oh and one last thing, please God turn off the fasten seatbelt light so I can go to the bathroom. Thanks.”

One final note about our driver…apparently his wife is big and mean and she beats him with the ubiquitous broom made from a coconut tree. He asked me if I wanted to purchase such a broom and I declined. Instead I found some beautiful red coral earrings at the bathroom/tourist gift shop along the way. I probably overpaid for them but they are a really unique, beautiful design.

My stomach continues to grow and the new experience this week is that it is running into things. Also, my belly button is almost fully and “outie” now so it is the point of my body that extends the furthest in front so often it takes the brunt of a collision. Turns out after thirty-one+ years of being an “innie”, it is a sensitive little guy.