Visitors from Afar

My best friend Laura works on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Well, she's switching ships and will be moving to a European cruise, and has a two month break before her next run starts. Since she's my best friend and I hardly ever get to see her, Pete and I offered her our guest bedroom during her break. Her mom lives in Colorado, so it's a short enough drive, but far away enough so as to not drive Laura nuts!

She's been here for a week, and it's amazing how she is the one and only house guest I've ever had that Pete and I can stand having around for more than a couple of days. Don't get me wrong, I love you all and want you to visit often, but Pete and I want our privacy too. Catering to guests can wear on a person. Laura is awesome, though! She doesn't want to put us out at all, does our dishes (which we both hate doing), and doesn't leave stuff all over the house. She even offered to paint for me since I can't be around the fumes. She already painted our third bedroom, which I call the kid room. It's a REALLY dark room, and the prior owners painted it dark green. ??? Why would you paint a dark room a dark color? Well, she painted it a lovely shade of mellow yellow. It looks awesome!

She also went maternity clothes shopping with me, which Pete hates to do. Every time he comes along to a maternity store, he want to be in and out in no less than 5 minutes. It's REALLY annoying. Well, hooray for girls because we spent well over an hour there and I got to even try stuff on. What a concept! I even stuffed my shirt with the strap-on pillow available in each of the dressing rooms. How do I look?

It's also nice because she's on a budget. We don't have to go out and spend money going all over town. She's cool with the freebie and cheap stuff. A woman after my own heart! Another bonus, she's coming with Pete and me to Camp Scoot! I am terrified of riding the scooter while pregnant. Crashing and bruising my own body up is one thing...crashing and banging my belly. Not going to happen. So, I was going to be the official camp dog sitter while Pete and the other scooterist were out on their rides. Now I have someone to keep me company! Yay!

Here she is in the Lorikeet cage at the zoo. We went with the kids I watch earlier this week.

It's so nice to have such an awesome and considerate friend around. We met in 7th grade, and I'm pretty dang sure we're going to be friends until the day we die. We totally get each other, we love the same stuff, we know each other's dirty little secrets (tee-hee!), and our personalities just mesh perfectly. Plus, Pete totally loves her! I'll be sad when she goes in a few weeks.