First step towards coming home!!!

Today was Bear's last day out in the field before returning to the base to start outprocessing to come home!!! And we are so ready to have him home! Especially Caitlyn, who has been having a difficult time lately missing her daddy...it's just taking forever for him to come home! She said that after daddy comes home, he can only go to work for one day at a time. Bear was told that a common place to to stop and refuel the plane on the way back to the states is Ireland, so he is very excited about the possible opportunity to stop and get an Irish beer (and of course something sparkly for his wife!!!). At least he is finally taking steps towards coming home!

The girls and I have been sick with stuffy noses, and coughs and the like for a week or so, and haven't done much outside the house. But they were acting like they felt much better today, so I had to take some pics of them being goofy little girls. Allison was jumping all over Caitlyn, practicing for daddy coming home, I'm sure! Caitlyn has been wanting to wrestle sooo badly lately, but for those of you who haven't experienced a wrestling match with her, she isn't a girly fighter at all, so I don't let her wrestle with me right now too much for fear that she will jump on me and hurt the belly. I tell her to save it for when daddy comes home, and I'm sure it will be completely welcomed then! Look out Bear!!!

My girls pretending to be horses.Caitlyn was upset that her dog Roscoe didn't want to play fetch (I really don't think he even knows how or would be able to bite a toy and carry it all the way back to her anyway), so she enlisted her little sister to do it instead...ah, yes, the misadventures of having a little sister!
The first belly pic, now that we are 24 weeks along! Our little munchkin (I still have a hard time saying she and her...oh well) has been moving and kicking around like crazy, but Caitlyn still says she can't feel it. She will before too long. Both girls have fun putting their hands on my belly to try and feel something though. Some days my belly gets more hugs and kisses than I do! If all goes as we expect as far as Bear coming home around his birthday, he should be able to make it to our next baby appointment!
Thanks to all of you for your continued love, support, and prayers through all of this! It's hard to believe that he will be home in just a few weeks!!!

A Little Update

Bear and his group made their way back to the base on the 22nd, and weren't sure if they would even return back to their missions in the field. There are some kind of elections going on for the locals, which has a history of causing terrible riots, and the Army doesn't want their Soldiers out in the middle of nowhere with that going on. So Bear was getting frustrated waiting to see if the post was going to get put on lock-down, or if he would be going out for one more mission before he starts his journey home. I don't know exactly when these elections are going to be held, but the Army apparently feels it is safe enough for them to make one more trip out to the field, so he headed out on the morning of the 24th. I had written in a previous posting that his host unit submitted paperwork for him to start the process to go home. Apparently they did that while the 1SG (high up enlisted guy in charge) was on leave, so he had no clue about it being done. He met up with Bear over this last trip to the base, and flexed his rank a little on Bear to let him know that he doesn't have to let him go because his orders say "120 days or until relief arrives". But after making it known that yes, he is in charge, he also told Bear that he had no intention of keeping him there any longer than need be, and that he would still try to get him out with the first rotation in February. Let's just pray that the 1SG keeps his head about him and doesn't decide to be a prick just because he can! At some point, Bear talked to some personnel guys who told him that his name is on the flight manifest to leave on 07 Feb!!! YEAH!!! It's hard to believe that he will be home in less than a month already! Hopefully the girls and I will be over our colds by then. But for now, he has made it back to his home out in the field, which means we're back to those darn satellite phones that lose reception completely if a cloud floats over his head. He will be returning back to the base on the 29th for good, and will be able to start outprocessing!!! Needless to say, we are so ready for him to come home! And soon after that, we can start making plans to all go home, away from the Army!

Pics from Bear!

Okay, so I hoped to get these pics posted sooner, but the forces were working against me! The day after we received the camera in the mail, I tried to get it developed at the closest place available, but their machine was broken and it took me a couple days for me to get back out to another store. Anywho, here they are!!! The girls were really bummed out that there are no pics of their daddy, but they will get to see him very soon (should be less than 30 days now!).

These critters are mascots so to say of the house they are staying in off the base. Don't ask me the city because I honestly don't know it! The dog is AJ and the cat is Kitty. Dogs aren't liked by the locals very well, and AJ was rescued from a huge thorn bush he was stuck in by some Soldiers several tours ago.

Here is one of those thorn bushes like what AJ was stuck in...look at the size of those thorns!!!
This is the hill close to where they are staying...
Some local scenery...

The next few pics are from the Cheetah Refuge he took a trip to a while back. All the cheetahs are sectioned off in pens and are eventually released back to their original habitat. Some other animals have taken advantage of the safety of the refuge as well!


There is a gazelle taking cover under the trees in the middle.


Lots of turtles around!!!
All is good otherwise in Africa. It sounds as though he will only have one more week out in the country on missions until they bring him back to the base to start processing out of there!!! I can't wait to see him get pummeled by the girls when we pick him up!

At my last OB appointment, my midwife was asking if there was anything she could do when he came home. I asked her if we could squeak in another ultrasound for him to see in person, and she said all we had to do was give her the day and time, and she would make sure it would happen! She's so great! Caitlyn was being very helpful in trying to decide on a name, and suggested we call the new one Oscar...she's so funny. And I am happy to report that Allison had an excellent day with her potty training, and even made it through a small shopping trip with no accidents!!! She is getting too big!

Love to you all,
Erin

I know what we're having...!

Today was our major ultrasound day! Ultrasounds are so neat to see...so I thought I would share the pics with everyone. First of all though, everything went very well! Our little munchkin was very active and trying desperately to get away from all the poking and prodding, but had no where to go, and had to suffice with just kicking at the ultrasound doppler. The tech guesstimated that it weighs a little over a pound already and otherwise, was measuring perfectly for how far along we are. The tech tried to get some good pics of the face, but our baby wasn't cooperating the best.

This one shows the head (facing you) and both hands!

This is another facial shot...looks like a smile, doesn't it?!?!?
This is sort of a side view of the head, the rt. arm, and part of the rt. leg.
In keeping with tradition with our past 2 pregnancies, we decided against finding out what the sex is. Well, I couldn't not look at the screen during the ultrasound because it's just too cool to see, and I saw some very distinctive figures, and therefore, found out what we are having on my own. What I saw is called the "3 line sign" and is indicative of a girl! I confirmed it with the tech afterwards too. Maybe the Lord was looking out for us and knew that we would never come up with a boy name we could agree on, and blessed us with a girl instead!

Bear was a little shocked when he called and the first thing I asked him was if he wanted to know what it was. After hearing the story of how it came about, he gave his blessing to tell everyone as long as they knew that we found out purely by accident (& a keen eye!). All else is alright in his world. He will be returning to the base around the 22nd-23rd to restock their supplies on a day trip, and he may be coming back up to the base as early as the 27th to start processing out of there!!! YEAH!!! He is already corresponding with some folks about his flight plans to come home. We can't wait to pick him up! We have basically come to the conclusion that we will pick him up in Louisville instead of driving down to Ft. Benning. Even if he only has to stay down there for only a couple days, there is no telling that he would be allowed to drive back with us, so he asked that we pick him up a little closer to home! I received a disposable camera full of pictures that Bear has taken, but the one hour film developer was broken at Walmart, so I will make a trip out tomorrow to somewhere else, and hopefully have some more pics to post soon.

Today is my moms xx birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Thank you all for your loving support...today was one of those days that I needed a little lifting up, and I can't express how grateful I am for all of your prayers!

Milestones

Our first week back at home has been a rather busy one! Caitlyn was so excited to go back to school and tell all her stories from Kansas. I could tell when she was at the front of the line to go in her classroom on her first day back because the line was at a standstill for a while when she was telling her teacher all about her trip. Caitlyn had a couple days off this week because of parent/teacher conferences (which, by the way, never occurred...how frustrating) and on Friday we got her first progress report. She was rated at exceeding the standards in all areas that they were measured on! The only comment her teacher wrote down was that Caitlyn is a wonderful student! That makes a mom and dad feel really good. The past few days, Caitlyn has had a runny nose, sore throat, and a low-grade fever. I assumed she was getting the start of a cold...I couldn't have been more wrong! She is cutting some more teeth! It has been so long since she got any new teeth, I overlooked teething as a possibility for all of her symptoms. She has another molar poking through about 1/3 of the way!

A couple days ago, I decided that I had better get all of our Christmas stuff down so that the housing management folks don't get upset by it being up too long. The girls and I got everything inside the house put away, and when I was getting ready to start on the lights outside, it started pouring rain with thunder and lightning. Not a good thing to be on a metal ladder during that kind of weather, so that will have to wait til another day! With nothing else to get done, I was going a bit stir crazy, and needed to find something to do. I ended up taking the gate off Allison's crib and converting it into a toddler bed! I don't know what made me think of doing that, but it's done now. Bear and I had talked about waiting to take the gate off til he got home...I guess it's one less thing we'll have to do now! Allison has been doing so good! Her first night in her big girl bed, she was asleep within 15 minutes, and never got out of bed once! I had to wake her up in the morning so we could take Caitlyn to school or she would have slept longer. She thought it was pretty neat to be able to get out of bed all by herself! Last night went the same. She was awake for maybe 20 minutes, but stayed in bed until she fell asleep! I think it really helps that her big sister sets such a good example. She hasn't fallen out either, which Caitlyn used to have a hard time with sometimes. Her speaking abilities have really blossomed lately too! Most of the time now she speaks in no less than 3 word sentences! We never know what is going to come out of her mouth!
The girls got to pick out some new fish now that we are back home. They picked out angelfish this time...Caitlyn's is all white, and Allison's is black and white speckled.



Thank you all for your continued support and prayers for our family!

Happy New Year!

Okay, so lots has happened since the last time I posted anything, so be prepared for a long one! Over the weekend we all went up to the Lawrence Aquatic Center so Issac could celebrate his birthday (late) with some friends. I wish I could have got some pictures of the little kids while we were there, but there was no way possible for any of us to take our eyes off any of them for even a second to take a picture! Caitlyn, Austin, Allison & Madison got used to wearing water wings while swimming at Mamaw's, but were not allowed to use them at the aquatic center. They didn't care one bit! All 4 of them took off all at once in different directions, and were trying to get to the really deep water which even Caitlyn couldn't touch in. Sometimes the little girls would lose their footing and go under, but they didn't slow down a bit. Both of them ended up getting bruises on their heads from slipping on the stairs of the little dragon slide, but there was more fun to be had! And Elijah didn't get a bloody nose for once! Issac was able to play around with his friends the whole time. When we were ready to leave, I think the adults were just as worn out as the kids! It was great though!

Our plan for New Year's Eve was to stay up late playing games and eat junk! I worked it out with Bear so that he called us a little before midnight, and was able to bring in the new year with family the best way we were able. It was great! I think we all talked for almost 1 1/2 hours! Issac, Caitlyn, Allison, and Austin didn't make it to midnight. Poor Madison brought in the New Year in her own unique way! Around 2230 or so she started throwing up and didn't stop for quite a long time. Every time she would start another bout, John and Elijah would have to run to another room to keep from getting sick themselves...thank God for moms and their strong bellies!

Bear had some interesting experiences over the weekend. Their mission over the weekend was to remodel and update a school building. When they were finished, some of the locals had questions for them. There is no running water in that area to clean up with, and since they do not have toilet paper, they have to use rocks, yes rocks, to clean up with after they go to the bathroom, and were asking for better ways to clean themselves. And all we have to do is go to the store... Another day he and the other Soldiers got to partake in a goat roast in one of the local Djiboutians homes. He said there was no table, just a big rug on the floor with pillows around to sit on. They were served a whole roasted goat, which he described as a curled up goat lying on a bed of rice on a really big platter. They also had chicken, macaroni, and spaghetti with some variety of meat sauce and some salad. They didn't have utensils to use to serve or eat with, so when someone asked him for a goat leg (I guess he was sitting closest to it), he just had to literally rip off the leg and hand it over. After dinner, they dunked their hands in some kind of perfumed oil or alcohol to get the smell of the food off their hands. I guess a few of the Soldiers were having gastric issues and were attributing it to the goat, and swear they will never eat goat again! Bear said he was trying to stick to chicken!

The pics below are from New Year's Eve day. Everyone decided to go sledding in the ditch this time. Caitlyn got a kick out of snowboarding with Elijah. They did very well having both of them on the board at the same time.



Elijah got in a few good jumps over a shovel stuck in the ramp he made. He was even able to land on his feet after making a 180 turn in mid-air!


Issac tried to stand up on the sled to go down the hill...maybe he should try the snowboard next time!!! Earlier he was pulling Roscoe around on the sled, but I wasn't able to get pics of that, darn it. Roscoe was just grateful to not have to walk in the snow, even though he was still freezing just being outside.
Calamity was busy looking for snowballs we had thrown for her to retrieve, but was having no luck in the deep snow. It was funny anyway!Elijah and Caitlyn heading up to the house after a hard day of playing outside (love this one!!!)

That is one happy Mamaw...sled full of giggling/arguing grandbabies going in to warm up, a full cup of coffee, and a beautiful sunny and snowy day!

I tried so hard to get some decent pics of Calamity and the cattle next door at Great Papaw's. She is a border collie/labrador retriever mix, but she has a lot of the instincts of a border collie (herding). She is so fun to watch trying to work the cattle. Borders are known for locking eyes with whatever they are working to intimidate them with the rationalization that where the cattle's heads go, the tails will follow (and after the tails go, they will nip at heels if necessary for motivation). Here, Calamity has eyes locked with one of the cattle at the balance point of the small herd. With a little direction, she would outrun and round up one of the cattle that got away from the group that was getting curious about what I was doing in the pasture...I love that dog!!!

Love to you all (sorry for the book),

Erin