Baby girl number 3

Well, not much to report as of late. But perhaps there is too much to report and I don't have enough time or patience to blog about it all (yet). I am 17 weeks pregnant and found out we are having a little girl! Girl number three for the Dolezals. How, oh how will their father survive once we have three teenagers in the house? I just chuckle whenever I think about. He will do great. Here is a video that was taken at the ultrasound clinic. They are giving away free ultrasounds for pregnant women with deployed spouses. I will take all the free stuff I can get. The news station heard of this and interviewed me (of all people) at the clinic and filmed me in the ultrasound room about to get the sonogram. It was an eventful day. Here is the very slow 3D vid of our cute little baby (who still somewhat resembles a being from outer space...but is still cuter than ever).

The life of a soldier (our soldier)

I thought it was about time to give everyone an official update on Matt. He is no longer in Kuwait and no longer sleeping in a cot in a tent with 60 other guys (as pictured left). He is alive and well and enjoying the cold weather in Iraq before the heat sets in. He doesn't seem to like being in uniform when it is 120 degrees. He is finally settled in his CHU(room) which he shares with another soldier, and now has a little fridge in the corner of his room to keep his mountain dew and Dr. Pepper cold. He said the Hodji version (I'm sure this is very politically incorrect) of Mt. Dew tastes like carbonated lemon water, but the Dr. Pepper is pretty close to the original. He likes to celebrate the small victories, like Dr Pepper and his mini fridge. This time around they are on one of the largest FOB's, which is located in Tikrit. It is complete with two swimming pools, three gyms, a Subway, a Burger King and a Starbucks (although, he doesn't have much free time to go swimming or even work out at the gym).

To get to the Post Office or PX it takes a 20-30 minute bus ride (PX stands for post exchange for all those who don't know what it is. It's basically the military version of Wal-mart). Of course there are several bus stops along the way which make the journey a bit longer. This is usually a time when Matt will catch up on some sleep. Although napping at bus stops and on the bus is not always the best idea. A few weeks ago was the first week he was able to attend church--which is held in a classroom with about 10-12 people and lasts about an hour and a half. He was waiting at the bus stop and woke up about an hour or more later and watched one of the fellow LDS members getting off the bus, on his way back from church. Oops. He works 12-15 hours a day, seven days a week. The hour and half they allow him to go to church is definitely a welcome break from his daily duties.

Speaking of duties, most of you are wondering what on earth he does over there. For the most part I'm kind of clueless, as I have to pretend to know what he is talking about most the time when it comes to work or the military in general. They have acronyms for pretty much everything, which makes him sound like he is speaking in code. He is not on patrols this deployment which means he will never leave the FOB (another acronym, it stands for something-something-base.). Also, he won't ever have to man a gun on top of the Humvee or drive his officers around again (this time anyway). I am definitely not worrying as much this deployment, knowing he is inside the walls of the FOB. But, from what I hear from Matt the threat level is no where as high as it used to be. On his free time he is studying to go to the board in January; if he passes he will move from Corporal to Sargent. Usually after he gets off work we try find time to talk on Skype. He recently got internet in his room and we are able to use our web cams to talk. The girls absolutely love this. Skylar only gets to see him on the web cam on the weekends because she is at school, but Maya gets a pretty decent dose of Daddy every morning. Actually seeing that he is okay makes it a little easier to get through the day and helps me feel like he is not so far away.

My little glow worm

Today I had an OB appointment up at the hospital. I don't have much to get excited about these days, but this was something I was definitely looking forward to. I was so excited to hear the heartbeat, but my doctor informed me that since I was only 3 months it would be somewhat hard to find. So, after a while of trying with the doppler he went straight for the ultrasound machine. He squeezed a bunch of warm goo on my belly and then used the wand to see what he could pick up. Almost immediately I saw our little glow worm bouncing all around, jumping from side to side, waving its arms, and doing flips. I had no idea they could be so active at this stage. It was truly an incredible sight. I recorded a ten second video on my cell phone so I could send it to Matt and he would be able to see our little guy/gal for the first time. Here is the video that I recorded. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I think I've watched it about seventeen times already. This whole thing is starting to become more of a reality and it's absolutely amazing.

Last weekend alone together and a new addition

So I decided to post some pictures of one of our last weekends alone together. The weekend of September 20th, Matt and I left the girls for two days (gasp!) with a friend and headed to the other side of the island for a romantic getaway. We rented a cabin on the beach at a place called Bellow's Beach Park. Since we are active duty military we got a discount (and preference over other regular ole' Joe's). While we were waiting to check in we went to a spot of the beach that said off limits. Being rebellious like we are, we took pictures by it, and even stuck our toes on the other side. Matt wants me to put the "off limits" picture above the door while he is in Iraq. I told him I am not sure what our home teachers will think of it, but I'll ask them how it looks with the rest of our house.

We spent two days cooking out, eating hamburgers and hotdogs, lounging on the beach, and watching movies. One of the movies we rented (almost against his will) was Baby Mama. Coincidentally, that night I started feeling sick to my stomach and completely exhausted. I took a pregnancy test without Matt knowing and surprised him with what I called "an early Christmas present." What a way to end our "adults only" weekend. I think he was expecting a new watch, or something expensive and exciting. Sorry Matty, maybe next time. :) Really, he was thrilled and is hoping to get his little boy this time around. We may end up with three little princesses, or a little football player to add to the Dolezal kids.

Goodbye Again...

Matt left for his second deployment on October 17, 2008. People have been asking how it was that day he left, and how we are dealing with it now he is gone. And the truth is, we are dealing with it one day at a time. Here's a little glimpse of how that day went.

The day he left we took Skylar to school together in the morning. We decided not to keep her home and just let her have as normal a day as possible. He had to be up at his unit around 5:30 that evening, so we had all day to lounge around the house and get his last minute items gathered. We picked Skylar up from school at 2:00 and wanted to go out and spend a little more time together as a family. I watched him dress in his ACU's and lace up his boots one last time. I always hated how he'd leave his size 13 desert boots in the middle of the hallway, and now that's something I miss seeing--his boots and his uniforms scattering the house. We went to the PX and got some ice cream and spent our last moments together laughing and taste testing each other's flavors. It was pretty perfect.

When we finally made it up to his unit, there were hundreds and hundreds of soldiers and families scattering the area (not to mention all the green duffle bags everywhere). I picked a spot to sit with the kids while Matt went to the arms room to check out his M-16 rifle and his other sensitive items (night vision goggles, etc). While we waited I watched quietly as the first group of soldiers filed onto the blue buses. I watched them say goodbye to their wives (a significant number of them pregnant), newborn babies, children, parents and some of them didn't have anyone to say goodbye to at all. My heart ached as I knew in a few short hours we would be doing the same thing. But not yet, not just yet. We still had a few hours left together. The majority of the next few hours we spent waiting around and listening to the Colonel or First Sgt. talking about what was going to come next, when the buses would arrive, etc. The girls ran around doing cartwheels and summersaults in the grass to pass the time.

Soon they were lining their bags up on the basketball courts, and a dog arrived to sniff them all before they were loaded onto a huge truck. At this point I had only known I was pregnant for a few weeks and was feeling rather sick. It started to get dark and soon it started to rain. The buses weren't there yet and nobody seemed to have any idea when they'd be there. The kids were ornery because it was 9:30 (way past their bedtime) and they hadn't eaten anything but ice cream. That's when I decided it was time to say goodbye. Maya had a hard time letting go of her daddy's neck. Matt had been carrying Maya and his M-16 simultaneously for the past few hours and she was getting nervous about him leaving. After all, the last time he went on deployment she was barely one. We hugged and kissed and said our I love you's, and each of the girls had their turn saying goodbye to their daddy. I started off into the dark night holding each of my daughters' hands as the rain fell harder. We were alone; a piece was missing. A heavy, overwhelming feeling came over me almost immediately, a feeling that I knew so well from the 15 months I spent alone during the first deployment. This was a weight that wouldn't be lifted until his arrival, but at least it was familiar and at least I remembered somewhat how to deal with it. I didn't cry and neither did the girls at first. But of course, the sobfest came later in the week, late at night while no one was around (and a piece of strawberry cheesecake to comfort me).

People ask how we do it, how we are able to live our lives. Sure things get hard without him around, but we live life just like anybody else--one day at a time. Yes, it's hard being stuck on an island in the middle of the Pacific, with no family around for support. And sure it's hard being pregnant and taking care of two kids alone, paying all the bills, and taking care of essentially everything by myself. But, it does eventually get easier and this is just one trial we have to overcome. We have so many blessings and things to be thankful for that it doesn't seem so bad having to put up with the hard things for a while. With faith and through prayer and reading the scriptures, I don't feel so alone and I know we will make it. I know that he will return home to us safely if we keep having that faith and living as righteously as we can. Even though we are physically alone on this island, I know my family and friends are just a phone call away. And God is always with us.

Trick or treat!

Halloween is one of our favorite Holidays. The decorating and the costume preparations, the donuts and apple cider, the trick-or-treating and haunted houses--it's one of the holidays we look forward to all year long. Since Matt deployed about 3 weeks before Halloween, it didn't quite feel the same this year. I put out a few fall decorations and scarecrows and such, but it wasn't lavish or extreme. I left that up to the neighbors who went all out with spiderwebs, skeletons, gravestones, and flying bats. Skylar was especially excited because the week of Halloween was also spirit week at school. You know, pajama day, sports day, wacky wednesday, school spirit day, and then she got to wear her costume on Friday. She thought it was so neat she could just go to school in her pajamas, although she complained when I tried to do her hair before we walked out the door. "I think we should just leave it messy, mom." Ha. If only I could send her to school with messy hair every day. Maybe I might be able to sleep in and catch up on some zzzzzz's.

On Halloween Skylar dressed up in her orange and black witch costume, complete with an orange and black hat with a spider hanging from the tip. During the entire month of October she changed her mind about 15 times of what she wanted to be. First it was a cheerleader, then a princess, then a ghost, a pirate, a vampire, a witch, and the vicious cycle continued. Finally I found a costume for 6.99 that was perfect (and cheap!). She agreed, then kept telling me she didn't want to be a witch. By Friday, she was set on being a witch again (thankfully), and was probably the cutest little witch I had ever seen. Perhaps I'm biased, but I thought she had the best costume in her class. Maya wanted to wear her costume all day since Skylar was having so much fun dressing crazy and fun all week. But, the costume was a little big and in the way when she tried to run and play. She ditched it after a few minutes and decided to take it off until it was time to leave for the trunk or treat.

Originally I wasn't going to dress up. Matt and I always dress up for Halloween and since he wasn't here, I didn't reallly feel like doing it alone. Even if the kids were in costume. But, at the last minute I decided he would probably want me to have a good time and I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself. I changed my mind and ran to Wal-mart and searched their scanty shelves for discounted Halloween merchandise. I found vampire teeth, black nail polish and black lipstick, a black and blonde long wig, and some sort of long, black, polyester dress that I think was intended for girls much younger than me. I also found some sort of gothic chain and it was all 50% off. I scored big time. I put together my costume and asked the kids what they thought. At first Maya was a little unsure of her mommy in black lipstick. But she was in love with the long wig and got over the lipstick thing pretty quickly. I ran out the door with the kids in tow, and we headed to the trunk-or-treat up at the church. They had a parade and games for the kids. Finally we went around to each different car/trunk for the trick-or-treating. We had a really fun time, even without Daddy there. I took the kids back to the neighborhood to go to a few houses around the block. A guy dressed up as a vampire--a really realistic looking vampire--started chasing Maya until she cried. I thought he would stop, but he didn't so I yelled at him. "She is three years old...how old are you...thirty? Save it for the older kids." Skylar wasn't bothered by him, but Maya obviously was. I guess that's why he decided to pick on her? How mean. Maya kept saying over and over again, "I don't want that scary vampire to follow us home." I explained he was fake and just being a mean old dad. His wife was even screaming at him to stop scaring the kids that went by.

After a few houses I had a feeling to go and get my cell phone. I immediately listened in case someone needed to call, maybe Matt was going to call? My friend, Chrissy, called about 15 minutes later from the hospital. She was 38 weeks pregnant and her husband left to Iraq with Matt. They were going to induce her b/c her blood pressure had been so high the past 24 hours of her stay in the hospital. So for the remainder of Halloween night, I went up to the hospital and helped my friend through labor. We couldn't have picked a better night for her to go into labor than Halloween. We watched scary movie re-runs, ghost hunters, and old episodes of CSI throughout the night. There wasn't much else on, and the ceiling with sea creatures on it wasn't helping distract her enough.

So, our Halloween night wasn't exactly the same without Matt there, but we still had a great time together. Just because he is gone, doesn't mean our lives have to stop. And hey, I even helped a fellow military wife during an important time when her husband couldn't be there. Perhaps that was the best feeling of all. Seeing a baby being born was absolutely amazing. It made me really excited for my own.