Eight Five One

As most people know, April is a big month in the Dolezal family.

Today is our 8th Anniversary! Matt and I have known each other since we were 17, and the years just keep getting better.

After all, we have done some pretty great things together---three of those things being this:

Tomorrow our Maya will be 5 years old. I can't believe she will be going to Kindergarten in August. She has grown up to be such a beautiful girl! Happy Birthday, Maya!

The day after Maya's birthday is of course Laila's first birthday! She is such a joy and has almost mastered the art of walking. She is talking more everyday and even says 'Maya' with ultimate perfection. Happy birthday, baby girl.

Let the CELEBRATIONS begin!!!!!!!!

A thought...

I follow shadows of you

while automobiles circle, search, screech relentlessly,

and bright blue tricycles never stop.

The beckoning of denial thrashes silently,

embroidered onto our tongues,

and screams between my ears (all the while).

The ebony shadows plummet

further between us.

I am blind.

And I want you to discover my eyes,

the way they change in the city light;

they change for you.

Life has become rain

and we drift under street lamps,

falling into gutters no one sees.

We embrace something effortlessly

that chills our bones

and frosts our fingertips--

a metamorphosis of sorts,

eager to leave our cocoons,

dancing with virgin wings.

Me, following the shadows of your flapping,

your being, your silent destruction.

And you, never looking back.

-Sarah K Dolezal 3-23-10

Going places...

So, first things first. I am not an an island anymore. I know my blog is stillonanisland, which seems so contradicting, but I sort of feel like I'm on an island in this place (minus the mountains and beautiful ocean views, oh and the palm trees). But, figuratively speaking, I don't know anyone and I feel a bit secluded and cut off from the rest of the world. Thank goodness for my GPS, it really gets me places! But, so far so good. We really like it here and it's starting to feel more like home every day.

We arrived at the Nashville International Airport on January 30th. It was a Saturday night and about a 3 1/2 hour plane ride from SLC. We left Rexburg early that morning and drove the four hours to Salt Lake City, and immediately went to the airport to check in. There was about an hour to kill before the flight and a random lady asked if she could take pictures of my girls. HA! She was boarding the flight to Nashville and I could tell by her thick accent she was definitely from the South. The woman kept telling me how beautiful my kids were (as if I was unaware), and how the light was just so perfect since the sun was almost setting through the windows. Her name was Tamara and she was very sweet. She could tell my kids were bored, she was bored....and I was glad to have them do anything, really...anything. On the plane, one of the flight attendants handed me a burned cd and told me it was from the lady in first class. Some of the pictures turned out really great.

When we got to the airport we had to wait an hour for them to shovel walkway for us to exit the plane. Then they decided it was too icy and dangerous and we waited about 30 minutes to taxi somewhere else that had a breezeway to walk through. Finally around midnight we were able to exit the plane and head to baggage claim. The kids were exhausted, the baby was crying, we were all hungry, and we had ten bags waiting for us at baggage claim. Yes, ten. I wanted to cry. While Matt was waiting for our bags, I took Laila to find the Limo service that was supposed to take us the 45 min to Ft. Campbell. Apparently the classy Limousine service people leave at 11:00 and their desk was empty. I went to the rental car counters and no one had a car available. What compact car will fit five people, ten bags, plus carry-ons anyway? I heard someone from the back yell, "Looks like ya'll gonna be sleepin here with us tonight." Oh no, that was not going to happen. We couldn't get a taxi, we called a bus service, we couldn't get anything or anyone to take us. Some of the highways were just closed because they weren't plowed and the highways looked like parking lots (so we were told). I went back upstairs to find Matt. He had two carts full of our bags and the girls were lying down next to them. Everyone from our flight had left and the next flight of people were already standing around waiting for their bags. They were staring at us as I told him I had no idea what we were going to do. He called people from his unit and was notably upset as he explained the situation. We decided to move to a remote area so we could discuss everything, which turned out to be the worst idea ever. Skylar was pushing the stroller with Laila, I was pushing one of the carts stacked with bags, and Matt pushed the other. Suddenly, one of the bags became unbalanced on my cart and they all started to fall on poor Skylar in front of me. Can you imagine what this must've looked like? DISASTER! She started screaming and burst into tears. Then Maya started crying, and naturally....Laila began to cry too. Normally, this might have been comical, but given the days events and the situation, it was traumatic. It's not that Sky was really hurt, but she was so tired, as we all were. I just stopped and hugged both girls and started to take Laila out of her stroller. At that point I just lost it and burst into tears myself! It was literally the worst day ever (but soon would be the funniest) and I just couldn't hold it together. Out of no where a really nice woman came over to me and put her arms around me as her husband helped Matt put the bags back on the cart. Of course this made me cry harder because she was being so nice. She helped us move away from the crowd that wouldn't take their eyes off of us. Can you blame them? Train wreck! She asked how she could help, how we were getting home, and did I want her to hold the baby? I told her I didn't know and that we were stuck and started crying even more. You should've seen Matt's face. All four of his girls were crying! Poor guy. It's so funny looking back on the moment, but it was so terrible at the time. The nice woman offered to get us a rental car or find us a way home, but eventually everything worked out. We finally were able to get someone to pick us up and take us to Ft. Campbell (200 dollars, many phonecalls, and many hours later). We finally made it to our hotel around 3 a.m. What a way to start out our adventure in Tennesse!

And now as it is nearing the end of March, life is finally slowing down. We found a house, put Skylar in school, made it to our new ward, and even took a surprise trip to Tulsa to see Matt's family. We also had to stop in St. Louis to pick up our cars. And finally, finally, things are starting to settle. Matt is headed back to the desert in September (to Afghanistan) and we are just trying to enjoy being a family for as long as possible. I'm back blogger world, I'm back!