20 weeks and Expanding

I just finished my 20th week so half way there. I have managed to go a week without throwing up - big progress from the last several months. This pregnancy has pretty much wiped out my immune system and I am catching every single thing going around. The little guy seems to be just as active in utero as Macen was too. Finally a part of pregnancy I can enjoy.

Fasching Parade

We went to a Fasching parade in the town we live near to see what all the excitement was about. We didn't do this last year because there was still a lot of snow on the ground. It was a pretty big parade for a small town. Not only did the walkers dress up but so did a lot of the bystanders.

Lego people

Macen thought the bands were loud. We placed ourselves right at the beginning of the parade front row so we had a good view. Macen thought it was pretty cool and then he quickly realized just how great it was when they started throwing candy everywhere. It took him about the first 5 mins to go from sitting in his stroller to making sure he was standing so he could run after candy.

The guy in green had a pretty creative costume if you ask me. It's hard to see in the shadows but keep looking down for the spout. Haha!

A lot of the floats were jamming out to some loud music and the jail birds were no exception. If only you could see how much they were bouncing the floats.

A creative, handmade bike.

And this is a local brewery. Not only was candy and some toys thrown into the crowds but a lot of people in the parade either had kegs, bottles of beer and wine and some even had the mini bottles of liquor. The mini bottles were thrown into the crowd and they would carry little plastic cups with the kegs, beer and wine and hand out small drinks randomly to the crowd.

Macen loved it and we came home with a lot of candy. Way more than what will get eaten.

Our House of Blue

It's a boy!

We're so excited to add another boy to our family! Macen has accepted a brother is on the way with no problems. Almost immediately after I posted in January that he only wanted a brother, he switched to wanting a sister. After I told him it was a boy and he'd have a brother, he laughed and said okay. I guess it's time to start thinking of names for this little guy.

I just have to say I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by all these males - all the way to the feline ones.

Fasching

We are in the middle of Fasching over here. It's the big celebration before lent starts. It's such a big deal that Macen doesn't have school a couple days next week because of it. Parades, costume balls and lots of beer drinking take place during this time. Macen's school has been celebrating with the theme "A trip around the world". The kids were divided into groups and represent a part of the world.

Macen was part of the group representing America so he had to come dressed as something from there. We thought a cowboy costume fit well for America. He also had to bring a snack for the buffet that represented America so I made mini apple pies.

Yesterday they continued the celebration and they could dress up as anything they wanted. He was not thrilled with the headpiece to his costume as you can see.

So he swapped it out for his knight helmet and was much happier. Macen has enjoyed the parties at school lately. They are done dressing up but I think they are still celebrating all this week.

Officially a Deployment

It's a given the car will break down or any number of things in the house will break once they are gone. Just ask any spouse of a soldier. Every deployment we've gone through, there has been car issues and this one is no different. We had hoped we were avoiding this issue by buying a brand new car before coming over here but no such luck.

Thankfully it happened very close to post and we could still see the front gate. And we were thankful a neighbor drove by and offered us a ride so we didn't have to walk too far in upper 20's weather. We were within 2 milies of home so it wouldn't have been too far of a walk for us. The car is at a Ford dealership about 45 mins south of here now. Another neighbor looked at it before it was towed away and said it was a pretty big issue so it may take awhile to get parts shipped here from the states. We've been in a rental car for a week now and hoping it won't be too much longer.

All in all we got very lucky with the entire situation. I couldn't have asked for a better way for it to all go down.

Handing out Spurs

James handing out spurs and Order of the Spur Certificate to the Law Enforcement Professionals that helped us at the PHQ.

Road Trippin' and Tippin' Over

Joint ANP US Convoy on the way to Nawbahar district to take supplies

there. ISAF troops had not driven to Nawbahar in over 6 months, so the
SEAL team that was there was surprised that we made it without incident

Crossing a river - A Mine Resistant All Terrain Vehicle (MAT-V) crossing

a river. These trucks are really pretty good in all terrain, as
compared to the heavy MRAPs, not quite as good as an MRAP in taking a
blast but definitely better than an up armoured HMMWV

 Taliban country - driving through passes like this gives me the heebie
jeebies just waiting for the bad guys to spring an ambush on us.
Luckily that has not happened yet to any patrol that I've been on.

Barrett .50 cal. The SEALs at Nawbahar were more than willing to let us

play with some of their Gee whiz weapons, MP-5 submachine guns, SCARs,
and their Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle which you see me shooting here.

Snow in Nawbahar There was 2 inches of snow on the ground when we left

Nawbahar, a harbringer of things to come.

 Roll over - Due to the rain, the mud was very slick and the MAT-Vs are
top heavy. That equaled disaster on the minor slope we had to cross
here, the slope was bounded by a 3 ft drop off. We slid and when we
hit the drop off we tipped over. I was in the truck on its side.
Luckily no one was hurt in either vehicle and once we got my truck back
up on its wheels we drove it another 7 hours back home.

Recovery, this is how we got the truck that was on its top back up on

its wheels, a pretty good job by the wrecker crew to make this happen.
We did have to tow it all the way back home since it had leaked pretty
much all of its fluids out all over the ground.

Dab Pass - more snow. This is the Dab Pass, it's in the mountain range

that separates Qalat from the rest of Zabul to the South Southeast.
There was about 4 inches of snow as we negotiated the pass. We were
extra careful here since we'd already had a couple of incidents and were
towing the results of that incident.

Joint ANP US convoy, our truck with ANP trucks at a rest halt.

James and LTC Matin