Well, we actually don't know yet. But we should know tomorrow after our ultrasound!
Get your guesses in now before the big reveal. :)
And a small donut update. We're finally getting there! It's sounding like our current dates will hold, but we'll see. Cross your fingers that we don't get pushed back!
First off, I need to apologize to everyone for dropping off the face of the earth these past few weeks. I found myself in a funk that I had trouble getting out of. Apparently hormones + deployment + holidays = one sad Becky.
I spent Thanksgiving with almost all of my mom's family down in southern IL. It was great seeing everyone, but I definitely noticed the big void in the room with Tom missing. We'll be celebrating our missed holidays after he returns, so I'm looking forward to attempting to make a mini Turkey Day meal for the two of us. Since he's been spoiled with all-you-can-eat meals and a large variety of meal choices over there, I hope he won't be disappointed with my mediocre cooking abilities. :)
We've entered the 17th week of pregnancy, and I'm feeling great! According to babycenter.com, the little one is about 5 inches long and weighs about 5 ounces, and his/her skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone. And baby can now sweat! (Uh, can you say yuck?)
Yesterday the wee one made a new discovery: my bladder! It definitely made for an extremely uncomfortable day. Thankfully he/she is swimming elsewhere this morning, so I'm enjoying being able to relax.
Here's an updated belly picture for those who are interested. Still waiting for the baby to make its appearance known, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the little bit of chub that's collected in the area. I'm guessing that it won't be too much longer before I actually have something to show!
All the local kids home on their lunch break--they refused to leave me alone, so I had to choke one (just kidding). I'm still not sure exactly what they wanted, although that little kid on the far left went ecstatic when I gave him a bottle of water (which another kid later tackled him for and stole it). Candy made a few of them go away, but not many. One kid handed me his English text book, and asked me to read it. I was happy to, and then translated the text back into Arabic, much to their surprise! Eventually the sergeant next to me convinced the parents to round up the kids and bring them inside, using........questionable methods.
"Ninja", this guy has split personalities. He's just a regular soldier over at the IA Battalion HQ, but half the time he's convinced that he's a Ninja Master, and then he's a pilot the other half. He likes to talk our medic, who's Korean, about kung fu masters and UFC championship. The funniest part is that he says it in Arabic, with a Japanese accent. The tab on his left arm says "Special Forces"...yeah right
Doc and a few of the guys in the back of an MRAP singing Queen. Not a moment goes by without singing or random Star Wars trivia in the back of the truck. Always fun, but it can be frustrating when trying to maneuver a platoon!We were out on mission about a week ago when our tank took a sharp turn threw some uneven ground and nasty mud. The result was not pretty--the track came completely off the road wheels. We had to spend about 4 hours out in sector just waiting for the recovery vehicle (the M88 "Hercules") to show up and recover it. Fortunately the locals were willing to accommodate my guys with some chay while they were waiting...after I gave them some cold bottles of water in return.
The view from behind the tank about 5 mins after the incident, you can't see it but everyone was standing around laughing.
A better view of how the track came off...at this point I'm trying to estimate how long we'll be out here, and if we'll need the IA to help pull security. Fortunately their base was only about a 3 minute walk from where the tank blew track.
Just another one of those sites in Iraq. This was about 75 meters away from the tank while we were fixing it.
Me and one of our interpreters (or terps), "Scott". Scott, like most of the terps, is from Kurdistan which is infinitely better than Mosul. He showed me a picture of a theme park in Kurdistan that he went to on leave, and it looked like Great America--wow! This picture was taken just before a huge feast at the IA Battalion HQ. The food was prepared for the 12 man MTT (Military Transition Team) that helps train the IA, but we showed up just in time! My company commander, CPT Rasmussen, is the guy behind my right arm.
The local Kurdish Army Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ali...this guy was ecstatic when I showed up the first time, as they don't see Americans very often (and for those who don't know, Kurds love Americans................And hate Arabs)
One of the first things you notice when patrolling in Mosul is the number of apparently random animals there are roaming the streets. Except for the cats and dogs, most of them belong to someone, but I'm fairly confident that even the locals don't keep track and just make it up depending on what day of the week it is. Anyway, here's a small sample of what I've come across so far...
Conducting a raid on a courtyard late at night in attempts to find a weapons cache. I was searching around with my light and found this group of sheep in the corner. You may need to turn up the brightness on your computer to see them
I was interrogating a local and noticed that one of my soldiers was chasing this rooster around. The owner told me that he is the local champion of cock fights, and is actively searching for a female hen to mate with him.
The "Cow-borne-IED"...sometimes when on patrol you have to make jokes like that, no matter how disturbing they are. This cow was wandering around a vary dangerous median...
