Well I had another ultrasound today. It was a gender conformation ultrasound that I paid for privately. It was so great to see the baby again. The heart rate was strong and all looked well. So once the ultrasound started the lady said well He doesn't look much like a he today. My heart sank. All I could do is laugh and think to myself how will I tell Morgan just kidding we are really having a girl. (not that we would not be happy we just wanted a boy to even things out) So the baby decided to sleep the whole time with legs crossed. After 10 minutes of poking and prodding the belly we were finally able to get an OK view of the gender.

The list of stuff

Ok I have been getting many inquiries as to what I need or the guys need here. I would say that there is nothing that any of us needs besides our families. But that isn't really "do-able", so I will substitute the one need with a bunch of wants. Number one Afghanistan has absolutly no 60 watt light bulbs, so send a couple. Home cooked bakery products, Pound cakes (Aunt Connie), any type of fruit breads. Please don't send the ingrediants we have no way of making things here. Well nevermind I guess I won't give you a bunch of stuff we want. They take care of us here pretty well. Ohh, coffee unground preferrably, Will has a espresso machine in his room, so some times we fancy things up around here, and drink a sophisticated cup of coffee. Dena, I could use that book of muscle groups and workouts. Also Dena I will set aside some money next pay check if you could pick me up some new running shoes, that would be awesome. Movies, they sell pirated movies here at the bazaar for one dollar, but they are usually really bad copies, plus I feel bad taking food out of Angelina Jolies kids mouths (not really). Ok I think that that is it for now. Keith you would be happy to know that they serve some form of seafood at the chow hall here everynight, the baked trout is pretty good, and on Friday's its all you can eat in the shell lobster.

Lastley, as you can read in the previous blogs it has been an emotional month since I have been here. I am not saying I can't handle, but everybody needs to be on the guard agianst dying or any form of serious injury. If you could all do that for me that would be great. I will give you all some examples of going the extra mile for safety. First, tie your shoes before locomotion begins. Second, look both ways before crossing the street or pulling into traffic. Third, always utilize your seat belt while driving no matter what the distance. Lastly, wear shoes while in the house to prevent stubbed toes. If you guys could do that for me it would really go a long way in the form of saving my sanity. I also promise to wear my seat belt while flying, and looking both ways for shitheads before crossing a ridgeline.


Thanks

Morgan

Heart Break on Christmas Eve

I have returned from the Medical Chase mission just east of the Central Valley. On the last day before I left we recieved a nine line call for an Urgent surgical medivac on a little hill in Afghanistan. There were 4 U.S. soldiers wounded, and we needed to get them medical care as fast as possible. I had just come back from the shower when we got the call I ferverntly threw my close on, and ran to the aircraft with my boots untied. We were off the ground in less than ten minutes. We flew there pulling the guts out of our aircraft for 15 minutes. When we got their they had just broken contact and the LZ was just big enough for the medivac aircraft so they swept in and picked up 3 injured we circled until they took off then we landed. But we were just too late. The best we had wasn't good enough, and we took that young man's shattered body off of that hill on Christmas Eve. And we performed our first Hero flight in Afghanistan. I watched as his friends full of tears and sweat took him and gently placed him in the back of the aircraft, they were holding each other and saluting their friend as we flew away. For some family in America Christmas will always be tainted, and that is why I am sad. Please pray for all of us as we try to make this country a better place for everyone in it.

Morgan

So today was a very sad day around our house. Our dog connie died late last night. She was about 9 years old. She got sick very fast and passed away within a few hours. We are almost 100%positive that she died of BLOAT. We did not have an autopsy performed because it will not bring her back and I didnt want to think about her being cut open when she suffered tremendously in the hours leading up to her death. She was taken to the vet at the time of her becoming ill and they could find nothing wrong with her. She died less than 6 hours later.

Our family is extremely upset and everyone is dealing with it diffferently. Jordyn is very sad, Emily keeps saying that I am just telling her a joke, Ryan has no clue, I am angry that the vet did not catch this since she had almost every single symptom, and Morgan is just plain upset. He loved this dog like she was a child.

Please pray that we can all deal with this in our own way. She will be truley missed. She was the best Nurotic dog anyone could hope for.

We found out the sex of the baby today....

So I had an ultrasound today and we were able to find out the sex of the baby. Morgan was able to watch it live on the Internet so he didn't miss out on anything. The baby was asleep the whole time and would not wake up no matter what tricks we tried to get it up. I hope that means this baby will sleep good. LOL So here are some ultrasound pictures from our session today. Enjoy.

Morgan's Pictures

Afghanistan MoonScape? Tonight at 11

Hello everybody, this is my first blog post ever, and I am really happy to be able to send out information and pictures to everyone at the same time. Time is definitly a high valuable commodity here. They have been keeping us really busy since we got here. Mainly because the sooner that we know what we are doing the sooner the outgoing command can leave and be home with their loved ones. I have flown over fifteen hours in the last 3 days, for a helicopter pilot that is a lot of flight time! Just to let everyone know where I am is probably the best place to be in Afghanistan. The food is top notch (it is run by KBR a civilian contract), we have real showers with unlimited hot water! And I have my on little room made out of plywood in a larger bay. I will include some pictures for everyone so you guys can get a grasp of what it looks like around here.

Things to remember about Afghanistan

1.) Literacy rate as of 2006 is right around 14%
2.) Child mortality rate as of 2006 43%
3.) The only education that most have is through Madrassas, which normally leaned toward extremism.
4.) Afghanistan's people have been in constant war for over 4,000 years, and they are extremely patient.
5.) Most of the terrain is rugged back country, the only major metropolis is in Kabul.
6.) Pakistan supports the taliban and Al Queda, have no doubts about it they help them in their mission against the democratic government of Afghanistan.


I will keep everybody updated through this blog for now on it is just easier to do than writting everybody emails. So drop in and see what is going on with the Stanley family, on both sides of the world. Everybody keep Dena and the kids in your prayers, the kids are getting sicker by the minute. And we are part of the universal health care system and it sucks!

I will talk to you guys later, if you have any questions about this blog, and about what I am doing over here. Email me and ask and when I have enough questions I will address them in this forum.


Thanks, Morgan

Oh I am not sure if i can get these damn pictures to load so if not i will send them to Dena and she can upload them if I ask her really nice.

The kids as elfs

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Headed to the Emergency Room....

Well we are off this morning to the Emergency Room. Emily decided to get into the junk drawer in the kitchen and take out a small box and play with its contents. It was brand new razor blades that we use to clean our stove top. So I took her to the ER last night but there were at least 40 people waiting to be seen so we left because I refused to make my 5 year old sit there for 6+ hours at 7pm. So I called to get an appointment this morning with a doctor and they tell me that I HAVE to be seen in the ER. I am so Angy but her cut is super deep so I have to go. I hope everyone knows what they are getting into when they say they want universal health care. It SUCKS! I cant even get Jordyn in for an ear ache because they never have any appointments. She will be going to the ER as well.

We did it!!!

We have come up with our names in less than a day. WOW! It is a new record. Our boy name is in the last entry but to refresh your memory it is Nicholas Andrew and our girl name is .....Drum roll please because I LOVE the name.... Kenzington (Kinzington) Pearl. I am not sure on the spelling yet. I just wanted to share because I am so freaking excited. Now I just cant wait to find out what we are having!

Life around the Stanley house...

So life this past week has been pretty crazy. We are all trying to get back on track schedule wise. I know that things will get easier as the days go on but this already sucks and we are only on week into the deployment.

So earlier this week Morgan and I became the proud aunt and uncle to a Beautiful baby boy, thanks to Bubba and Deborah (my brother). They named him Brandon Tyler Lea and he is the cutest little thing I have ever seen. (well besides my kids LOL) He was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 21 inches long. I cannot wait to meet him. I never knew that I could love someone else's baby so much. But I am the only one in my family who has been having baby's for a while now.

So Morgan has safely made it to his destination and can start receiving mail as soon as you would like to mail it to him. We have been able to talk on instant messenger and it has been great. Today we finally agreed on a baby boy name. Pretty exciting. We used my middle name and his middle name and came up with Nicholas Andrew. As for a girl name it is still in the works. We know the middle name will be Pearl after grandma Billie. (Morgan's Wishes) We will find out the sex of the baby at the end of the month and I can't freaking wait!!

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend. We love you all.

Our Christmas Card

My beautiful babies

Our New Baby...December 1, 2008

Family Pictures....

November

Can you believe that this year is a month away from being over? I can't it has flown by! This month has been full of emotions. I lost my Uncle Bill very unexpectedly and at a very young age earlier this month. Morgan also had an old childhood friend pass away in a car accident a few days ago. Very tragic and our prayers are with his family. We got to see our baby's heartbeat for the first time this month, and we are celebrating our 7th anniversary this month! Last but not least Morgan is leaving just days from now.

I am handling this time fairly well. The way I see it the first month is fairly easy. I mean anyone can do something that they hate for a month right?? But its all the time after that when you realize that he is not going to walk through the door right in time for dinner. It SUCKS. I just keep telling myself that I am not the first nor will I be the last wife and mother to experience this and I will make it through this next year.

So Thanksgiving is this week and we are going to be heading down the street to our friend Erin's house. We are going to have a great time with great friends. I have already started cooking and can't wait to eat and be merry.

I am still so undecided about putting up a Christmas tree. I want to do it with Morgan before he leaves but I do NOT want to put it away on my own. It weighs like a MILLION LBS. LOL. I probably will this week with the kids and Morgan so that we can get some great pictures and more family time in.

Well I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving.
Love,
Morgan, Dena, Jordyn, Emily, and Ryan

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers

So many of you may know but for those who don't, I have been changing diapers for almost 9 years straight. I was totally looking forward to getting Ryan potty trained while Morgan is deployed and finally being able to say goodbye to diaper. Well god looked down and laughed at my silly plans to be rid of diapers forever.

Now that we are going to have another baby I am toying around with the idea of using cloth diapers. I mean they have a fairly high overhead cost but they last for the entire time the baby/child is in diapers. They pretty much pay for themselves. O and did you know it takes a disposable diaper (pampers, huggies, luvs, etc.) over 500 years to break down in a landfill?? Nasty huh?

So my delima is where to start!! There are so many brands, types, sizes, and on and on and on. It makes my brain hurt to think about it. I know I want to use snaps because all I have read says that the Velcro wears out. I know I want to use inserts so that I can use the same cover more for more than one diapering at a time. But once again I have NO idea where to start.

If you have any ideas or good informative websites then the information would be great!! Wish me luck on my journey to find the perfect cloth diaper and the guts and discipline to stick out the whole messy process known as cloth diapering!

New to this...

Well I decided to set up a blog to keep family and friends posted on our life events while Morgan is deployed. Our lives are changing and evolving like crazy these days. We are experiencing new things every day and our children never cease to amaze us.

First off Morgan is set to deploy very very soon. We are totally not ready at all. I don't want to spend the next year alone as a mother, father, teacher, maid, taxi and cook. I guess that's why the army didn't ask my opinion. Second we found out a few weeks ago that we are expecting baby number 4 this coming June. I am now 6 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I have been having some small complications already and am kind of regretting telling everyone so soon but I have faith in god that everything will be ok. I should know by next week what is going on.

Morgan will go in block leave on November 6th and we will be headed to Arkansas on or around the 12th for a couple of weeks before he leaves. It will be a long drive and a long time away from home (anytime is along time when you have 3 kids off schedule) but we are looking forward to spending time with family and friends.

I hope to get some pictures of the family up sometime soon. I am brand new to this so be patient.