Half way done!

Well, yesterday I officially hit the half way mark of my pregnancy (wish it was the deployment, but that will end soon after baby too!). I am 20 weeks/ 5 months. We officially find out the gender of our little nugget on Wednesday and I am planning a somewhat cute reveal to post on Facebook. The pregnancy has been going fairly well so far (I suppose)... I guess I'm not sure how things are supposed to be going, but everything seems normal. I hate not having coffee, sushi, and rare meat. Ugh... what I would give for some hackepeter and a glass of red wine. YUMMY! At this point I would really just love some German food that is one of my biggest cravings right now. Maybe this will be one of my first few meals when I go home again after having baby. 

I have been able to talk to Brian fairly often while he is in the United Kingdom which has been really nice. I am not looking forward to the time while he is traveling from the UK to Afghanistan, because I have no idea where he will be, how long, or anything. I really miss the free and open communication of having your spouse in the same country as you. (I'm not even asking for the same town, state, or time zone... just same country!)

As for the government shutdown... well we are still shutdown and it has been a week. I had no idea (as I am sure many didn't) that this would still be going on a week later. What effects have we seen? Well, we are still getting paid (supposedly...), the commissary closed (it will be reopening Tuesday according to our base Facebook), and I cannot send any mail to Brian (not so much can I not send it, but the fact is it will not be delivered to him -- as far as I have been told). All in all not too bad... I mean we are getting paid, the commissary is coming back, and Brian isn't in Afghanistan yet to get any mail anyways. Trying to be as positive as I can be still! 

I cannot wait to make a visit to Chicago in November... in the words of Violet Beauregarde in the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, "MAKE TIME GO FASTER!"