whatsup

Ciao from Italy!

We've been in Italy for the last week and I'm finally feeling relaxed - just in time to leave!  Here's what we've been up to:

Thursday - left the house at 8:30.  Three hours later we had gone twenty - yes, 2-0, 20 - miles.  The word is that an American tank accident caused the autobahn to be shut down.  A horrible start to what turned out to be a very challenging travel day.  We didn't find the right kind of gas station (one that takes our coupons) in Germany so we ended up low on gas in Switzerland and had to *GASP* pay local prices for enough to get us into Italy.  After gassing up there, we hit a brand new traffic jam and didn't get to our hotel until 11pm.  We had expected to arrive around 6.  Argh.  We stayed at the Albergo Al Cacciatore in Desenzano del Garda.  Our room is the one pictured on the website.  Neat.

Friday - we had a fabulous day at Gardaland and a lovely dinner at a British style pub near our hotel

Saturday - after even more traffic jams, we arrived at Camp Darby.  We got ourselves settled into our room at the Sea Pines Lodge.  That evening, Mike took Jillian to the carneval that was on base.  She was thrilled to be on the bumper cars and, even more so, to get to eat a "real" nutella crepe.  It would seem that crepes in Italy taste much better than the ones  I make.

Sunday - we attended church at our old chapel and were surprised to find some familiar faces.  Afterwards, we headed to the Vechio Livorno restaurant in Livorno (as if it would have been somewhere else!)  We met our friends Linda Forniciari and Andy & Anne Marie Gifford and had a blast.  Is there anything better than getting together with old friends?  Mike got to enjoy the Livornese specialty cuccuchio.  The girls and I are endlessly amused at the weird things that he'll ingest!  Later that afternoon, we found Jillian's best friend from Ms. Moses's 1st grade class, Erin.  It was a total fluke meeting that could only happen at Camp Darby.  We stopped by the MP station where her dad works to see if they would help us contact them and, lo and behold, the whole family was in his office.  Totally wild!

Monday - Since Jillian is now the proper age, we had to get her to the Leaning Tower so that she could climb it.  And climb it she did!  Go Jilli!  Marisa and I found lunch and took a "nap" in the shadow of the Basilica.  A different kind of fun, but fall all the same.  Later we girls went to the pool to meet up with Erin and her mother while Mike visited folks at his old office.  Marisa had to make due with the only swim ring I could come up with - Batman.  She was reluctant, but finally decided that she'd rather swim with a boy ring than not swim at all.  She then got over-confident and started taking the silly thing off in the middle of the pool.  Heart-attack city for me!  In the evening, we went to Lucca with the intent of biking around the wall for awhile.  This was nixed when we realized that the kids were pooped.  So we had dinner in the famous oval-shaped piazza and called it a day.

Tuesday - When in Italy, buy wine, right?  We went shopping at our favorite grocery store and stocked up enough good wine to last till Christmas.  We also found lots of other little treats that we used to enjoy.  Mmmmmm.  For lunch, we went into Tirrenia and discovered that three of our favorite places were closed - Gullivers, La Scalia and the Gnocchi Place (this one has a real name, but this is what Leslie always called it and it works for me!).  So, we headed back up the street to La Cavielare Nero and had a fabulous meal.  There was pretty much nothing vegetarian on the menu, but they whipped up a nice penne with mushrooms for Jillian and a spaghetti pomodoro for me.  Of course, Mike had lots of seafood, including his favorite orata fish.  Marisa begged alot of it from him.  She's daddy's little girl!  Our plans for hitting the beach this afternoon were spoiled by clouds and wind, but I guess we'll survive.

... followed by a busy week-end!

Saturday was my birthday, of course.  I'm now officially 37, although I've been claiming it since the beginning of the year.  I'm actually old enough to forget how old I am, so I have to just reference the year it is and go from there.  2007 means I'm something ending in a 7.

Anyway, Mike worked in the morning and the kids and I walked to the PX.  Since it was my birthday, we had cookies.  Of course, we almost always have cookies, but this time I didn't feel a bit guilty.  That makes it better!  Mmmmmm.  Later, we went for a walk in the farmer's field (a phrase from my childhood that I've passed on to my girls) so that we could let Cassie off lease.  She's such a happy dog when she gets to run free!  Along the way, we bought cherries, strawberries and apricots at a roadside stand.  It was such a great way to spend an afternoon with my family!  Later that evening, we went to our friends, the Griffith family, for dinner.  We were joined by the Lowery family and Luis and we had a feast of bruscetta, homemade pizza, salad and a wonderful strawberry torte.  It was lots of fun and we all left stuffed to the gills.

On Sunday, we were naughty and skipped church.  We were totally busted on it when we got to the birthday party of Emily Grassi, who immediately noted that we hadn't been there.  Gotta love kids!  We had another great time hanging out with friends and our gift of a floor puzzle featuring lots of bugs was very well received.

This week, we've been concentrating on getting ready for our trip to Italy.  We leave tomorrow.  I still have lots to do! 

Whew! Busy week!

I'm ready for a rest and yet that doesn't come until next week.  On Tuesday, Marisa had her last day of school for the year (that's a picture of Marisa with her wonderful teacher, Miss Joy) and on Thursday, Jillian had her's.  So that means that I now am the mother of a rising Kindergartner and a rising 4th-grader.  Wow!  If they're getting old, does that make me old?  Grey hair doesn't really mean anything, right?!

Yesterday, we had an impromptu PB&J picnic with as many friends as we could nab to celebrate the end of the school year.  It was a nice day despite the forecast, so it just seemed like the right thing to do.  The kids all had a fun time and the adults got to have some fresh air and time to chat.  Ah, the simple pleasures.

Today, we had a midday birthday party, but the big news was Jillian's green belt test in Tae-Kwon-Do.   She did fabulous, but you never would have guessed from her attitude.  She is unfortunately a perfectionist and a bad sport.  It's such a shame because she really has a wonderful natural aptitude - I'm constantly hearing how great she looks from other parents and observers.  I would be so thrilled if she enjoyed it more.

Hosted a BBQ

Yesterday evening, I hosted a BBQ for the my Bible study group.  We are part of the the Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC) and we meet on Tuesday evenings.  Right now, we're on a break between studies, but several of us wanted to get together anyway.  We like each other!

The bulk of the women in PWOC meet on Thursday mornings.  They're quite nice and I hope to attend those meetings also starting in the fall.  However, I love our night group.  We are a diverse group of women - some work, some stay home with kids, some homeschool; we attend at least three different church services around town; we have several racial and ethnic groups represented.  Our discussions are deeply enriched by the various backgrounds that we bring to them.  It's great!

Next year my role in the group will grow since I have agreed to be the facilitator.  I'll do what I can to keep the ladies in contact and informed about PWOC happenings.  This fall we'll be starting the study called Having a Mary Spirit:  Allowing God to Change Us from the Inside Out.  My friend Beth just led this one in her church and said that they really got alot from it.  I suggested it here and we're offering it in the evening and the day groups.  I'm excited!

And then sometimes not....

Marisa did a real 180 today and it wasn't fun.  She and I had done nothing but hang around the house all day, so when the big kids got out of school, I thought it would be nice to hit the playground for a little outdoor time.  We got shoes on and headed out.  Immediately, Marisa went into her "complaining" mode and decided that she was heading off on vacation.  She didn't specify a destination, but when she didn't stop about 30 yards away, Jillian offered to fetch her.  That didn't work, so I had to drag her back.  I explained that not coming when called was inappropriate and that she had to remain by my side.  So she proceeded to complain louder, cry and fuss, saying that she wanted to go inside.  I told her that we would do so in 10 minutes.  So I got 10 minutes of non-stop noise.  When I announced that the 10 minutes was up, she immediately announced that she wanted to stay outside.  ARGH.

So we headed toward the apartment, but stopped to sit on the stoop.  Friends joined us and I figured we were through with being contrary.  Nope.  This time she walked off until I called her name and then she ran.  When we got inside she had a time out with the timer.  When it dinged, she sat there for an additional half hour because she refused to acknowledge that she knew why she ended up in time-out in the first place.  Total 2-year-old independence stuff.  Finally she realized that I really meant it and confessed that she knew that it was wrong to run away.

Now she's fairly normal, but I sure don't want to take her to Tae Kwon Do.  That's been her favorite place to act up lately.  I hope that Mike is home early tonight!

Marisa is a cutie

On Friday, Marisa had her last day of preschool at the Child Development Center.  I was celebrating - it's been a tough year with those folks and I'm glad it's finally over.  But Marisa had fun overall and that's what matters, right?  For the last day, the kids were allowed to dress up in an outfit that shows what they want to be when they grow up.  After I talked Marisa out of a Care Bear or a duck, she decided that she wanted to be a Fairy Princess Ballerina.  At least we had the componets for that one!  When we got to school, it turned out that most of the girls were a ballerina, a princess or a fairy.  Only my clever girl had rolled them all together!

That afternoon, we had another go-round with the pool, but it got even bigger.  Lots more neighborhood kids joined in, a big pool and sprinkler were added to the fun, and a picnic snack was created.  Lots of screetching and bickering and splashing ensued.  It was great until it was time to stop.  I was met with quite a bit of resistance!

Yesterday's excitement consisted of a birthday party for Marisa and cleaning house for me and Jillian.  Mike got to be Marisa's escort and turned out to be the only dad in the role.  He didn't mind, though, since it meant that he had nothing to do with house-cleaning.

After all that was done, I got to watch an actual movie (meaning that it wasn't animated and didn't feature talking animals).  I had wanted to see Mona Lisa Smile when it was out in the theaters, but didn't get the chance.  I enjoyed it very much - definately worth a rent!

Beautiful day in Germany

It was gorgeous today, so I decided to drag out the inflatable Disney princess pool that I had bought a couple years ago for the bargain price of $10.  This is the second time we've used it.  Does that justify the initial purchase?  Probably not!

Anyway, it took over a half hour to get the silly thing to inflate.  Me and three kid "helpers" worked diligently and finally had it ready to fill with icy cold water from the hose.  Marisa and her friend David took up residence inside, while Jillian and Virginia decided that they would rather play with the hose.  They squirted each other and then upped the anty by riding bikes into the spray.  It was great to watch all the kids have a fun, wet day!

When the shade finally came over the pool, it didn't take long for David and Marisa to get cold.  I got them out and wrapped in towels, but it still took about 30 minutes for the blue tint to leave Marisa's lips.  Poor little thing!

Not a great start...

Alright... so it's been a week and I have already neglected this new venture.  But I refuse to conceed defeat so soon.

On Friday night I hosted a CM crop and had one friend join me.  I got alot done, since we were both serious about scrapping and didn't chat much.  I did 8 pages!  On Saturday, I did a CM Get-together that went great.  We did a mother/kid theme and created Father's Day cards.  There were more kids that I expected, but we had a fun time.  I made Jillian join me and she did a cool card for Mike.  Shhh!

Since it's Wednesday, we have Tae Kwon Do.  Jillian will be testing for her full green belt next week on June 15.  She's very serious about her sport and it shows.  I'm so proud of her.  I'll be sure to share photos of her getting her green!

Speaking of photos, I'll need to post one of Mike dressed like a big eagle someday, too.  He was up at Butzbach Elementary School today being the eagle and it just cracks me up.  He's been short of people the last few weeks, so he's had quite a stint of being in touch with his inner eagle.