Color Me.... Italian

Please Follow Me....

2007-11-20T14:58:00.000-05:00

Allright the incredible masses that read my blog *you, and you, oh and you over there too* please follow me to my new blog. I know... another blog address change in 2 1/2 years... but I promise this will be my last, so I hope all of my friends will come read it!

To sum it up, the reasons for the change: 1 the title/address of this blog doesn't represent what I write about and 2 I use a new gmail address, so it's a pain to keep logging in and out back and forth between email and blogger, so my new blog is connected to the email account that I actually use.

:) Plus I'll be posting more regularly!!!

So come read Sheenanigans!

Apple Picking 10/06/07

2007-11-10T04:50:00.000-05:00

Our first stop on our trip home was to Virginia, as we flew into Norfolk, and my grandparents (who live about 3 hours away) picked us up. Our first night in, we ate at this very good Thai restaurant, my first time eating at one. It was delicious! The next day was spent at a nearby farm picking apples.

We were still a bit jet lagged, but I wanted to do this day trip anyway. I wanted to see Carlee's reaction to the apple trees, since she loves apples. As soon as we arrived, I fell in love with the place. I wanted a farm lol. It was so beautiful out there. Carlee had a blast, and kept picking tiny apples. Apples that were perfect for her little hands. We ended up gathering two bags full, well, I say we, but I mostly took pictures. :) Once I find the brochure I have, I'll come back and add where the orchard is, and what not. Here are some pictures:

Carlee couldn't wait to eat the first apple she picked!

The average size of the apples Carlee picked:

My favorite picture: Grandpa trying to get the apple, Carlee trying to help,
and Grandma saying, "No, not that one... that one!" A view from the orchard:
Carlee trying to carry the bag of apples, she's so strong!

The Purpose of our Trip Home

2007-11-08T04:10:00.000-05:00

We've been home for a week now, and we're finally getting back to normal. I've been busy trying to get caught up with MOMS club stuff, with things going wrong the entire time. I've also been trying to get my house back to normal with Carlee trailing less than a foot behind me, creating new messes. Speaking of Carlee, we're also dealing with her being in attention/spoiling withdrawal. Nice. :) So, to post about our trip home.

We had planned so many things we had wanted to do. Along with visiting family, we had wanted to go to vegan restraunts, see tons of movies, go thrift shopping galore, etc. But our trip ended up being intended for a whole different reason. I hate to refer to Evan Almighty again, BUT there's a part in the movie, where God is telling Evan he wants him to build the ark. Evan starts saying how he can't because it doesn't fit into his plans of making it in D.C. and goes into detail of what he had planned to do with his life/career. God just looks at him and says, "your plan?" and laughs.

That's how I felt about this trip. God had different plans for us. It's just amazing to us how everything happens for a reason. There was a reason we didn't make it down in August, a reason September didn't happen either, even a reason for the flight schedule changing at the very last minute. We were meant to be home exactly when we were.

Tony's Grandma passed away the last week we were there. We are so grateful that we could be there, that we were meant to be there. We were able to visit with her just a day before she had her stroke. I'm so glad we were able to do that. Tony was able to say goodbye, and come to peace with her passing, and was able to spend a lot of time with his family.

And this was the purpose of our trip.

Rest in Peace, Lupe. We love you.

A rude awakening

2007-11-02T16:27:00.001-05:00

Today I woke up to Tony walking into the bedroom. "Are you still sleeping?" he asked.

"Yes, why?" I said turning over to go back to sleep.

"Well, because it's 2:45."

"No, it's not." I pulled the blanket over my head.

"Yes it is. I'm already home from work."

"You're such a liar. You got off early."

"No I'm not!" he said grabbing the alarm clock. He shoved it in my face, and sure enough it read 2:48 PM.

What the hell? But I guess I should have expected it, since I couldn't get to sleep until 5 AM. We just got back from a month long trip home to the states, and the time difference is kicking my butt.... and Carlee's too, she was still sleeping when I went in there. lol... oh this is gonna suck for the next few days.

I'll update more soon. Right now I've got to go check on my rising dough. I'm making soft pretzels at 10:30 PM.
:D

Note to Self

2007-10-02T11:53:00.001-05:00

Don't bother detail cleaning or for goodness sake.. mopping, before a party.

Tony Hates Murphy

2007-09-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

So, Tony got home with Halo 3. Went to go turn on the Xbox right away, and got...

The Red Ring of Death....

Needless to say we're on our way to the Nex.

sigh... test 1. and halo 3

2007-09-27T07:52:00.000-05:00

So yesterday, after 2 weeks of constant nonstop being busy with all sorts of things, and having no time to study, and after having an emotional breakdown the night before (which of course ended in a call to my mom,) I had to take my first accounting 2 test. I got a 70. I'm glad that I passed, but so bummed I didn't do better. I had been doing so well on the homework assignments, I was understanding everything. Ugh. The test was 25 short answer questions though. That somewhat threw me off. Yeah, that sucked. I'll blame it on that.

Today, I've been trying to detail clean the house because tomorrow night Tony is having a Halo 3 birthday party. And while I'm cleaning one room, Carlee is right behind me in the last room making a complete disaster again. nice.

I had already ordered Tony Halo 3 for his birthday. But Amazon said it wasn't going to get here until the first week of October. It was supposed to come out at the NEX here on Tuesday. So, Tuesday he stopped by base, and the store said they didn't get it in. Tomorrow, they said.

Yesterday, we spent the entire day at base. Tony stood around the electronics department (along with a new friend) and patiently waited for some kind of fed ex box that would contain the uber game. It never came. (I was taking... err barely passing my test at this time.)

At 3 I headed over to the library to go to the writing club meeting. Turned out to only be 2 of us this week (and the lady in charge didn't go AGAIN.) But we read through our stuff, and I got some feedback on my stuff. Maybe I'll type it up and share.

3:45 I had to leave the meeting early because we had to drive to the Catania airport to pick up friends. I had to drive our car, while Tony drove our friends'. I was scared. I hate Catania's traffic, and my anxiety acting up didn't help.

Anyway, we made it back to base okay after taking friends' car to them. We ran by the NEX again, and they still hadn't gotten the game in yet. Tomorrow, they said. They said they might get in 12-20 copies. For a whole base. Full of Single Sailors. Who play video games. 12-20 copies of the most anticipated game. WTF? So... yeah.

Today, Tony was lucky enough to have to work at main base, so I got a call around lunch time, and heard his voice say, "I got it!" (they ended up getting a whopping 30 copies!!) I smiled and was glad since that meant he would be able to have his Halo 3 party he is so excited about. So, I should get back to straightening out the house. =D

craftiness

2007-09-25T08:14:00.000-05:00

So I haven't had the chance to craft much lately thanks to accounting class and the moms club newsletter... BUT I did get a chance to take and upload pics of what I have been wanting to make something crafty out of. This is mainly to share with my many crafty blogger buddies/friends (oh okay, there's only one...) haha. And if something actually gets made with these, I wanna see it. =P Another friend recently asked me where I got my inspiration for my cards, so I thought it would be fun to share what I do find inspiring.

Here's the link.

Enjoy!

********

2007-09-19T17:04:00.000-05:00

it's past midnight and i need to go to freakin bed.
but my banned book project is aaaalmoooost done.
=D

Week in Review

2007-09-19T13:26:00.000-05:00

I know it's not even the weekend... it's humpday. But I haven't blogged in a bit, so I'll review what we've been up to....

Working out our leave:

Tony's October leave got approved, however, (as our luck would have it) the flight schedule changes the first week of October. Which means that the last rotater flight back that we could take is a week before Tony's leave ends. So, we're seeing if his command would mind if we leave and come back a few days later, so that it works out with the new schedule. Regardless, we WILL be coming home. Even if we have to buy last minutes commercial tickets. We're not putting this off again. We'll make it work. The only thing we're kind of bummed about it not being home for Halloween because last year was so much fun, that we were looking forward to making it a family tradition. =)

My Accounting Class:

So, my managerial accounting class is going well so far. I've had three assignments due already which I've gotten A's on all of them. woohoo! My next assignment is due on Monday, and I have to take the first test on next Wednesday. It's really funny, because now I'm analyzing everything, hah. Whether or not a certain business could claim "such and such" as manufacturing costs, or if it would be Administration.... Contemplating the overhead costs that might have gone into a shirt I see at the nex... etc. etc. lol.... it's fun... like my brain needed another reason to be constantly thinking.....

Let's see last week... Tuesday I went to my first pilates class. That felt awesome. I loved it, and I've only missed one class since then.

**ARGH my stupid H key is not working. I keep having to backspace and retype it 6 times!!!***
Last Wednesday I drove all tHe way to base to go to a writer's club meeting, wHich ended up being cancelled! I decided I was going to start going because I used to love to write back in High school and it was something I hadn't done in a long time, except for once in a while. I figure I need to start doing things tHat I'm interested in again. Things for me.

Saturday we went to a beach with a bunch of our friends. It was our first time at Fontane Bianche. It is beautiful!!! The beach is so sandy and there's not any rocks or shells or anything, which I was a little disappointed in since I love to collect things from the beach. We spent the day out there, playing in tHe water, sun tanning, people watching. We saw our first topless beach goer. Hah. There was also a lady selling massages for 5 euro, whicH some of our friends got, but I passed on. I was already completely relaxed from the sounds of the beach and tHe warm sun shining on me. I didn't even need one. =D It was so fun to be out! To be with good friends! and see new sights! I love weekends like that.

After we had enough of the beach, we all headed home. We were supposed to head over to our friends Angie & Les' House for dinner, but unfortunately on the way home, it started raining (which we were delighted to be caught in the first shower we've seen this summer) so we missed our turn. We kept going to see if tHere was anotHer way back to 417 (tHe road we take home), but tHere wasn't, and then there wasn't, and then there wasn't. We almost made it all tHe way to Piazza Armerina before finding a way back to our little town. The drive was beautiful tHough, and despite being tired of being in tHe car, and frustrated witH being farther from home, we still enjoyed the scenery. I was mad that I had only taken our small camera instead of the big one. I took pictures, but they all came out pretty meH.

THe next night, we went over to Angie & Les' since we missed dinner the night before. She cooked us up a delicious Thai curry. Very good =D We enjoyed a game of cards before eating my blueberry crisp for dessert, and then finally headed home since it was past Carlee's bedtime.

Monday night, we drove out to Motta to go to a welcome dinner for a new girl at Tony's work. Maaannnn.... Do I feel sorry she has to work with those guys... Hah. I got my first taste of how they really act towards each other, and let me tell you, they are horrible! A bunch of dirty sailors. HAh. Both the 2 newest girls are really cool. It was a fun dinner and we had a blast. Carlee loved it too. Everyone wHo works witH Tony absolutely adores Carlee, so it was nice to not feel like I Had to confine Her to her chair or anytHing. THey didn't mind at all as sHe crawled back and forth under the table to visit each and every one of them. lol

Tuesday night we went to another dinner for Angie's birthday. Happy Birthday Angie!!! We have no idea how we ended up at tHe restaurant in Catania, but we did. We followed Angie & Les, but I don't think we could find our way back. I swear that city is a maze and a half to drive through. And I almost had 15 anxiety attacks. There were so many close calls with cars, with people on bikes (with no lights so you couldn't even see them til you were 1 inch away), pedestrians deciding to cross the street right in the middle of traffic. OMG. It's insane. Then trying to park was a whole different story. Somehow, Tony ended up driving down stairs into a park. LMAO. That was fun. Driving back up them was hilarious, thankfully it was only a few short stairs. Tony kept saying, "Sheena this is the parking lot." "Uhh, no Tony. There's a couple sitting over there on a bench." HA. It was a Chinese restaurant, and the food was really good. I was so impressed, the people who worked there could speak Chinese, Italian, and English. Geez I need to get on the ball with learning another language. =) They even had veggie options for each of the courses, which was nice. However, I didn't realize there would be egg in my noodle & sauteed veggie dish, so I had to pick it out. Next time I'll make sure to ask for no egg. It was a lot of fun thougH. And I made a birtHday card for Angie. I love how it came out. It's one of my favorites so far. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it though for my craft files, I'll have to see if she still has it... =)

So that brings us to today. Carlee and I drove to base tHis afternoon to go to tHe writer's club meeting again. THe lady who is trying to get tHe club going didn't go again for some reason, but 3 of us sHowed up, so we decided to just work togetHer on some writing exercises. It was fun, and nice to be writing again. I tHink it's so cool how a single hobby can bring together people who are completely different from each other. There was a 15 year old girl (who I'm so jealous of), me (a quite young mom, seriously Carlee is about the only thing that separated me and the 15 year old from possibly being best friends lol), and another lady who was a bit older then me, but has no kids. So, 3 different women, on completely different stages of our lives, brought together by one shared love of writing. Is tHat cool or what? The reason I'm jealous of A (the 15 yr old) is that sHe is so incredibly lucky. She moved here about 6 months ago, and she was given the cHoice of either attending the DOD school on base, or attending an Italian school. SHe chose the Italian Art school, even though she knew not even one word of Italian. She's been able to experience so much, and I told her that there are hardly any kids who get opportunities like that. I really think she appreciates the experiences though, sHe's an awesome girl and I think she's really going to go far. I can't wait to get to know these ladies more through these meetings and their writing.

After we got back from base, Carlee and I made some salt dough clay for an art project I'm doing. My mom works at the main college campus of the school I go to online, and the library is putting on a challenged art display for Banned Book Week. I love writing, and I love reading. (both of which I'm just getting back into.) So when I read about this, I knew I wanted to submit something. I'm one of those people that don't agree with a minority getting to censor books. So what if you don't agree with something that's written? Other people still have the right to read it. That's my feelings on that. So, I have my project in mind. I'm hoping to work on/finish it tonight or in the morning and get it in the mail by tomorrow afternoon. I wanted it done already, but I've been pretty busy... oh well. It might be a few days late. Anywho. I'll post pics of it after my mom has seen it. I'm excited to see her reaction, only because my idea is completely something that I would never normally create. It's very outside my comfort zone as far as creating something for others to view. Plus, I owe my love of books to my mom, so I want her to be the first to see it. =D

So, with that being said, I'm going to get to work on it. I'll post pictures later of the beach, and Carlee, and whatnot.

September already....

2007-09-06T06:58:00.000-05:00

I really can't believe September is here already... yesterday, was so nice! It actually dropped below 90 degrees! It was still a little hot right under the sun, but the shade and breeze felt awesome. The sudden "drastic" change in temperature put me in the mood for soup. lol =D So, I made a veganized version of my Grandma's corn chowder... my absolute favorite. It was so delicious. I can't wait for fall to really get here! I can't wait for halloween!!! We're going to be a family of zombies HAHA! Tony birthday is this month too. =D And mine is next month, on halloween actually. I'm going to try my hand at Thanksgiving dinner this year... I've already been going through my cookbooks to see what new things I can try to practice before then... I love the fall. And then CHRISTMAS!!! yay! =D

Once in a Lifetime...

2007-09-04T15:12:00.001-05:00

Mount Etna erupting tonight.

My friend K called me around 8, as I was putting Carlee to bed, and told me I should have a look at the volcano. At first, I was skeptical, usually if it erupts, you can't see it very well over here on our side. Well, I went out and I could see it just fine. It was so awesome. I tried to take a few pics, but they came out small anyway. I called my friend Angela, to let her know, and she and her husband walked up to my house right away. We talked about how awesome it would be to go for a drive to get closer. They asked me if I wanted to go... I thought about it, saying no at first because Carlee was already tired, and it was past her bedtime. "It's a once in a lifetime chance!" Angie told me. That settled it. I ran inside to grab the camera bag, carlee's bag, made a quick sippy for her, and we were off. Angie's hubby drove us to a country type road, and the picture shows our view. This was the very last picture that I took, and my favorite. Thanks Angie for letting me borrow your tripod! :D I can't even imagine what it looks like closer to the volcano. It was already breathtaking from that far out. This really was a once in a lifetime moment, it was awesome!

Today

2007-08-31T07:54:00.000-05:00

Carlee and I baked cookies!

Yeah, okay.

2007-08-31T05:51:00.001-05:00

I was browsing Allrecipes.com for something to make for dinner tonight and also for my lunch bunch next week, which the theme is International food. Anywho, a list caught my eye called "Even Vegans Have Sweet Tooths." First thinking, "Even Vegans Get a Sweet Tooth" would be a better name haha, then reading the description:

"Delicious vegan desserts without scary ingredients like tofu or egg substitute."

Okay. I continue to scroll down to read the first recipe in which the list's author states:

"Just substitute vegetable shortening for butter."

Like vegetable shortening isn't scarier than tofu or egg substitute?

Yeah, okay.

School is back in Session

2007-08-31T02:51:00.001-05:00

I started up the fall semester. The day before class started I almost dropped my class. I looked through the lesson 1 notes, and read the teachers note that said: "Some steps are not shown. You should have mastered them in Accounting 2301. Finish the problem as you already know how, then answer the questions."

I suddenly doubted my comprehension of the first class, which actually, everything only came together in the very end, just in time for me to get a high enough grade on the final to bring my overall grade up to a b. What if that was a fluke? After a few minutes debating, Tony convinced me to stop second guessing myself. So I did.... well tried.

So, Accounting 2302, eh? I was also planning on taking Spanish 1 online as well, but that class filled up within 2 seconds of registration being open. Nice. I was really bummed, as it would set back my goal to finish by a year, since Span 1 is only offered online in fall, and Spanish 2 in the spring.

However!!! After talking to a CTC rep here in Sig, I found out that I could probably clep out of Spanish (once I brush up on it of course), OR I could take Italian at UMUC and have it transfer. He also informed me that the two classes I was going to have to wait til I got stateside to take (Busincess Calc, and a business computer class) are no longer required. All I need is one 4 s.h. credit computer class. Ummm... hello! Can you say Intro to Internet? or Intro to Word Processing? HAHAHAHA Awesome.

So I'm really excited as that means, if I clep out of foreign language, take an easy shmeezy computer class, all I have left after this semester is Eng. Lit and a science class (which will probably be astronomy). How awesome is that? I'm so close to finishing this Business Administration degree. Then I can start on my bachelors. I haven't decided what business major I want to go into for that, but I was leaning toward Accounting. We'll see.

I told a friend yesterday how close I was to finishing my associates, and she looked at me, and asked, "So what are you going to do with it?" I wanted to laugh (only because I thought she knew me better than that.) Honestly, I'm not doing anything with it for as long as I can. I want to be home with Carlee until..... (AND my wonderfully supporting husband completely agrees with me, and actually loves me being home) =D BUT I'm getting this 1.) because it's always something I wanted to accomplish whether or not I ever decide to majorly focus on a career and 2.) Just in case I ever do have to go get a job soon, my options will be improved greatly. 3.) Eventually, after Carlee gets old enough, I think I will find myself wanting a career (perhaps even my own business?) So, I'd rather get my schooling done now, instead of starting years later....

I already have a business concept brewing around in my head. So, after we get back to the states, once Carlee's in school, I am thinking of going to work in a related environment anyway. We'll see. I'm not saying anything yet though.... Maybe in a few years if I'm still blogging, I can look back at this post and tell you all about it.

Until then...
=P

OMG... I think she's got it!!!!

2007-08-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

Well... my little baby is potty trained!!!!! Do I consider myself lucky that it only took 1 freakin week? Hell yes! ONE WEEK!!!

The first 3 days were hell. Seriously..... HELL. Day 3 I almost put her back into diapers because it sucked that bad. On Day 4, she actually started giving me signs that she needed to go, so I was able to anticipate the accidents, and got her to go on the potty all day. Then Day 5, Monday, we had to go to base to run some errands. I took her potty in the car with us, and put a pull-up over her undies, JUST in case. I was in shock when the first time (at the college office) she said, "Mommy POTTY!!!" AHHH!!!! SHE told ME she had to go POTTY!!!! So of course I started frantically running to the bathroom with her in my arms... and we made it. =D Since then, she hasn't had a single accident! And you know what's REALLY REALLY surprising? She wakes me up at night, if she needs to go, or holds it until the morning. Now, I'm really not expecting THAT to last, although I'm really hoping that it does. Believe me, I am soooo THANKFUL for her being this easy to potty train. I talked to a friend on Day 3, (my worst day) who said she had to stay in her house for 3 weeks to train her oldest kid. 3 WEEKS!!! That's when I almost fainted, and almost decided to put her back in diapers lol. In case anyone's wondering, I didn't use pull-ups because she treated them like diapers.... Which was the reason the first 3 days were hell.... I think I actually feel comfortable enough now, to lay our carpet back out. haha. =D Then again, I might wait, juuuust in case.

And of course, I'm sure when Carlee's a teenager, all the family will tell her, your mom used to blog about everything you did.... even going potty! *Go ahead, please remember to do this. HAHAHAHAHAHA

gah, she's gonna hate us. LMAO

sigh.....

2007-08-25T12:22:00.000-05:00

I was just about to post how this morning was potty training hell, but that this afternoon and evening had a complete turn around with Carlee using the potty 3 or 4 times.... including once for #2!!! Just as I was about to log in and tell you all about it, she peed in my lap. How awesome!

yesterday was nice

2007-08-24T04:04:00.000-05:00

So I got all that done yesterday, and then even had some time to myself to craft. Wow. That was nice. I ended up getting two more cards made. I'm in love with these. They came out so much better than the last few that I made in a hurry for the card exchange. I have a few more I need to make, then I will post pictures when they reach their destinations. =)

I'm not sure how much I'm going to get done today, as Carlee is panicking everytime she feels like she has to go to the bathroom. I rush her to the potty and.... nothing happens. lol. I know she has the feeling, but the timing is still off. Wish us luck. :)

I'm getting back into my scrapbooking. I ordered a few things from a friend who sells Close to My Heart scrapbooking supplies, so I can't wait for that to come in. However, last night I realized all the pictures that I wanted to scrapbook for Carlee are in the external hard drive. Nice place for them, huh? So, in the next few days, I'll be uploading to snapfish and ordering copies. I should also back the new ones up on dvd as well while I'm at it. I should probably just back them all up, since I don't know what happen to the old pictures on dvd either...... hmm....

potty and food in one post??? wth.... =)

2007-08-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

Today, we started potty training Carlee....
(I've been dreading this for so long)
But today I finally decided it was time to seriously start.
After 2 accidents, she got the idea that she was no longer in comfortable diapers, and started sitting on the potty. It took her a while to actually relax enough to go, but she did it!!! Hopefully, she'll want to continue using the potty after today.
I'm hoping that this means it will be fairly easy.
**Crossing fingers!!**

Not only was I excited about getting Carlee to use the potty, I was uber excited about dinner too. It took all afternoon, and a lot of work, and quite a bit of time to do all the wrapping.... but it was worth it!!!

For dinner, we had vegan lumpia. I used a recipe a friend has given me a while back, and altered it a bit. I used the fake meat crumbles instead of beef, and left out the egg that it called for. Minced carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and soy sauce also went into the "meat" mixture. *Thank goodness for food processors!* I used water instead of egg whites to close the wrap and amazingly it worked! So why use egg? I don't get it. Anyway, they came out really good. Tony was in heaven. I even had 18 that were left over, so I froze them so I can cook them later.

To top it off we had vegan brownies that were so rich and delicious. I used a recipe out of The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton. I just found out that she blogs too, Vive le Vegan, so of course I had to go leave her a comment. =) The brownies were really delicious. Tony said I had definitely found the way to his heart. haha.

It's days like today that I feel really accomplished.
=)

God Says...

2007-08-21T13:54:00.000-05:00

In the movie Evan Almighty, God says (something along these lines), "When you pray for patience, do I give you patience or do I give you more opportunities to be patient? When you pray for courage, do I simply give you more courage or do I give you more opportunities to be courageous?"

How awesome of a movie line is that? It really hit me, as I am usually praying for patience... What stay at home parent of a tantrum throwing, attitude giving two year old doesn't? hah. It really made me think of it in a completely different perspective. I love it when movies can accomplish that. This was a really good movie too. I think I enjoyed it more than any movie I've seen in a long time. It's one of those wholesome family movies, but it's not corny or anything and is pretty funny. Carlee even liked it a lot since it had so many animals. If you haven't seen it, I fully recommend it. :)

Anyway, we watched that movie on Sunday on a whim. Sunday actually turned out really fun. Our friend who lives out in Motta (a town a good 45 minutes from here) needed a ride to base. So, since I was bored and quite frankly tired of being in the house, and TIRED of feeling like I wasn't even in Italy!!! I volunteered us, and told Tony we should go pick him up. So we did. I got to see his Italian house. I'm so jealous. Sometimes I wish we could live out in town. It's amazing to hear the Italian conversations, to hear the kids playing, to see the landlord's own garden. I was hoping to grab lunch out in town, but instead we had to head to base right away, so we got to eat at Applebees. yay..... so exciting. lol. Seriously though it was a lot of fun.

I ordered the veggie pizza making sure to ask for no cheese, and instead got a pizza with artichoke dip as the sauce (and I know it had some kind of cream in it.) Obviously, going vegan is going to take a lot of practice for me, and will also require getting over my not wanting to bother anyone. "Does this have milk? what about egg? cheese?" x 409 ... lol... Tony had it easy, he ordered a creamy chicken penne pasta dish sans chicken. He and Carlee enjoyed that very much.

On a family update note: Tony put in his new leave chit. We should find out by the end of the week whether or not it gets approved. If it does, we'll be coming home for the month of October. So cross your fingers... again. Just to let ya'll know, if this doesn't go through, we're gonna have to wait til spring probably. November and December leave is already out of the question, and besides mac flying during that time is pretty impossible. So... hope for the best!
=)

Going Vegetarian 2

2007-08-20T13:30:00.000-05:00

The video in the last post does not have any disturbing animal footage. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. It's actually about global warming and the effect of factory farming on global warming... and how "environmentalist" politicians and Hollywood stars are still eating meat. I chose to post that one because it's what started my whole interest and my research. So, if you didn't watch it because of that, you should take a look, it's actually pretty interesting. Well, it was to me anyway. I wouldn't post shocking animal footage... yet anyway. Maybe someday I'll be a brave enough little vegetarian to use my own blog to show my own beliefs and such, but until then, if you're interested in finding out the truth of factory farming, go to GoVeg.com and watch the video called "Meet your Meat." I guarantee you it will open your eyes. Even if I did post it, sadly, I think only maybe one viewer would watch it, and it would probably be my mom. =) *Love ya Mom!*

Unfortunately, nobody wants to know where their food comes from, nobody wants to know what is involved in getting that meat to their plates, or how that meat is affecting their bodies. The same goes for so much of our processed food. Nobody cares what hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup is, or what it's doing to their bodies either. The shit these companies are putting into the nation's food is killing us.... slowly. But if you don't care enough to research it for yourself, you should do it for your kids. One of the facts I read that convinced me to go vegetarian was "heart disease starts in childhood." Because your life long eating habits is what creates heart diseases; they don't happen over night.

This really made me think. Do I really want to put food into Carlee's body that might eventually cause her a heart attack at age 38 if she eats it until then. Ummm... I don't even have to think about that for a nano second. The answer is NO! Oprah used to say on her show (it is one of my favorite quotes,) "You do as good as you know how, and when you know better, you do better." This has been one of my personal mottos since I first heard her say that a few years ago.

I have researched for the past two weeks. I've read: Raising Vegan Children in a NonVegan World, Vegan Freak, Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet, and am finally starting on reading through my first vegan cookbook: The Everyday Vegan: Recipes & Lessons for Living the Vegan Life.

Becoming Vegan is possibly my greatest asset as we begin this next health step. This book was so full of information, I couldn't put it down. It has everything you would need to know. What vitamins you need, how much you need, where you can get them, what diseases and cancers these vitamins prevent!!! Deficiencies to avoid with a little planning (mainly B12, but now vegetarian foods are fortified with it), and even about deficiencies meat-eaters get as well (without even knowing it!) It even has info on being vegan while pregnant or breastfeeding. There's info on how to eat vegan if you're very athletic or into bodybuilding. Best of all, there's info on nutrition of vegan toddlers! This is definitely staying in my personal library. So, yes I've done my research, and I now know WAY better, and we're going to be doing WAY better.

After only two weeks, I feel so much better! It's really amazing. I heard that it takes 6 months for all the chemicals and such from eating meat to fully leave your system. I can't wait to see how I feel after 6 months then, if I already feel this good. This is just after two weeks of eating vegan at home, and vegetarian at restaurants (which we've been to only 1 restaurant in the past 2 weeks lol.)

Another event fully convinced me I had made the right decision. My cholesterol results came back from a test I had done in July. Now, we ate very healthy. We never even considered eating hydrogenated oils, we ate 90% lean beef, chicken, skim milk, only whole grains, no HFCS, everything was as healthy as it could get (or so I thought.) When I read my results and the explanation from the doctor I was shocked. My cholesterol is a little high! WTH? only a little, but still! I ate the healthiest I knew how, healthier than ANYONE I know!!! and I still have higher than normal cholesterol?!? Are you freaking kidding me? Now, don't freak out family, it wasn't too high, actually it was just a few points too high. But still. Eating the way we were, I should have had the optimal cholesterol levels that they want you to have, and I didn't. Now, high cholesterol runs in my family. Had I known that animal products were the only source of cholesterol in our diet, I would have become vegetarian permanently a lot sooner. I wasn't too freaked out about the results, because we had already started eating vegetarian; I knew I was already going to be reversing this bad cholesterol I had accumulated. However, I couldn't help but wonder, what if I hadn't had that test done just then? What if I hadn't found out how bad meat is for you with its cholesterol and saturated fat? What if I hadn't researched vegetarianism at all? Where would I have been in 10 years? 20? 40? On cholesterol medicine? On the verge of a heart attack? No, I'm taking care of this now. I'm taking care of myself now and I'm taking care of my family now. End of story.

Going Vegetarian

2007-08-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

After seeing this video on a friend's myspace page...

I went to the website the guy talked about in the end: Go Veg and after reading all the articles, and watching the videos, we've decided to go vegetarian. Haven't quite decided if we're going to go vegan, or not since we love cheese... but we're definately going to try. I felt really naive after reading all the info, because I honestly thought that farms were still like Charlotte's Web type farms, just on a bigger scale. And they definately aren't, they're the extreme opposite. Anyway, I won't preach, I'm sure everyone is thinking, "Here she goes again with her nutty food obsessions..." lol, but I really feel that this is going to be healthier for my family and better for the animals.

Anyone else out there vegetarian? I've got a lot of research to start doing... the last time I went vegetarian I ended up anemic because I didn't know what I was doing. This time I'll do better.

Our Trip has been Delayed

2007-08-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

:(
Flight schedule is not working out with Tony's leave, so we're postponing the trip. We'll try again in October.

Some paper crafting

2007-08-05T11:44:00.000-05:00

Since the flight this past weekend was cancelled, we have to try early this week. *crossing fingers* Today, we had thought about going to the beach, and that ended up not happening. I did get pretty much the whole day "off" as Tony took care of Carlee all day, and I even got to get some crafting done. I went upstairs and flipped through a whole stack of craft books. I had wanted to try a little bit of sewing, but talked myself out of it since I didn't want to try anything new when I'm already quite stressed, plus I didn't want to start a big project when we're (hopefully) leaving in a few days. So I flipped through a few more books, saw a picture of a decopaged bowl that held a candle, and knew I had the tissue paper to do it (what packrat doesn't have tissue paper?) and I had a plain glass decorative bowl that I meant to spruce up years ago. I ran and grabbed it, started cutting up my paper, and cut out some butterflies from some left over wrapping paper from Carlee's birthday (yes, I'm telling you, I save EVERYTHING.) haha. Anyway, here's how it turned out:

I'm quite pleased with it. :D It was a perfect holder for a candle.

Last week, I also got to make 2 sets of cards for a card swap. Again, I used some left over wrapping paper from Carlee's birthday party. I had fallen in love with the print (which was why I used it for her presents) and saved everything that was left over (stealing it back out of the wrapping paper trash pile after the party more than once LOL). Tony could not understand why I saved it until he saw my simple little cards:

I wish I had a scanner :( Oh well.... This one I love too. I used one of my favorite stamps and colored with color pencils (copying the design on the stamp.) I couldn't figure out what else to do with the background, because to me it looks a little plain with just the blue, but I didn't want it to take away from the girl either. Anywho... I only made one because it took forever to color. :D
So that's what I've been up to today. :D I also have a 2 carrot cakes cooling right now. One I'm taking to the MOMS Club lunch bunch tomorrow. I can't wait to taste it and see how it came out.

Oh, also amazingly, today was the first cloudy day so far this summer. It looked like it was almost going to rain. Almost. But didn't.

Acibonaccorsi Fireworks Show

2007-08-03T07:55:00.000-05:00

Last night I took Carlee on an ITT trip with my friend K and her son. It was one of those on a whim trips, I bought the ticket the day before. I promise I'm really trying to get better at just doing things instead of overplanning lol... So we went. It was awesome, well what we got to see anyway. The description of the trip was,

"Firwork factories from all over Europe will participate in this competition! Bring folding chair and snacks. The fireworks are scheduled to start at 8:45 pm. Please be prepared for delays while waiting for the festivites to commence."

Well, we sat around in a good spot that our tour guide found for us, and waited and waited. Italian style is nothing is ever on time. lol... A few firework sets went off but they weren't the BIG ones we were waiting for. Finally at 10:45ish, (15 minutes before we were supposed to be back at the bus,) the first big show went off. The fireworks were HUGE. They filled your whole field of vision. They looked like they were right in your face! Some looked like there were meteors falling in the not too distant horizon. It was AWESOME. It was 10X better than our usual American fireworks. It was like American finales X 10 over and over and over!!! I wish Tony had been able to go, because then we could have walked around more, ate some great food, seen more of the sights, etc. But I just sat and waited, holding a sleeping child. lol. Carlee was actually scared with the first few sets that went off (and she even had earplugs in). Then on the last good one, she got into it, trying to say all the colors she saw.

Before the show started, Carlee and D were playing tag with Italian kids. It was so cute. It's amazing how to kids there's no language barrier, and they don't care about cultural differences, there's only PLAY and LAUGHTER. It was a great night. Here's a video of one of the first sets of fireworks. I didn't get the awesome one, because two big palm trees were in my way. Next year I'm getting the best seat since I know where to look now. :)

This was one of the first sets of fireworks. It was good, but the last one was even way better. I wish I had gotten video of the last one, but there was a palm tree right in my way, plus I was trying to keep Carlee excited about it. :)

You can see the rest of the pictures on snapfish HERE.

Drive to Base

2007-08-03T07:26:00.000-05:00

I got this idea from Loraloo over at Suburbia Las Vegas. Here are pictures of our drive to and from base. Three main things we see:

The Agriculture: Here, olive and orange trees
Crazy Driving: If you notice in the picture, there is an oncoming car in the opposite lane.
And umbrella girls that wait for business on the side of the highways in the heat.
The rest of the pictures you can see on snapfish HERE. They were actually taken in July. Enjoy!

Ever Heard 4 Fire Alarms Go Off At Once?

2007-07-31T15:26:00.000-05:00

This morning was interesting. An Emergency Electricity outage was planned from 8 to 1 today, which we were informed of yesterday afternoon. Awesome. Ate cereal for breakfast and fruit for lunch (at Carlee's command: grapes, a banana, and an orange, yum) Everything was going fine (a little boring, but fine) until a bit before 11 am when the fire alarms went off upstairs. All 3 or 4 of them. The cats tore through the house on beserk mode, and Carlee immediately started crying and freaking out. I tried to tell and show her to cover her ears (because the sound just really blares and echos through the house). I ran upstairs to see if I could turn them off (I knew they were probably on because of the electricity.) I could reach one in the hallway, took it down, looked in the bedroom at the vaulted ceilings and knew there was no way. Ran back downstairs to comfort Carlee who was screaming for me with her little fingers in her ears. Ran back upstairs to try to think of something. Called Tony at work instead on the only phone that works when the electricity is out which happens to be in our room (where an alarm was going off)... *he later asked why I had called, and honestly I just get so stressed out I just need to hear his voice to calm me down lol* "Go to the fire station, and ask them to come turn them off." He's so level headed isn't he? Unlike me.... haha.

So I run back downstairs, grab Carlee (with one sock on and one off,) throw on my flip flops and head outside with the fire alarms screeching at me the whole time. I glanced at the fire station and instead, decided to run into the housing office first. When I entered, everyone was just sitting around, obviously since they couldn't do anything with no electricity. I told them about the fire alarms. "Do you have electricity?" No. "Oh, that's normal then. They're probably low on batteries." Well, okay. But I'm home. And my daughter is freaked out. And I need them fixed. (... Italian was spoken for a few minutes....) Finally, the girl looked at me and says, "Okay. We'll put in an emergency call, but he has a 4 hour window to respond." Awesome. I ran back home, and stood on my porch for a few minutes before entering the ear searing house.

We finished our lunch somehow, Carlee kept wanting to be held. Seriously, she was freaked out. Finally about an hour and a half later, the repair guy showed up. Went upstairs and fixed them. Turns out one of the alarms was completely broke. Nice. Comforting, no? Anyway, things finally calmed down, my splitting headache slowly subsided. Another hour later, the electricty finally came back on. That actually freaked Carlee out too. She was walking into the living room when all of a sudden everything came back on, the air condition, the lights, noise!!! She turned around and her face just scrunched up in shock and fear and she ran right to me in tears. I laughed and felt bad for laughing, but comforted her and finally calmed her down. We enjoyed the rest of the day though.

The good thing: We're hoping to get on a flight this weekend!!! *CROSS YOUR FINGERS!!!!*

so I've been ignoring my blog a bit

2007-07-22T06:50:00.001-05:00

if you hadn't noticed...
:)
We're just keeping busy. I've been taking Carlee to all the MOMS Club stuff that I can, including the pool on base once a week. She loves that! I've been busy with moms club stuff, writing the newsletter and all, trying to recruit some of my friends... lol.

The trip in August is up in the air until Tuesday. Then we will get the flight schedule and will find out if it works well with the days Tony requested off, if it doesn't we just won't take the leave and save it for either Sept. or Oct.

I'm going to a pampered chef party in about an hour, and I'm fully prepared to spend some money!!! :D

and unfortunately, that's all the updates there are. haha. it's been pretty laid back lately.

ciao!

gotta love sicily's electric company...... NOT!!

2007-06-29T15:19:00.000-05:00

This past week has been.... fun. Tuesday we ran to base for errands and such. We arrived back home to find the power out in the whole neighborhood. So we... correction.. I spent all day entertaining Carlee, while it started getting stuffy in the house. blech. We couldn't cook anything so we ended up going to a nearby restraunt for dinner, and right after our plates came out, THEIR electricity went out! At least we got to eat... Our electricity finally came back on early the next morning. Wednesday was okay. Thursday, it shut back off around 9 am. I hadn't even had a chance to make breakfast yet. So we had bananas and milk... Carlee was hungry for lunch by 10 am. lol... I ended up going to a friend's house for the day since apparently my street was the only one with power issues. Came back home in the afternoon to a nice cold air conditioned house. Then today, the power went out AGAIN! thankfully only for an hour.... but this is really getting frustrating. Anyway...

Today I got to go to the market again with Angela. It was fun, and it wasn't even too hot out until we were ready to go. I tried to take a few pictures, but I felt somewhat hesitant. I wasn't sure how people were going to react, or if anyone would get mad, etc. So I finally snapped one of a vegetable vendor and his stand, and he looked up right as I was taking the picture, and just grinned this huge grin. I laughed because I figured he was probably thinking I wanted his picture because I thought he was hot or something... LMAO, so I didn't take anymore. Maybe next time I'll be more brave... :) I'll see how the few came out that I took and post them soon. Tonight, I'm too tired though.

I did a lot of cleaning after the market, until Tony got home. Started on dinner. Tried a new chicken divan recipe. It was pretty good, but I found out that Tony doesn't like broccoli. I swear he's such a picky eater. But amazingly Carlee loved it, so we'll have it again anyway. That was the first "real" dinner she's had in a long long time. Lately she's only been eating fruit, sandwiches, and mac&cheese... unfortunately. But the doctor said it was okay..... psh. whatever. I'm not even worried about it because it's obvious she's not malnourished! :D

I'm tired. this is all for today.
:P

geez it's HOT

2007-06-24T11:27:00.000-05:00

I just found out that yesterday it reached 111 degrees! omg... I can't wait to see how July's going to be... thank goodness, August we won't be here! lol... we're gonna be like the Sicilians and take our vacation... (Seriously, everything but the tourist spots shuts down for the whole month of August!)

btw our leave got approved!!! woohoo!

6 Billion Others

2007-06-24T08:10:00.000-05:00

While blog surfing, I found this site:
6 Billion Others

and I spent Carlee's naptime watching the videos. I'm really interested in cultures, and seeing these videos was amazing. To hear people's ideals spoken in their native language, to see the difference in the way people think, and yet to find that some things are believed and wanted by all, regardless of race or religion or culture... It's a really beautiful project.

I love the Italian's take on Love.
The Japanese take on Fear.
and the Brazilian's take on Laughter.

I'll be checking back at the site, can't wait to be able to see the final project.
:)

I was in heaven yesterday

2007-06-19T10:43:00.000-05:00

After a few months of craving a Denny's or IHOP style breakfast, we finally had one for dinner last night. Yesterday while at the Nex, I noticed....
A WAFFLE MAKER!!!!
I've been wanting one for a long time now, and the nex just never had one. One of my friends asked why I didn't just order one online, and honestly 1.) I don't really like online shopping for stuff like that and 2.) even if I had looked it up online, I probably would have talked myself out of buying it. Anyway, so there were only 2 left and I grabbed one. :D We didn't want to wait til next weekend to eat a nice breakfast, so we had it for dinner. Waffles, syrup, blueberries, whip cream, eggs over medium, bacon... oh man, it was delicious. It's crazy what you start to miss from home. Waffles was my #1, and my hubby is my hero for buying me the waffle maker!

Executed Duckie and other various things...

2007-06-16T04:26:00.000-05:00

You know, before we had Carlee, we had our cats to add some laughter to our lives. Then Carlee came and she added even more. Some days, there's an event that involves both cat and kid, such was the case today. When we came downstairs this morning, Carlee found this:

The poor annihilated duckie was funny enough to start my day, but Carlee's reaction was even more priceless. "OHH NOOO! DuGK! Oh NOOO MOMMY DUGK! Head! Dugk! Head!" She repeated the phrase while she diligently tried to place the head back on the duck. After several unsuccessful attempts she finally handed the pieces to me, and simply said, "Dugk. oww. head. yeah."

"You're right," I answered. "Looks like Dori got a hold of your duckie." She was happy with that answer I suppose because then she took off, and I took the duckie away with a smile on my face that I couldn't get rid of.

***

The tiramisu the other day was so delicious. oh. my. goodness. delicious. It just melted with sweetness and the vanilla flavored coffee that I used. It barely lasted the two days. I had originally planned on taking a small piece to friends, and Tony insisted that I didn't. He wanted to be selfish with it, and I let him. I even gave him the very last bite.

***

I am finally done with my geology course. I once again feel that release of stress and weight on my shoulders. I always feel that after finishing every class though. Tony thinks it's funny that I stress out so much about it, but I take my classes very seriously, and I want to do my very best. Once I'm done, though, the feeling of accomplishing something is worth it.

***

Yesterday I went to the market with my friend Angela, who I just found out blogs as well. She loves photography too, but she's much better than me. Her photos are gorgeous, AND she and her husband get to travel a lot more than we do. I'm jealous. :D

Anyway, we went to the Mineo market, and I was so happy to go. I really need to get out in the economy more often. Angela introduced me to her veggie vendor and when he offered his cheek, for a split second, I COMPLETELY forgot that they kiss on the cheeks. lol. I felt like such a DA. I recovered quickly though, and I think I played it off okay. hehe. I ended up buying 2 kilos (4.4 lbs) of ripe peaches for 1.50 euro, and 1/2 kilo (1.1 lb) of cherries for 1.25 euro. You can't beat that. I also found some gorgeous wool yarn that I'm looking foward to using in my next crochet project. I want to start going to the markets more often, and I promise I will take my camera, because I really want to share it with you guys. I love the market, people watching, and seeing all the wares. It's fun.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Saddest Celery Ever

2007-06-13T08:36:00.001-05:00

I should really REALLY start grocery shopping on the economy. Seriously.

This is what I found at our little commisary when I went to go buy ingredients for the chicken cacciatore I had planned on having tonight. Well, I'm NOT going to use this... I was going to try, but then opted against it, since it really just grossed me out that the celery didn't even break when I bent it. It actually swayed back and forth when I moved it... eww. I had also planned on making tiramisu to go with dinner, and since I was looking foward to trying that all day, I made it anyway, even though we're now having tacos. Cacciatore will be for tomorrow, and hopefully we'll have some tiramisu left over.

my morning

2007-06-13T03:01:00.000-05:00

Reply email #1 to hubby:
you're daughter woke up in a horrible mood, she's been crying since she woke up.... and wants goldfish for breakfast, and I won't give them to her so she's screaming in my face... ugh fun... NOT.
love you
me

Reply email #2 to hubby:
So, I finally got her off the goldfish, and got her eggcited about eggs. LMAO. I crack myself up. Anyway, I was so frazzled by the screaming in my face bit, that I clumsily dropped the carton of two whole eggs on the floor. One completely broke on the floor (which immediately made Carlee stop crying, and say "EgG! EGG! eGg!")

"uh... yeah i know Carlee, thanks." So, I pick up the eggs hoping that the last one is at least salvagable. It was. So I cooked it, gave it to her and she started to eat. I came to the computer, opened my email, and twenty seconds later, (I kid you not) I hear, "More. More. More." Geez! So, I go look and sure enough, it's completely gone.

"Do you want oatmeal or cheerios?" I ask.

"I want eggs!" (she actually said it.)

"Well, a second ago, you didn't want eggs, and now that there's not any eggs, you want them.... Oatmeal or Cheerios?"

"EEEGGGSs."

"Allright, oatmeal it is." So she's crying, and I finally bring out the oatmeal, she takes one look at it and starts crying about the eggs. I give her a bite, and she continues to cry.. Then she hands over her spoon and starts crying about that. "What, do you want a different spoon?"

"yeah." (She's been doing this a lot lately, suddenly one is "eww." and the other is good.)

"Which one do you want? Dora?" Finally, the sweetness of the oatmeal must have sunk in because she suddenly wanted the spoon back and proceeded to eat. And now she's done with her oatmeal (half of it anyway) and crying for the goldfish again...
fun fun
love me

ahh, the attitude of a two year old... gotta love it.

hey kaos check it out :D

2007-06-10T12:54:00.001-05:00

Finally got Kaveri to level 40 a few weeks ago.... got shadowform, and my mount all in the same day. Very Nice!

the end is near

2007-06-05T06:21:00.000-05:00

Thank God. Day 3 of a vicious stomach bug caught by a tiny two year old body. Does not make for a pretty sight. ugh....

My weekend was awesome, how bout yours?

2007-05-21T07:52:00.000-05:00

Friday we joined our friends for dinner at the Valle dei Margi agriturismo. It was our first time going, and it was soooo worth it. The restaurant's orchard surroundings were serene, the food was so delicious, and the company was fun. But the food... ah, the food, I can't go on enough about the food. When we first arrived, we were offered fresh grapefruit juice and an assortment of nuts and olives, etc. We stood and enjoyed the sweet and tangy juice and chatted for a bit until the waiter came and took us to our table.

It was a very empty night, Emy says usually Saturday and Sunday are the most packed nights. But it was nice to be able to hear the music, each other's conversation, and the occasional Italian conversations going on the background. At Valle dei Margi, they have a set menu every night. You go, eat what they bring out, and pay, but I hear you never have to worry about not liking something on the menu, and I definitely believe it.

I can't be positive about the order of everything, but I believe we first tasted the vegetables and cheese appetizers. The eggplant was so tasty, the cheese a bit strong, but good, and the bruschetta was awesome. There were artichokes, too, but Tony liked them better than I did; they were soaked in some kind of vinegar maybe? I didn't care for it too much. There was also quiche, and I don't remember what else....

Then the pastas.... Two different kinds. One with sausage and fresh tomato sauce, my goodness it was so good. The other had a mushroom sauce, and was just as delicious. It made me want to keep taking just one more bite, so that I could taste it again....

The meats came out next. One was sort of beef steak that had a somewhat sweet taste; it was interestingly good, definately a new flavor for us. The other was pork with what I think was some kind of cheese inside, and that was also very tasty.

Thankfully I had paced myself perfectly and had just enough room for dessert. A small sweet biscuit cookie thing with cream on top, very sweet and yummy. But then, my favorite, a sort of mini sweet empanada with sweet cream inside, oh it was so delicious. And a bowl of fresh fruit! One type I had never seen before, and it was so good. A mix between a plum and something... or other. I don't know honestly, but it was good. Fresh fruit right from their orchards! How amazing is that!?! And to imagine that we just found out how incredibly close this agriturismo is to our house! After living here for almost a year! Oh my, had we only known earlier..... :) It was a perfect night really, and to top it off, Carlee was very good for the babysitter. How perfect!

***
Saturday was awesome for me as well. I got to go with a few moms from our MOMS club to the mall! Etnapolis is one of two malls here *I think there's 2. American style malls are a very new concept here, as I understand it. The cities' economies are still largely based on mom & pop shops, each business having it's own little specialty. So, it was fun to see so many big stores all in one place, like back home. I came home with so many bags, lol. Mostly filled with summer clothes, since for some reason, most of my accumulated wardrobe is for fall or winter. I fell in love with so many tops. The colors are so bright and alive, that just looking at them made me feel happy. So I picked up quite a few of them. :D

We ate lunch at a Mexican style restaraunt. Mexican food cooked Italian. hehe, it was actually pretty good. I got the taco plate, with three different types of tacos (which I have no idea what types they were now that I think of it). But two of them I liked, and one not so much. The hightlight of the meal was dessert. The whole reason we chose this restaraunt over the others: the mango lime icecream. Boy, do the Italians know how to make their icecream! I was in love with this flavor. And when our friend V didn't finish hers, I couldn't let it go to waste. LOL. It was THAT good!

We shopped and chatted and shopped and chatted some more, until finally we headed home around 6! I had so much fun that the day really just flew by. It was so nice to just get out with the girls.

***
Sunday was Carlee's birthday party. We got up early in the morning (well early for us on a weekend anyway,) and started the cooking. We had the deviled eggs, the potato salad, and the cake to make, and the decorations to put up. All before 2 pm. So we got to work.

Everything was going well, until the cake. I had found a new recipe for frosting online, since I didn't want to use the Wilton's recipe anymore, because of the shortening. Yuck. The first batch I made came out the right conistency for decorating, but I was going to do the outline first, so I thinned it out a little bit. Well, I ended up, not using all of it for the outline, and since I felt pressed for time, I didn't want to make another batch just to be able to do the stars. So, instead I just colored it and used it for the coloring in part also. So, there were no stars on the Dora cake, except for her hair, which I used premade icing since there was no way I was going to be able to make my white icing black. In the end, even after the cake breaking in half while I tried getting it out of the pan (before icing it), the cake came out okay. Not my best, but Carlee knew who it was, and that's what mattered. :D Plus, just knowing that there was no trans fat in the icing was nice.

The box cake however had me mad. I never thought to check the box cake for the hydrogenated oil. I mean, why would they need to put it in the box cake? I don't get it. But they do. For the whole cake - 12 grams of trans fat. How awesome is that? Needless to say, I will never make another box cake again. I will be making my own from now on.

Carlee had a blast though and loved eating all the icing off her cake. And I let her. She played with all of her friends. She opened her presents, they played with play dough, and at the end got to blow bubbles and take rides in her new wagon outside. After everying was said and done, I really felt we gave her a fun party. Which I was a bit nervous about, since it was our first real kid's party for Carlee.

I can't wait until next year, when she has more of an idea of what's going on. Even when we sang her happy birthday, she had this bewildered look on her face, like, "What the hell is going on?" lol Thanks to everyone who sent or gave her presents, she is really having fun with all of them. She made out like a bandit this year.

***
The only part that sucked this weekend was last night... While we were playing with Carlee in her new tent (set up in the dining room) I looked outside the back window, and not realizing how much hair the cats have gotten on the drapes, took in a face full of it. In that second, I knew I was in for a world of hurt... and in about 5 minutes after getting out of the tent, it hit. Last night was miserable. I immediately took my allergy medicine and my sinus medicine and hoped it would take care of it quickly. It didn't. My head felt like it was going to explode, and I was sneezing every few seconds it felt like, and Tony laughed at my two piles of tissues, one one each side of me on the couch. Gross. I don't feel as bad as last night, but I'm still not completely through this episode yet.

And now back to our normal hectic schedule. I gotta cram for my next geology test due this week, a lab (with about 7 parts to it) is due this week, Carlee's doctor's appointment is tomorrow, and Tony doesn't get a day off this week. So the upcoming week is busy for us, but this past weekend made up for it already.

Ta Da!

2007-05-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

I didn't finish it time for the shower, but the day after. Oh well. I've decided to wait to give it to my friend, but I will still show you guys because I don't think she reads my blog anyway. Here it is:

I used a pattern out of the Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hookers book. I thought the design was too cute, and I loved the colors; they remind me of icecream. It was pretty easy for me too, nothing too tough. :D

This is my next project. My first attempt at changing yarn colors in the middle of a design instead of at the ends of rows. It took me a little bit to get the hang of it, plus it made it easier that it was pretty symmetrical. It's going to be a purse. It's also another pattern out of the Happy Hooker book. In other craftiness, I'm patiently awaiting an order of beginner sewing books from amazon and some too freakin cute reproduction of 50s fabric. I've been itching to learn to sew for a long time. My first attempt back in high school ended after only ten minutes of trying, because in that amount of time I managed to break 2 or 3 of my grandma's sewing machine needles. "How are you breaking these?" I remember her asking after running out of replacement needles.

"I'm just trying to sew this jeans purse," I said, not knowing that the sewing machine was not equipped with needles strong enough to sew through the demin, especially the seams and such. I didn't try again until I lived in Florida, and my grandma, while visiting, helped me make a little outfit for Carlee. Once I got here to Italy, I tried to make another of the same pattern, and instead of making the little bloomers I got a lopsided square of fabric somehow. :) But I'm ready to try again, this time with a pretty mom and daughter apron set.

Hopefully I'll do allright.

there goes another hour of the day

2007-05-14T04:12:00.000-05:00

i just found out today that they finally brought my favorite show from the states to AFN: Young and the Restless. I've been without it for almost a year! Time to get caught up.....
:)

sugar and spice... and everything nice

2007-05-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

I absolutely adore little girls. I spoil my own rotten, I admit it, and my husband is no better. If it were up to me, we'd be trying for another little girl right about now, but unfortunately I cannot convince Tony. It's kind of hard, too, because so many of my friends (and a lot of family) are either pregnant or trying to get pregnant... and I want to try too DANGIT! :( Anyway, since we aren't, I've been spending money on other people's kids. lol... Tony laughed at me the other week because I went to a baby shower for a girl that I had never even met before. Now, don't worry, I didn't just look for pink balloons outside the door and show up with a gift... I was actually invited, I promise. hehe.

Anyway, at that baby shower, a girl had made the mommy-to-be a diaper cake. I had never seen or heard of one before this, so when I found out that one of my close friends was going to be having a baby shower, I decided I was going to try to make her one. Mine didn't come out as pretty as the one I saw at the shower, but I am still really pleased with it.

Yeah, that's stuff in the bag too, AND I still have my unfinished crocheted gift to give to her too. I think I'll give her the finished part, and save the other half for later. After the shower tomorrow, I'll take a picture of it and post. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

to balance my last negative post...

2007-05-10T04:07:00.000-05:00

This is my latest project: I can't show the whole thing, because it's a gift. My first crocheted gift. :D I'm excited. I'm done with one part of it, and now I'm working on the second part. I'm so happy with my progress in crochet. My stitches are becoming very even, and I'm even getting the guage right for the pattern! To show you my improvement here's a picture of my current project, with one of my very first swatches. My stitches were always sooo tight I could barely get the hook through. Looking at it now, I'm amazed I didn't give up. :P
The other day ( a day I was supposed to use for studying) we ended up having to go to base (which as usual turned into a whole day thing.) On the way home, Tony wanted to stop by the plant place and bought 60 euro worth of plants for the front yard. They're really pretty, but the ants have already found them and are taking over. If they die, it will be really disappointing. Last year we tried the whole gardening thing, and planted our own flower seeds and bulbs, but nothing grew. So, this year, we opted for already grown flowers. I told Tony that if these die, that's it, we're getting rid of the little garden and just replanting grass. We're not spending that much to try again. lol. BUT if they live, then we'll go get a few more to fill in the front part.

This little guy is a trooper. We had a peach that went bad last fall. I told Tony to put the whole peach in a pot with dirt, and maybe it would grow. Well, the peach rotted, and it didn't seem like the seed started growing at all. So, Tony must of taken it out and just threw it in the garden. The other week, Tony noticed the little peach pit had sprouted! So we put it in its own little pot, and it's grown so much already. I think it's so cool.

So, that was a short self esteem high....

2007-05-10T03:09:00.000-05:00

I was feeling good. I was done with my hardest classes and I managed to get good grades! I thought I was going to have a ton of time to do the things I wanted to do, instead of just studying all the time, and then it hit me once again. I had forgotten that this geology class was shoved into 8 weeks. So, after I took my finals, I immediately had to start studying for my first geology test, which I took yesterday, (after studying all day.)

Which, my studying went like this: "The point on a fault at which the first..."
"MOMMMMAAA!" ......
"The point on a fault..."
"WHOAAAA!!!" (child climbing on top of me)
"The point on a fault at which the first movement..."
"BALLOOOOOOON!!!" (after turning my page to the solar system page.)
"The point..."
oh, you get the point.

Six long chapters of this over a few days. Why didn't I try to study while she napped? Because that's when I needed to work on my lab, which was also due. I wasn't even sure what main points to study since the chapters cover such extensive topics. I could have studied an extra day, but I was tired of studying, not knowing if I was even studying the right things, and I took the test.

And I failed.

Nice way to start the class.

Oh well. I still have time to make it up. :)

WOOHOO!!!

2007-05-04T11:32:00.000-05:00

I called the CTC testing office this morning to ask whether or not they were included in the "closing early" that the email mentioned. The guy said no. Awesome. So after a yummy lunch with some of the MOMS club moms (enchiladas, refried beans, rice, quesadillas, chips and salsa... YUM) we drove to base. The first time I tried taking the test, the proctor's passwords weren't working. We tried over and over again. Nothing worked. So, I emailed my instructor, and went to find Tony and the baby in the nex. We hung out for over an hour before I headed back over the CTC office to try again. That time it worked and the test started. I couldn't take too long on any one question because the testing office was actually going to close at 430 and it was already past 3. Finally, I clicked "submit" and crossed my fingers.... all that studying and cramming for this hard comprehensive accounting test, and all I wanted to do was pass.

I got an 85! woohoo!

I was so excited, because that should bring my overall grade up to a B (it was a C before this). So, now all I have to do is take my Microeconomics exam, and then I can completely concentrate on Geology, and possibly have some time for other stuff! :D

Crammed

2007-05-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

I just finished cramming for my accounting final which I was going to take tomorrow, but when I checked my email I found out that the office is closing early... grr... and I can't miss a lunch bunch that I really want to go to... plus I don't want to get up at six am just to get to base in time to take the test before the office closes. PLUS I can't even think straight that early. Is that enough excuses to wait? hehe. Hopefully, I will retain the information until Monday.

Agrigento - Valle dei Templi

2007-04-30T07:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we drove to Agrigento to see the Valley of the Temples. Everybody said I would love it, and I did. It was breathtaking. It made me wish I could travel through time and see them in their prime. Some of the views made it almost possible to see what it might have looked like back then. To see the detail in the columns is unbelievable. I wondered how they shaped everything without machinery. Of course, by hand, but can you possibly imagine? Incredible. I'll post some pictures and some links, but I won't go on. My words do NOT do this ancient site justice.

I think we started at what most people do as the end of the trip, but who knows. There were no signs telling you where to start. And all we had was my travel book to go by, so I was reading and trying to figure out which temple we were at. I don't know where everyone was getting those nifty little guides... hehe.

We first started at the Temple of Jove/Zeus (Tempio di Giove). According to my travel book, (Frommers Sicily), it was the largest in the valley, until it was ruined by an earthquake. The giant in the picture was one of several that were used to support the lagest Greek temple in the world.

Then we made our way to the Temple of Castor and Pollux (Tempio di Dioscuri). It had 4 Doric columns intact. I loved this one, even though it was so incomplete because at the top, you can see so much detail that they worked into the rock. I cropped and enlarged the first picture so that you can see it too.

Our first attempt at daringly balancing the camera on ancient Greek rocks to take a family picture:
Another picture of the great detail:

My favorite, the Temple of Concord (Tempio della Concordia), simply because of how complete it was. The travel book said it ranks with the Temple of Hephaestos in Athens as the best preserved Greek temple in the world. It has 13 columns on its side, 6 in front, and 6 in back. I wish we could have walked through it, to see from the inside, but I can understand why it's not allowed. It would have been awesome though, to see it how they did.
There were a few others as well, and you can see my whole Agrigento album on Snapfish, and here's a link of history and information if you're interested: Agrigento on the wiki.

Siracusa Day Trip

2007-04-28T10:33:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday, Carlee and I joined some friends on an impromptu trip to Siracusa. I found out about the details of the trip the night before around 9 pm. So, for me, this was a big thing. I'm never this spontaneous, I always have to have things planned out. Well, my friend B really wanted to go, and so did I, so I said yes, not even giving myself a chance to let it sink in that I'd be the one DRIVING! I guess this was a good reason it was last minute, otherwise I would have talked myself out of going due to the whole driving thing.

The drive was an hour and a half, and wasn't too bad, until we got into Siracusa. Then came the narrow cobble streets, with cars parked on either side, people crossing the road whenever they pleased through traffic, cars speeding out of an intersection trying to get in front of me... ahhh! Trying not to make eye contact with anyone (because that's when they know you see them, and they floor the gas to get in front of you) and keeping my eye on the car I was following, I made it to the parking lot. I was completely proud of myself, white knuckled, but proud. hehe.

As soon as we got out of the car it felt like we were in a whole different country, even though we were a mere hour from home. We parked by the ocean with beautiful water, almost a turquoise color when the sun hit it. The sailboats were out, the sun was shining, it was so pretty. We made our way to the aquarium. As soon as we entered the building, Carlee saw the first tank, and yelled over and over, "MemoMemoMemoMemo!!!" It was set up just like Finding Nemo. It was the cutest thing, and that reaction made the whole trip already worthwhile. She loved the fish! I didn't realize how interested she was going to be, and I'm so glad we went. After walking down the hallway, seeing a turtle, starfish, eel, and a variety of colorful fish, we went outside to look at the ducks.

Out back, they also have papyrus plant growing; Siracusa is the only place other than Egypt where the plant can flourish, and I got to see it. :D Afterwards, we went and ate lunch. I ordered a small pizza, and after eating that, Carlee and I shared a gelato. My Italian language class came in handy, as we actually understood eachother each time I ordered. (YAY!)

Next stop was a fountain, a well known one I'm sure, but not by me. Carlee splashed in the water for quite some time... yelling, "Bubbles! Bubbles!" We cooled off in the mist before heading to the Piazza del Duomo. Carlee had a blast climbing up and down the stairs in front of the Church and even made friends with a group of young adult Italians. The girls fell in love with her. We looked through the Church for a few minutes, before finally heading out. We decided it was time to go, against Carlee's wishes.

The trip back was fairly uneventful, except for the doubled amount of time due to a wreck and backed up traffic. The kids were passed out, so it was fine. The trip was so much fun, and I am so glad that I was spontaneous for once and went, driving no less! Hopefully I'll be brave enough to do it more often, and I already can't wait to go back to Siracusa. I really fell in love with the city. :D

Here are a few pics: I wish I had more of Carlee, but I had to hold her up the whole time since all of the tanks were at adult viewing height. Here is a link to my Siracusa Snapfish Album.

And a couple of links if you're interested: Siracusa Aquarium (a few pages are under construction, but there's a few pics and some info if you want to use a translator page). Siracusa on Wikipedia. Enjoy!

Newsclip

2007-04-27T03:02:00.000-05:00

This is a newsclip of the Nicemi Artichoke Festival AFN report. You can see Tony in it. :D I've been really busy studying :( so I haven't had the chance to blog. Finals are coming up next week, and I've already started another class, Geology. I didn't realize how fast paced it was going to be.... Didn't realize how much there was to cram into an 8 week course. blah. I do have some pics from an aquarium that Carlee and I went to this past week. I'll try to get to that today. :D

Niscemi Artichoke Festival

2007-04-15T05:43:00.000-05:00

Friday afternoon found us heading to Niscemi for their Artichoke Festival. We had low expectations, because apparently people who went last year couldn't even find an artichoke to save their lives. We were actually going specifically for the opening parade because every year the sailors who work out at Niscemi march in it.

Our first stop was meeting up a bar. We and the couple we had given a ride to were the first ones there. So, we ordered some delicious sandwiches. About five minutes til four, an Italian cop who had been hanging around the cafe for a while talked to one of the guys, who then informed us, that they were supposed to be there at 4 pm. Why the cop didn't say anything earlier, I have no clue. So, we left the cafe with a police escort driving down the narrow streets in the huge 12 passenger duty van. At one point the cop parked on the side of the street and left us there for a few minutes, with many angry Italians having to drive around the huge van. We finally made it to the main square where the parade was supposed to start.

I hung out with a new friend A while the guys, beautifully decorated horses, a band, and various groups of school age kids lined up. We snapped a few pictures, and the parade began, and thirty seconds later, it had passed us. Well, it was short and we looked around for what to do next. We noticed that all the Italian onlookers had begun to somewhat join the parade, walking next to the performers, following along. So, we decided to do the same.

We walked alongside the guys for the most part, trying to stay on the narrow cobblestone sidewalks, that unfortunately have rocks jutting out every few feet. Poor Carlee had a very bumpy ride. We went up hills, and around curves, cars honking every now and then, because apparently they could not tell that there was a parade going on.

The parade kept going, and while we were talking and wondering how long it was meant to last, a huge ostrich ran right in front of the parade. I had actually wondered if maybe it was from the front of the parade, and maybe we had missed it, but the Italians' reaction proved that it was indeed an unplanned visitor. The parade halted, and the entire audience and even some participants of the parade (mostly the kids) ran ahead to get a look at the poor bird being chased by the cops. They finally closed in on him, and a man who I assumed was the owner of the wandering ostrich roped him up and calmed him down. The parade finally started up again.

A few minutes later, after everything had calmed down, we found ourselves in front of a building. We waited. We weren't sure what they were doing, or what we were supposed to do at that point. It seemed to us that someone was getting interviewed. Suddenly, everyone started going into the building. A and I wondered if we were supposed to go too. Once we saw them usher the guys in, we decided to go for it. "Maybe the artichokes are inside," I joked. We had been wondering the whole day where the actual festival was.

We got inside... and there were no artichokes. Some people were going upstairs, some were taking pictures in the stairway, and many were just standing around, including us. Tony finally went upstairs to see what was going on, and eventually came down to inform us that it was a museum upstairs, and that this was the grand opening. "So, this wasn't the parade for the artichoke festival?" I asked. He shrugged.

It was sometime during this waiting for information period that we had a stressful semi parenting emergency. You see, the last time I looked for the wipes in the stroller bag, they were nowhere to be found. I guessed that when Tony put the stroller in the duty van they must have fallen out. I hoped that it would be fine, that since I had just very recently changed Carlee, and that she had already taken care of THAT business today, that hopefully (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) hopefully, we wouldn't need them. (I also thought we were only going to be in Niscemi for a few hours, too.) Well, while we're standing there, I smell something. So, I look, and sure enough.... she did THAT business again.

We found the unmarked bathrooms down the hallway, and Tony looked at me as if to say, "What do I do?" "Come in here with me." I told him. There was no way I was about to deal with this on my own, and if any Italians had any problems with it, well they should have had the bathrooms labeled. So, he started his job of handing me wads and wads of wet toilet paper. I hope you have never had to change a dirty diaper with wet toilet paper. It's near impossible. But somehow, we managed, even with a few Italian women coming in to use the bathroom. Surprisingly, I wasn't too stressed. I guess with Tony's help, and knowing that Italians love babies, and don't even care where you change them, eased my worries.

We made it back to our crowd and eventually found out that the festival was being held right at that moment BEHIND the building. OOOHHH! If only we had known that a hour before, instead of standing around the exit of the building! We went and looked around a bit, but since it was only 7 pm, hardly any of the food stands were open, and it was pretty empty around. There was one food stand, however, that was giving free samples to the Americans, so we got to try artichoke bread, grilled artichoke, and some kind of artichoke quiche. The bread was my favorite, it was really good. Other people got to try an artichoke & rice side, and another kind of bread as well. After that, we split into two groups, those of us that wanted to head home and those of us that wanted to stay.

We would have loved to stay, but our jackets were in the car, and it had gotten pretty cold, AND earlier in the afternoon we were unable to find a working ATM so we only had about 5 euro on us, AND we were still out of wipes. But the cold was the main thing, I didn't want to keep Carlee out there any longer than I had to. So we headed home. But it was fun and exciting. I'd like to go back next year later in the evening, so that we can see it when it's really alive.

So here are a few videos and a link to the Niscemi Parade Album on snapfish. :D Enjoy!

Traditional Sicilian Pupi Show

2007-04-11T07:17:00.000-05:00

They are NOT puppets.... you use your hands for puppets; nor are they marionetts. They are pupi, traditional Sicilian pupi. The Pupi Master went into much detail in the subject to make sure that we understood the difference. Last week, someone mentioned to me that some kids get scared at the puppet show, because they use drums and yelling to enhance the performance. I somewhat doubted Carlee would get scared... How loud could they be for a kids' puppet play? Well, I realized I could possibly be wrong, when the English translator (and granddaughter of the Pupi master) introduced the play as, "The Death of Orlando."

whoa. The Death of Orlando? We are at the family puppet show, right? haha. That we were. The pupi were taller than Carlee, hand painted, and wearing handmade clothes. And it was really awesome the way that they could make them move like people, you almost forgot that they were puppets... errr pupi. At least I did. I got into the play, even though I couldn't understand a single word, except for the translator's part: "Orlando, my love. Where are you?"

But even in Italian, I somewhat got the gist of what was giong on. The Christians were fighting.... someone. Not sure who.... and fighting they did. There was a lot of it. Quite a few of the characters even ended up losing their heads in battle! A few kids got scared, but Carlee was pretty much saying, "Whoa!" and "Uh-Oh!" and "Bye-Bye!" the whole time. Oh, and SSSSSSSS when the snake came out. She did pretty good, UNTIL it was time to take pictures with the Pupi on stage.

She was fine while the pupi were still. Then someone backstage moved the pupi's hand and put it on Carlee's shoulder and she FLIPPED out! Her facial expression made me laugh so hard. I swept her away and calmed her down, but it was pretty funny.

So the trip was a good one. Carlee did really well. After the play we went to McDonald's which is a treat for the kids, since there's not one at base. I know there's one in Catania, and Misterbianco, but seriously who drives an hour plus just to go to McDonalds? I don't miss it THAT much. hehe. But I was really proud of Carlee, and I'm looking foward to taking more trips with her. I think she'll do just fine... until the whole potty training thing. :D

My friend B took these pictures for me. She took video too, if I can borrow it from her, I'll post it for you, or maybe she'll upload it to youtube or something.

no title today

2007-04-06T14:05:00.000-05:00

So, I've talked with family and friends. I'm feeling better about everything. I found out that my grandtip had a heart attack, before the boom (I put the wrong part last post) hit him. So, I still don't quite understand why, but I have accepted it. Thanks to all my family and friends who talked it out with me. I dread the day when I have to explain this sort of situation to Carlee. It already breaks my heart. sigh.... but, I'm doing okay.... Still wish I could be home though, but doing okay.

This weekend I will be trying to catch up on my school work. I'm not too far behind schedule, so I think it should be okay. My calendar is really packed this month. I've got a bunch of Mom's club things I want to go to, I have a weekly beginning Italian class, my school work, my normal house chores, I've got a garage sale planned for this month, and on top of all that, I've decided that I'm going to try traveling with Carlee. Only on ITT trips probably. Tony's work schedule doesn't allow for too many impromtu trips, and Carlee and I really need to start getting out more. I want to see more of Sicily, the culture, the sights, etc.

Our very first Mommy & Carlee trip is going to be a semi-short one. It will be an experiment so to speak. It's targeted for kids, so it's a good first trip..... It's a traditional Sicilian puppet play. :D I'm really excited about taking her. I think she's going to enjoy it. It's from 8am - 2pm so it's not too long. We'll be home by 3 I'm sure. If this goes well, I'll be looking into other trips for us soon. Perhaps this might become a semi-traveling journal? I've also got a friend stationed in England, and I really really really want to go visit her. Would that be incredibly brave to take Carlee on my own, or just plain insane? hummm.... :P

goodness.... especially now that potty training will be coming up very soon...........

end of the day

2007-04-02T13:24:00.000-05:00

Today ended up sucking. That's pretty much all I can say about it. It was really horrible.

I got a call from my dad this afternoon and found out that my grandfather passed away yesterday. He was out sailboating, which as I understand it, he loved to do, and some freak accident happened and his head was hit by the bow. Seriously... God. WTF? you know? I'm so confused and frustrated emotionally, simply because at times like this I suddenly feel like I'm two million miles away from where I should be. I felt completely disconnected and alone today. Tony had duty, so I didn't even have him to talk to. I feel helpless. There's nothing I can possibly do, but pray for my family and wish I was there.

RIP Grantip

Long time... No Post...

2007-04-02T06:34:00.000-05:00

I know... I've been M.I.A. for a while... We made it home okay after about 4 times trying to get on the mac flight. It was a little stressfull, but definately worth it. We've been keeping busy. I'm still working on my classes. My finals are coming up the first week of May, so I'm a little stressed about those. Accounting is a little harder than I thought it would be. Then again, if I had the time to just sit down and complete all the assignments I would probably understand it more. But, I just don't have 3 to 4 hours to sit down and do it all in one sitting. I try to break it up into smaller segments, but it takes a while just to figure out where I was at, what step, etc. It's a pain. But hopefully I will pass. I start another class this month also, Geology. I'm really excited about that one, it should be fun.

I've actually only been home for a month. I can't believe it. It feels as though I should have more to talk about, but really not that much time has passed. We haven't been able to travel this past month, because the weather was rainy and cold. But it's starting to warm up, and I'm really looking foward to getting out again.

This past friday we went to Ramacca for their Artichoke festival. It was a lot of fun. I tried the little funny looking veggie for the first time. It was roasted with garlic and some other herbs. Soooooo yummy! I really liked it. And for only 50 euro cents? Come on! We had to try it. We also grabbed some artichoke canoli on the way out. That was very tasty. I really liked it. I usually can't finish a canoli because they are way too sweet, but the artichoke took some of that sweetness away, and made it perfect I think. It didn't taste veggie-ish at all. It was delicious. There were so many people out, and the atmosphere was so fun. It really reminded me how much I had wanted to get out and see the culture when we first arrived here. So, now it's renewed that excitement about Italy all over again.

Yesterday, Carlee colored Easter eggs for the first time. She loved it. I'm going to post pics over on her page. And that pretty much brings us up to date. I will try to get back on track with my posting and picture sharing.... :P

Today's snowfall

2007-02-25T19:03:00.000-05:00

*I guess you'll have to wait a bit to see the video... youtube is processing it.... *
This is what we saw outside today:

Carlee wanted to go outside and play, but with her cold I told her no.
:(

Getting back was supposed to be easy...

2007-02-22T16:49:00.000-05:00

We're still in the states. Thank goodness my grandparents live close enough to Norfolk, because if I didn't have a place to stay, I think I would have had a nervous breakdown by now. And to top it off, Carlee and I have been sick for the past few days. I'm getting over it, but today is her worst day yet, and now we've given it to Grandma. :( Anyway, to catch up on my trip:

After spending time with my grandparents, I flew to Florida for a weekend to catch up with my friends. It was a blast seeing everyone again. We cached, had dinner with everyone, and cached some more. hehe. Carlee was really good, and I'm still so grateful for everything that my friends did for me.

Those few days flew by and then Carlee and I took 2 more plane rides to get to Dallas where my mom and her husband picked us up. The first week Carlee and I spent sick. She started showing signs of the cold on the last plane ride. That was fun with no kleenex lol. The second week we drove to my sister's home in West Texas to pick up my bride's maid's dress. Took it home to get fitted. The story behind that is a little funny... although it wasn't to us at the time. When I first took my measurements while I was still in Italy, I took them wrong. The saleslady told my sister that the measurements said I was a size 12. My sister insisted that I wasn't. The lady said that the dresses run small, so my sister ended up ordering an 8. Well, the company sent a 10. So, needless to say my sister was a little panicky. But after getting it altered, it fit okay.

Anyway, so the end of that week was my sister's wedding. It went really well. I was so impressed with my sister. She planned and took care of everything concerning the wedding while going to school beyond full time, and working full time too. I have no idea how she did it. I know I wouldn't have been able to.

Her dress was gorgeous. I really liked it. The ceremony was very nice. Everything went smoothly. No one passed out, no babies acted up (I was really worried about Carlee doing this, since I wouldn't be sitting with her), she and her husband were gorgeous standing up there together. I cried, of course. lol... They looked so incredibly happy. I'm so excited for them. The reception was fun. Carlee imediately found the dessert table, and helped herself to some cookies. The bride and groom were so cute for their first dance, and the cutting of the cake. Brittany got cake shoved entirely up her nose. It was so funny. I'm sure she didn't think so in that instant though. :D

I had a blast, and I'm so glad I was able to make it down to see my sister get married. It was worth it. I even got to see a good friend of mine, who drove in from New Mexico, which was really cool too. I wish Tony could have come down too, he and James would have gotten along perfectly. Anyway, I'm so happy for those two, and I really wish we could have had more time to spend together.

But we had to head back to central Texas, and let the two lovebirds start their lives. :) The next week was a sort of chaotic -try to visit everyone - study for and take some tests out at the college - try to buy everything I can't get over in Italy - and try to get everything crossed off of my list of things to do whirlwind. Needless to say, I ran out of time. I didn't get to spend as much time with everyone as I wanted.... there is just never enough time.

On the 16th, we started the 2 day drive to the DC area. The drive went fairly well, where Carlee's concerned, thanks to a nifty little mini dvd player I bought. Oh, and a week or so before, Carlee was suddenly infatuated with everything Dora. So that is what we watched almost two days straight, and I only had 4 different dvds. The weather got bad only when we drove through the mountains, but we managed just fine. My grandpa grew up in Ohio, so it wasn't anything new for him.

On the 17th, we drove all the way to Norfolk from my grandparents' home. I signed up for the flight, and well.... didn't make the list. I was disapointed. There were too many people, and they only got to Category 2, and Carlee and I are category 4. Oh well. We drove all the way back home, only to do it all over again on Tuesday. I was so optimistic on the Tuesday flight, because there was hardly anyone there, and I just knew I would make the flight. Well, after waiting for hours for the late plane, a voice announced that the plane would not be stopping after all, they had decided to bypass and continue to their next destination. I was crushed after getting my hopes up so high. I need to learn to stop doing that. So, the next flight is not until the first week of March. Hopefully I will be on that one.

And that catches us up to this week. Carlee is once again sick with a cold/cough/and possibly an earache as she keeps messing with them once in a while. Had I known I wasn't going to make the last two flights of the month, I would have stayed longer in Texas to be able to spend more time with everyone. But we're making the most of being here, enjoying time with my grandparents. My grandparents got Carlee her first tricycle yesterday, which she was adorable trying to ride.

Anyway, more pictures and posts later, hopefully. Don't know if I'll have time... a sick Carlee is very attention demanding. :P

Matching Hats

2007-01-22T11:02:00.000-05:00

This was the first hat I made for Carlee. I used the loom. It was a lot of fun. I think I made it a little small though, I should have kept adding more rows to the fuzzy part. I also made one for me so now Carlee and I match. lol.

The new little loom book that I bought is so much better at giving instructions than the little kit I bought for Christmas. This time was not nearly as hard as my leggings were, and it took about half the time. I was really looking foward to crafting while here in the states since everything is so available, but I've found that I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm not sure what exactly I want to work on, or what I should send home. My Grandma gave me some patterns, and we went to the fabric store I was so excited about going to.. and boy, it was huge. I didn't even know where to begin. I ended up not even buying anything yet, because I wasn't sure what to buy. They had so many unique prints, it was awesome. I'm planning on going back once I decide which patterns I want to attempt first.

I have started learning crochet. My Grandma had wanted to learn, so it's something we can do together while I'm here. I think I have the the first few basic stitches down, but the only thing I'm doing wrong is making them too tight. We're going to work on it today. We can't wait to get good at it so we can start making bigger things than just little potholders. :P

it's official... we didn't miss out on a winter after all...

2007-01-19T17:03:00.000-05:00

I've been in the States for 10 days now. Right now I'm visiting my Grandparents in the D.C. area, and man is it cold. It was definately a shock coming from Sicily (especially since I thought some days in Sicily were cold.) hehe... So after feeling like winter never really happened back home, now Carlee and I are feeling it here. But at least it's not as bad as what our family is getting in Texas. Brrr! Hopefully that nasty weather is gone by the time I get to Texas (about another week). Hope everyone's doing okay in it too.

I've been keeping busy shopping (my grandma's and my favorite shared hobby), crafting a little bit, and playing World of Warcraft with Tony. (I blame him for my new addiction) It's nice to be able to do something together even though I'm miles and miles away.

more later, as i need to take a few pics to post. :D

Happy New Year

2007-01-03T07:30:00.000-05:00

So, the new year is here, and we're pretty much doing the same thing we were at the end of last year... lol. lounging and enjoying tony's time off. I finally upgraded to the new blogger thing... hopefully I'll like it. I also picked a new layout. I was tired of that dark blue, but then I didn't like any of the layouts they had, so I just went with black and white. How fancy am I? ha.

We spent new years playing rummy. We made a few new years resolutions, but they're not really resolutions. Mine are pretty much things I just want to do. Resolutions never last longer than the month of January with me... Anyway, basically the things I want to do is just to get back into my hobbies again. Start taking time out for me. Do more crafting, reading, etc. We're also going to start getting back into music I think. I think we both kind of miss it, and it will be good for Carlee to hear and learn along the way.

The other night we watched Borat. I haven't laughed that hard or been that grossed out in a long long time. I can see how everyone's getting all offended by it, but just watching it for fun was hilarious. I kept wondering how many nights Cohen spent in jail for all those stunts he pulled. Geez... hehe.

So.... what do you lable your posts when all you do is ramble? I guess I defeat the whole purpose of that little add on.

Finally.... I almost did them justice.

2006-12-31T10:22:00.000-05:00

Almost. Tony even said they were good. Last night, I made my mom's enchiladas, and for the first time they came out pretty good. This was quite an accomplishment for me considering I've been trying for three years to make them on my own. Every time until last night they were a disaster. Finally doing this changed something in me last night. This dinner was always my mom's specialty, growing up we'd have her enchiladas all the time. We loved them. And before they were her's, they were her grandmother's, my great-grandmother's. And now I can make them, and that makes me feel so awesome. While I was making the enchilada sauce I had to call my mom for help really quick and found out I was supposed to also add salt to the sauce. After adding that, I took my time with it like I used to watch her do, letting it simmer, gradually getting the last few flour lumps out. And after a while, it finally was done cooking, and a little bit later the finished enchiladas were coming out of the oven. I can't wait to make them again already, lol, I can't wait to get them even closer to how my mom makes them.

So, our Christmas was awesome this year. I got a beautiful painting of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus; it's hanging in the living room. Seeing Tony's face when he opened his present was one of the best parts. With my sister and soon to be b.i.l.'s help I was able to get Tony a Nintendo Wii. I had told Tony that they weren't able to get one, that the stores were all sold out. So, he was really surprised when he opened it. Carlee was the main event though. It was amazing to see her excitement with the presents. She even wanted to help unwrap ours lol. She loves all her new toys too. We got her a new kitchen playset. It has a stove, oven, and refridgerator, along with shelves of food, pots, pans, and spoons, etc. She loves it. She started playing pretend right away, without us even teaching her to. She "poured the milk" into a teacup, added some "ketchup," stirred it, and brought it to me. lol. It was the cutest thing.

I already have lots of ideas for Christmas next year, and I'm already really excited about it. Tony laughed at me for that. But honestly I can't wait!

Right now, I'm getting ready to go home for my sister's wedding. I'm excited to see everyone, and to see everyone's faces when they see Carlee. I only wish Tony would be able to come with but he can't. I'm looking foward to seeing my sister get married. I'm so happy for her. I'm glad I'll be able to make it there. I can't wait to go shopping too! and going to the craft store! I got a few craft books for Christmas and I can't wait to buy supplies that I need for them. One is a really cool knitting book, another an embroidery book, and I also got a loom knitting kit. I already made myself the striped leggings that the kit teaches you to do. It was so fun. I can't wait to get some more looms and patterns to do.

Well, I gotta figure out what we're gonna have for dinner... since there are no more leftovers from last night. :D

back to normal

2006-12-23T04:27:00.000-05:00

My cat is back. My cold is gone. My financial account at CTC is fixed. I'm back to being really excited about Christmas. :D I even went caroling with friends last night. hehe, it was fun. A longer update later.

The Fugliest Christmas Sweater Ever

2006-12-17T10:57:00.000-05:00

Isn't this sweater awesome?!? HAHAHAHAHA! This is my friend B and me in our wonderful ugly Christmas Mom Sweaters, my FIRST ever! :D Don't you just love the beads on the sleeves? awesome huh? Tony was so embarassed that I wore it to the neighborhood Christmas party. I thought it was hilarious. My tee-shirt says, "Santa... I can explain." haha..

So, we had fun chasing the kids around, getting Carlee's picture taken with Santa, and stuffing our faces with sweets. Seeing Carlee walk around in her Christmas dress almost made me cry though... she's getting so big.

well...

2006-12-17T04:13:00.000-05:00

They brought me a "new" dryer on wednesday... Thursday I tried to use it and found out that it didn't even heat up. So, Friday they had to come back and fix that one. Thankfully Tony was off, so while the dryer was getting fixed, I headed off to base to take my final. That went good. I immediately felt better after getting that load of stress off my shoulders. Spent a few hours at base with my friend, and then headed home. Saturday, we took Carlee to get Christmas pictures taken with Santa. And I believe it was either Friday or Saturday that I realized my cat was missing... nice. Nemo's gone again. She had to have gotten out when the repair guy was here. She's nowhere in the house. We drove all over the neighborhood, she's not anywhere... I don't know... all this crap that keeps going on is really annoying me and putting a damper on my Christmas spirit.... on top of that Carlee and I both have a new cold... ahhh! but I just keep trying to hold on to that excitement of seeing Carlee open her presents.

On another Christmas note, while my friend B and I were at the store, I found some really gawdy Christmas sweaters... you know the kind, with snowmen, and reindeer, etc. lol... well, I thought it would be hilarious to wear one home to see Tony's reaction, but I didn't want to spend $20 on it to only wear it for fun. Well, last night I went over to B's house, and she surprised me with one of the gawdiest sweaters ever, there's even beads all over the sleeves! LMAO! I loved it, and wore it home. Tony laughed so hard at me. I'll have to take a picture in it later to show everyone. Anyway, that's all for now. We've got more santa pictures at a neighborhood Christmas party tonight.

soooo

2006-12-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

The repair guy finally came a little bit after I blogged. He said he couldn't fix it, I needed a new dryer. So I talk to some lady that he called on the phone, and arranged for them to come out after I got back from base.

I went to base with some friends since they had to go to. I ran by the airport to figure out what I have to do in order to space a fly... went to the main base to take my final... well, the website was down... ALL day. So I couldn't take my test. Thank goodness I still have one more day, but I would have liked to get it done earlier. I also went by the CTC rep's office... the main office hasn't answered her yet; I still haven't gotten a reply from them either. That's still up in the air.

Now I'm home... and they guys came and replaced my dryer, so at least I got something accomplished today. Oh, I did take care of the money we owed housing.. Yesterday Tony ran over the lawn mower's extension cord... with the uh... lawn mower. LOL. That was fun.

Anyway, it was fun to hang out with my friends, but I really wish I could have taken my test. Now I have to drive back to base tomorrow... I'm so looking foward to it.

a little stressed...

2006-12-13T03:42:00.000-05:00

This past week's been fun to say the least... Last week, the dryer started squealing really loud. REALLY loud. It had a little squeak to it before, but it didn't bother me enough to call in a trouble call. Well, this was really bothersome. So, I called. They came and "fixed" it on Thursday. By Friday it was squealing again. So, I walked over to housing, which was supposed to be open but wasn't. I was frustrated knowing it would have to wait to the next week. Then over the weekend, there was a gas leak, and everyone's gas got turned off. It was right after our Christmas dinner at a friend's house, and thankfully we had already eaten. But, when we went home, our water wasn't getting hot at all. So I call my friend, and she says, "dude, you have to turn on your water heater." So, she came over to help with that..... only it didn't want to come back on. At all. Nada. So... we went without hot water until Monday.

I finally made it up to housing then, and apparently a lot of people's water heaters weren't coming back on, something about a lot of air in the pipes or something. Oh, and I reopened my dryer work order as well. Well, they didn't fix the water heater until that evening, and today they are supposed to come fix the dryer. Besides all that... I've got my last final to take today, which I had planned on taking yesterday, but Tony needed the car for work.

So, yeah... then when I tried to register for a few spring classes, CTC is showing that I owe 138 dollars for some reason from Fall semester. Which I don't know where that came from, since I paid the full amount right after I registered. So, I can't register for Spring until I pay all of that, which I'm not going to because it shouldn't even be there. Today, I'm going to base to take my final, and to stop by the CTC office, hopefully the rep. can tell me what's going on...

Oh, and apparently I'm "cruel" to my child for putting her in a baby harness once in a while. Sheesh... I wish I could voluntarily close my mind that much so that in my world "cruelty" is a baby harness. gah. I wish this repair man would hurry up and get here so that I can get down to base. blah.

Ending on a good note... Our little video rental store FINALLY got PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2!!! It was supposed to be out last week, but the box never made it here. SOooo... I had to wait. I was the second person in the store yesterday at 11:02. haha. It opened at 11. It's sad that the highlight of the week here was that movie being on the shelf.

Thanksgiving in Tuscany

2006-12-03T03:47:00.000-05:00

I know it's been forever already... Every time I tried uploading these pictures something kept going wrong... But here they are finally.

Day 1 Nov. 22
So, we flew out of Catania to Pisa. Right after arriving at the airport we took a bus drive to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was incredible! The only not incredible thing was we forgot to get the baby backpack off the bottom of the bus, so we had to carry Carlee around all day. But it was okay. It was so amazing to actually be there... never in a million years did we ever think we'd see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. First, we had a walking tour of the area by a local guide. We walked around the Church, baptistry, and then the tower. The Church was beautiful, and to be in and near buildings that are so old was amazing.

So after the tour, the group had to split into 3 in order to climb the tower because they only let in 15 people at a time. Tony and I had to take separate groups because Carlee wasn't old enough to go up. But it worked out. I would of loved to go up together though. As soon as you take the first step into the tower you can feel the lean. It's crazy. And then walking up the 294 steps is tiring, and one of your legs gets way more exhausted than the other because you keep trying to compensate for the lean. The view from the top is amazing too.
After everyone climbed the tower we had the night free to ourselves to explore Pisa. We decided to eat dinner (since we still eat dinner on American time lol). We found a nearby little pizzeria, we ordered some wine too, well, because we had to since we were there. Afterwards, we walked around for a bit, found some desserts and a dulceria and ate them at the steps of the church marveling at the tower all the while. After a while, we went to the meeting place and took a bus ride to Florence where our hotel was.

Day 2 Nov. 23
Our second day was a day filled with walking tours of Florence..... Florence is breathtaking! I loved it. First we walked up to this hill in order to see a panoramic view of Florence. From there we walked down to the center of town. We saw the duomo (Church) and even went to the museum where the Statue of David is!!! That was amazing! We also saw some unfinished Michelangelo works, and it's incredible to see an unfinished figure of a body and then look at the back and see a block of marble. We didn't get to take many pictures because all of the places pretty much don't allow cameras.
After our walking tours of Florence, we took a bus ride to the country side. The fall colors there were just breathtaking. After what felt like a long and winding ride we finally arrived at the winery for our Thanksgiving dinner. The food was awesome, and we forgot how many plates Italians serve for dinner hehe. The first plate was roasted wild boar and noodles, and it was delicsious. Second plate, was prochutto (sp) and salami. Then came out the various meats (including our surprise TURKEY!), beans, and vegetables. The turkey was a surprise, because the guys said they don't even have turkey there, and don't eat it either. So that was nice. After eating, we took a walking tour of the winery and that was neat too. Then we headed back to the hotel.

Day 3 Nov.24
On the third day, we drove to a town called San Gimignano. This was I think my favorite stop. It's a medieval town from the 11th/12th century, and all the buildings are still there. The roads are still as narrow as they were in medieval times. It's amazing and made me wish I could travel back in time to see what is was like back then. We toured the Church, saw some of the original 14 towers that are still remaining. On our free time, Tony and I ate lunch, and then went to a Museum of Torture. It was about all the ways that they executed/tortured criminals from medieval times to present. It was insane some of the things they used to do, and to see thae ones that they thought were the most humane... they really weren't. So, that was interesting.
The next stop was a city called Siena. Another medieval town. We took a walking tour starting out at the Duomo where we saw Saint Catherine's mummified head and her thumb. St. Catherine apparently prayed there before her trip to Avalon, and so this Church wanted her body to display. But, Rome wanted it, and so did another city where she had lived, so eventually they decided to divide the body among all of them. We also saw the oldest bank in the world, established in 1472 I think, and still going! Amazing huh? We also learned that Italians don't consider themselves Italian unless they're winning something like the World Cup. Instead, they consider themselves whatever their region is, Florentine, Roman, Sienan (?) lol.. oh, and Siena apparently hates Florence to this day. why? Well, back in the day, Siena were wealthy merchants, but they felt that had to have control of a river in order to be respectable. So, they went after Florence's river. Florence fought back, and the wars went on for 300 years before Florence finally took over. The tour guide said that when that happened, Siena started paying tribute to Rome, such as making their archictecture more Roman, and even put a Roman crest on their flag. They did this to spite Florence saying, "Better to be Roman, than Florentine." :) After the tours, we had free time. We decided to eat and tracked down an open pizzeria. We don't have too many pictures of Siena either, because by this point we were running out of room on the memory stick, but here's a view of the Church:
The Church was actually supposed to be the biggest in Italy, but the Plague hit, killing 40,000 out of 50,000 people. Afterwards, the survivors eventually decided just to finish the Church where it was at instead of making it to the plans. So, it was an interesting day.

Day 4 Nov. 25
This was our free day to explore Florence more and shop if we wanted to. We slept in and rested a bit, since walking around for 3 days straight carrying 25 pound Carlee will tire you out! hehe... Then we attempted to go shopping, but were shocked at the prices... So, we found a cache in the area, ate lunch in a neighborhood park, fed pigeons, (Carlee was so cute with them lol), walked around some more, then finally made our way back to the hotel. In the evening we went to a nearby restraunt Alfredo's and it was sooooo yummy. I wish we had known about it the entire time, we would have eaten there every night! And then we packed. On Day 5 we hung out at the Pisa airport, before finally flying back to Catania.

The trip was just incredible. We loved it. The area was beautiful, Carlee was perfect! I think it really had to do with the fact that she had our attention the entire time. If we had tried to do this trip on our own, I think she would have been more upset alot more of the time because Tony would be trying to drive, I would be trying to read maps and navigate, and she would never have our attention. So I really liked the way the trip was set up, we didn't have to worry about any of that. I think we're going to try to take more ITT trips like this.

Anyway, I uploaded all the pictures which you can see here on Snapfish. Here is a description of all of the pics:

Day 1: Leaning Tower of Pisa
photo #s 2010, 2011, 2012:
view from the plane as we were landing in Pisa.
#2013 Sheena and Carlee at the entrance of the city walls.
#2015- 2020 various pics of Tower and Church
#2021 Baptistry
#2022- 2048 Various views of the Church inside and out.
#2049- 2077 Views of and from the Leaning Tower
#2078 -2084 pictures in front of leaning tower
#2088-2090 Church at Nighttime

Day 2: Florence
#2091-2117 pictures taken from the top of a hill overlooking Florence.
#2118-2121 start of our walking tour.
#2122-2130 Florence's Church
Afternoon - Thanksgiving Dinner at a winery located in the Tuscan countryside.
#2131-2134 Enjoying the walk up to the winery and restraunt.
#2137-2141 At dinner
#2142-2151 pics of the winery surroundings (which we could see from our dinner table as well.)
#2153-2155 playing outside after dinner
#2159-2163 tour of the winery, the grapes pictured are going to be made into Holy Water for the Church.

Day 3: San Gimignano and Siena
San Gimignano = #2164-2171
11 century Medeival town.
#2166 Medeival Church
#2170 few of the 14 tours still remaining from 11/12th century.
Siena = #2172-2207
#2173, 2174 Oldest bank in the world, established 1472 (I think, 1470 something anyways.)
#2177 2178 Refurbished cieling of the medeival time open air market place.
#2181 Tallest tower in Tuscany, 3rd tallest in Italy.
#2182-2186 Views of Siena's Church.
#2187-2189 Views of/from the square.
#2194-2200 Dinner
#2207 Siena fountain

Catching Up

2006-11-05T12:51:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a month! Geez... I'm a slacker. hehe. We've just been trying to stay busy, and having fun when we can get out. My classes are going good still. And we're still looking forward to our Thanksgiving trip to Tuscany. Can't WAIT!!! Anyway, so here are some recent pictures:

This was at Autumn Fest. We went with some friends of ours and had fun. This is the Bungie Run that the BoyScout troop was running. Tony won every single time... lol.
My birthday was on Halloween. We had a little party with a few friends over. This was my kitty litter birthday cake that I made. It looked so gross! LOL but tasted really good! I thought it came out good.
This is us on Halloween. Tony had a blast being a zombie scaring all the kids and their parents. It was very funny.
This is a cake that I made for a re-enlistment in Tony's command. I got volunteered to make it. lol... I was a little stressed, and I thought it wasn't too good, but apparently all the guys liked it. I guess I'll be getting some extra practice making and decorating cakes now. :)
And that's pretty much what I've been up to. Tomorrow, I'm getting a day off. :D Tony is going to watch Carlee all day. A friend and I are going to go to the movies I think. So, that will be fun. Hope everyone is doing good. :P

Piazza Armerina Pics of Us

2006-10-10T14:28:00.000-05:00

These are the pictures of us. My friend Emy took these for us. I uploaded the rest of the pictures that she shared with us, and I tried Flickr I really did, but it wasn't working, so I used Snapfish. So, here they are. Enjoy!

Mineo

2006-10-10T14:15:00.000-05:00

This is the town of Mineo. I took this at the end of our street. What I had seen minutes before this picture was taken, was so perfectly beautiful. The clouds were higher, and the sun was hitting them and the buildings more brilliantly. But... it took me too long to get the camera ready with the bigger lens. Oh well... There are definately moments here that just take your breath away.... I guess I enjoyed that one too long, otherwise I might have been able to share it with ya'll. lol :P

I haven't been up to much. Just studying for my online classes. My midterms are tomorrow. I've been so bored studying... I remember why I never cared too much for school... but I want to get this done and over with. My computer is obviously working better. We figured out the problem and eliminated it... so I'll try to upload a few pictures from Piazza Armerina now. :)

travel plans

2006-10-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while, and I was actually going to try to upload some pictures from when we went to Piazza Armerina, but the connection is so slooooow tonight, it's not going to happen. The computer's been freezing and pissing me off. I defragged it and got rid of some recently downloaded programs, so maybe that solved it. Hopefully...

We haven't been up to much. But we've got a lot planned for the upcoming months. This month, we're hoping to go to Agrigento and see the Valley of the Temples and to Palermo to see the catacombs before the rainy season starts. We'd also like to hike Mt. Etna before the month's end. Then my birthday party on Halloween. We've already got a few halloween decorations up. Some shrunken heads are hanging in the hallway, Carlee just laughs at them. Spider webs are everywhere. I love Halloween. We had a skeleton decoration hanging outside, but the wind blew it away. At least I hope it was the wind, and not some one. Anywho...

NEXT month is going to be BIG! I can't wait. Thanksgiving in Tuscany! We're going on the ITT trip they're offering. We got the last 3 seats! I seriously cannot wait! It's going to be awesome. We were going to try to go somewhere for Christmas too, but decided to just stay home. Our friends have already invited us over for a traditional Icelandic Christmas dinner anyway, which I am really looking foward to also.

Next year's plans are vague, yet already existing. February, if all goes well, Carlee and I will be Space A flying home to see my little sister get married. Then in April we are going to try to space A fly to Germany and stay at a military resort and travel southern Germany for a few days. Then next October we plan on a trip to Rome. Other tentative places on our list include: Spain, Greece, Paris, Egypt, and maybe England. Hopefully we'll be able to see all of them in the next three years.

I'm so excited!

Computer Clean Up

2006-09-27T07:09:00.000-05:00

Tony says it's my fault the laptop's memory is almost completely used up... and I mean completely. The last time we tried to run defrag it didn't even have enough open memory to do it. So, I'm cleaning up the files, deleting some, moving a lot over to the external hard drive... and guess what folders are taking the longest? Not mine.... nope, Tony's. This folder I'm working on is taking 15 minutes to move over... geez... So there.

This past week was good. Last Thursday I went out with friends to a couple of malls in Syracuse. That was a lot of fun. I didn't buy a lot though, which my friend G was teasing me about. But I'm still converting prices in my head. For example, if a shirt is 19.99 euro, I think in my head, "well, would I really pay 25+ dollars for this shirt? probably not....." so I don't get it. After shopping, we went out to eat, so that was fun.

Friday, I went out with a few mom's from the Mom's Club for a farewell dinner to one of the girls. That was fun as well, and I definately owed Tony for taking care of Carlee two nights in a row! lol... but it was nice to get out.

Saturday morning, we went to the Caltigerone market with our friends G and K. That was a blast. I wish I had taken my camera. I need to get a smaller one to take out though, there's too many people in a small area, it makes me nervous to have my camera out there. I was so excited when we got to the fresh food part. The fresh fruit is awesome, and the prices are SOOOO much cheaper than on base. One kilo of peaches is 1 euro, same for pears and apples. A kilo is 2.2 pounds!! That's almost half of what I would pay on base, if I bought fruit there, which I don't. Sometimes, the prices go up even more. I remember one week, when pineapples on base were 7.70 each. Geez!

We also heard from Tony's family. His grandma is getting better thank goodness. And should be released from the hospital. We were so relieved to hear that.

The file's done... more later.

just an update

2006-09-19T03:02:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, Tony went to a dog shelter in Nicholosi. It's run by three Italians out of their own pockets. The shelter wasn't making it, so the MWR has taken over the costs, and volunteers are helping with the work. Tony said that the dogs didn't even know what the toy was when he gave it to them, or treats either. Can you imagine? Poor puppies.

I was supposed to go with, but Carlee still wasn't feeling good, so we stayed behind. I went to a friend's garage sale and bought lots of stuff... lol. Some outside play toys for Carlee, a slide and a picnic table. An almost new food processor for $25! I've been wanting one forever. Some clothes, shoes, and toys for Carlee. And then we just hung out with them until lunch. Later that night, I went with them to an Italian grocery store called SMA. It was interesting. You can't touch the fruit here. You have to wear latex gloves that they provide. Anyways so that was fun.

Tony recently called home and we found out that his Grandma is in the hospital. We're praying for her and hoping to hear something good. It's hard being so far away. We hoped and prayed that nothing bad would happen back home while we're over here... sigh...

poor baby

2006-09-14T07:49:00.000-05:00

The past few days have been ... well, tiring. I guess that's a good word for it. Carlee's got a cold. Well, really pretty much just a really stuffy/runny nose and a slight fever. No coughing, no other pain that I can tell. And she's really clingy and whiney when she gets sick. Fun Fun. Last night I could not get her to sleep until some ungodly hour... Today, she refused to take a nap. I'm just now getting a few minutes of peace, since we're watching Finding Nemo again (for the 12,692,583rd time.) So, this of course meant we didn't go anywhere on Tuesday like we had wanted. And, since she's sick now, I can't go to any of the Mom's club stuff until she gets well. So, I'm probably going to be stuck in the house. I hope she gets over this quick... Anywho... blah.

We Remember

2006-09-11T02:39:00.000-05:00

A beautiful guesture... and some ramblings

2006-09-10T13:35:00.000-05:00

I called Tony at work a few hours ago and he told me something that instantly brought tears to my eyes. Every morning, Tony and his coworkers car pool to Niscemi, which is a good 30-40 minute drive from housing. Once they get to town, they usually always stop at a certain bar to order caffe. (Our boys sure do know what Italian habits to pick up right away, don't they? lol) Anyway, so they always do that on their way to work. Well, the last time the guys went, the Italians told them that they wanted to fly an American flag on Monday, and asked if they could borrow one. Geez. I'm fighting tears right now, as I think about it. Some Americans have already forgotten, and yet, there are Italians who want to show tribute and remembrance. I wish I could stop by tomorrow and tell them thankyou, but Tony will have the car all day and will be on the main base. Maybe we'll take a drive out there anyway. I think it would be nice.

So, it's 8:30 pm. I already got Carlee down to sleep, and I'm just blog surfing. I found a lot of new blogs if you're interested in reading more about life in Italy. I'm definately going to start reading them!

That's a few of them. Too cool. I'm enjoying reading them, and relating to some of their posts already! :) Let's see... other things on my mind at the moment... Tuesday, we're hoping to get out and do a little traveling... we're thinking either Palermo (the capital) or Syracusa (which to see everything each of these cities has to offer would take a few trips!) I've also decided that if I am going to learn Italian it's going to take a lot of extra effort on my part. Tony's lucky because he works with Italians, and some of the other American guys already know a lot of Italian, so he's picking up quite a bit at work. I, on the other hand, am stuck in Mineo housing, which is little America smack dab in the middle of crop land. So, I have nowhere to practice, unless I go talk to the Italian firefighters across the street. Then they'd be like, "why are you talking to us? Where is your husband?!?" LOL... ah well, I do want to learn some with my friend L, but I always feel like I might be imposing if I asked to come over to learn Italian. Anyway, so, I figure, as I try to teach Carlee new words that I might as well learn them in Italian. Baby steps sure, but hopefully it would help. I'm going to start posting them, in case maybe family and friends might like to learn a few words too, and plus because it IS my blog after all. lol :D

So today's words are:

ear- orecchio
eye- occhio
nose- naso
mouth- bocca
kiss- (n) baccio (v) baciare
baby- bambino (-a)
book- libro
flower- fiore
bird- uccello
cat- gatto

Fun Fun. Geez. I should be studying for my online classes. lol... I've taken two quizzes in my macroeconomics class already, got 90 on one and 100 on the other. Business doesn't require any quizzes. Well, I guess I have blogged enough today... you think? lol... off to study...

Italy's Pedestrian Video

2006-09-10T12:47:00.000-05:00

I found this video at American Girl in Italy, it's so true. *notice the red light at the end* Enjoy!

Girls night out... and Villa Romana del Casale

2006-09-10T06:45:00.000-05:00

Today is another duty day, Carlee's napping, but at least it gives me a chance to tell everyone what we've been up to for the past few days.

On Friday night, I went out with 3 girlfriends and we had a blast! We were originally supposed to go to Cesare Cremonini's concert in Palagonia. First we headed to Mineo (10 mins from housing) for dinner. One restaraunt was closed for vacation and the other didn't open until 8:30 pm (the norm here.) So, we headed off for Palagonia (20ish mins away) to try to find something to eat there before we headed to the concert. After driving around, and stopping at one "ristorante" which only served paninis even though the sign said "ristorante," we finally found a agritourisma (sp) which had such a beautiful atmosphere and enjoyed dinner... that is until the waiter, while talking to L, (she's Italian so she always does the talking lol) told us that the concert was cancelled!

So, we ate in disbelief for the rest of the meal. Afterwards, we went ahead and drove down to where the concert was supposed to be, and sure enough the only activity going on was a soccer game... Frustrated, we decided to go to a place L had heard about in Caltigerone (40 mins away?). So we drove and drove and drove, until finally finding the place. It was a lounge with an Indian atmosphere. I kept looking around expecting to see hookas on the tables LOL...

We had a few drinks and enjoyed eachothers company and I enjoyed people watching the Italians in their turf. They are not stingy with the alcohol here! geez... I first ordered a vodka and orange juice, L had a rum and coke, which was too strong for her to enjoy, so I traded with her. I had a buzz on that drink by the time I was half done with it. It was huge and strong! At least 2-3 times as big as the drinks they serve in the states. They made our drinks look like the size of tea cups. LOL... after finishing that, the girls convinced me to take my first ever shot of tequilla. GEEZ... that hit me more than I expected haha... I had a blast.

Anyway, so the next morning (Saturday) Tony and I were going out with my friend Emy and her family. We went to a town called Piazza Armerina, which I had never heard of until she told me about it. We saw the Villa Romana del Casale. It was so beautiful and amazing. It's a castle from ancient Roman times, and the floors are completely mosaic. It's amazing. I was so mad that I forgot my camera! But Emy said they would send us their pics. Here are some online pics of the mosaics from the town's website. Here is another site that has a lot of pictures too, including this one:
Frommers' Sicily 2nd edition says,

"This magnificent villa is one of the largest dwellings of its kind to have survived from the days of the Romans. Its 40 rooms are "carpteted" with 122,063 sq. ft. of some of the greatest, most magnificent mosaics in western Europe.

It is obvious that a wealthy patrician built this mansion, and some scholars have even suggested that it was the hunting lodge of Maximanus, the "co-emperor" of Diocletian. The exact date of the villa's construction is hard to ascertain, however-perhaps the end of the 3rd century A.D. or the beginning of the 4th century."

It was so awesome to be able to see something that has existed for thousands of years, and to walk where ancient Romans have walked. And the detail in the mosaics is just breathtaking. Each tile is the size one or two pencil erasers. I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to do each huge room. Geez... it was just awesome. I had so much fun, and it was a perfect day to go. It was cloudy, so it wasn't too hot. Carlee was awesome. She only fussed once and that was it. I was happy about that. lol... but it's beautiful. I would definately go back again.

Etna pics

2006-09-10T06:35:00.000-05:00

Here you can see the new green lifts, and to the right of them, there are old burnt ones that were destroyed in 2003 (i think?) when the volcano erupted and lava came all the way down to the souveneir shops! There is lava rock on either side of the road! They go all the way to the top.

This is the small(?) inactive (i hope) crater thing that I want to hike next time we got out. It's not really small, I don't know if you can see the tiny people hiking it or not... lol, but it's small compared to the volcano.
This isn't the top of mount etna, I forgot to take pictures of that while we were walking around the souvenier shops, so I took this on the way back to the car.
I can't wait to go back. And our friend told us that snowboarding there in the winter is really fun, so I'm looking foward to trying that. It will be my second time trying... lol... that should be fun.

ugh

2006-09-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

Blogger is getting really annoying... I have no idea why that last post posted 3 times... grrr.... well, below the three posts, there is a new post about our past weekend.

*never mind... it finally let me delete them.... blah

We Can't Believe it...

2006-09-05T15:26:00.002-05:00

Steve Irwin died?! :(

That sucks so much. Call us dorks, but we loved him. Man, he was so crazy! but you had a sense when watching him that he knew exactly what he was doing. I honestly believe he did. Now, I'm not all PETA save the crocs kind of thing, but I did respect how much he loved doing what he did, and what differences he was trying to make. He exuded excitement when he worked, didn't he? Man... this sucks. I know I said that already, but seriously. And a lot of the articles I've been reading have been saying his death didn't suit him, he deserved something more exciting... Whatever. Dudes, are you serious? I think this was exactly what was meant to happen. He was killed by a usually harmless stingray. If he had died while capturing a croc, people would have criticized him saying, "Well, what do you expect? He's insane. It was only a matter of time." No, I think he never died with a croc or a poisonous snake because he really did know what he was doing, he really had a connection to all those animals. It took a freak accident with a normal usually peaceful stingray to kill him, which to me shows it really was his time to go, unfortunately. This was a really nice article here. RIP Crocodile Hunter... I hope his family is doing okay, as much as possible anyway. Geez... I couldn't even imagine... :(

crazy weekend

2006-09-05T14:35:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was quite the adventure... well, not the whole weekend, but Monday in particular. Well, okay, so the weekend was normal, the holiday was not. Saturday was Tony's and my run to the base and do all of our errands day. Tony got his stitches taken out (which took forever), and got his hair cut, while I shopped around at the NEX and waited for him to come get me... and waited and waited... Finally after about three+ hours of shopping I was going insane with boredom and thankfully I finally ran into him. "I've been looking for you for the past hour!" he said. lol... The store is so small I don't see how he could have missed me for a whole hour. Anyway, so we finished there, and went to do grocery shopping next door, and headed home. Sunday we spent lounging around the house... so the weekend was pretty normal.

We had originally planned on going to a town near Mt. Etna called Milo for a wine festival on Sunday afternoon into the night. Our friends we were going with decided it would be better to go on Monday. So, thus starts Monday's adventure. Four families were going. Four cars would be on the road. Any number freaks out there want to calculate the probability of something going wrong? Well, we didn't... We piled into the cars, and played follow the leader with the leader being the only family who knew where we were going... (is the probability number going higher yet?)

Driving here is crazy.... I've said that before. There are people who speed insanely down a curvy highway... and then there are people who have cars that don't go over 30 and still drive on the same highway. So, if none of us passed any cars, we would have taken hours to get to Milo. So, each of us had to wait until it was safe to pass cars, meaning Car#1 eventually got way ahead of everyone, especially Car#4. So, it was a race to catch up... Car#4 at one point ended up a couple of miles behind and took a wrong exit, but thankfully caught up.

Anyway, eventually we got through Catania, through the tolls, regrouped and headed up the mountain to Milo. We wound through narrow cobble looking streets, with people's front doors literally on the curb. Finally, we came to a parking lot of sorts, filled with vendor booths, with all kinds of signs about wine.... but there were no people. The place was dead. Turns out they decided to take the day off.... everyone. So... quick! change of plans! We decided to head up to Mt. Etna since it was so close.

So, we follow same Car#1, we wound up and around and up and around the mountain. It was beautiful. There were actually wild foresty type trees that weren't olive trees! It was breathtaking to see the coastline from that high up. And as I was looking around, suddenly I noticed something. A liquid was gushing out of the car in front of us (which was originally Car#4,) leaving a steady stream of whatever it was. I told Tony who said it was probably just the air condition. I told him I didn't think so, it was way too much fluid, and it was smoking.

We tried to call their cellphone, but there was no coverage. Tried to wave at them, tried to flash our brights at them... nothing. Finally, after about five or so minutes of failed attempts to get their attention, Tony pulled up beside them and I hurridly spelled out O.I.L. with some kind of makeshift sign language. They pulled over. Turns out it was transmission fluid, and all of it had gushed out. There was nothing left, and we were two miles from the top of Mt. Etna. We tried to decide what to do. They had company with them, so it was going to be a tight squeeze in the other 3 cars, especially considering there were 6 kids, 4 of which used carseats. But we didn't want to leave without letting their company at least see the volcano, plus even if they called a tow truck, it wouldn't get there for over an hour at least.

So we crammed into the three cars. We even had a guy in our trunk... .lol thank goodness we have an SUV. Since none of us were dressed for hiking up the volcano, that was out of the question. So, what was left for us to do? Eat at a restaruant located in the middle of tourist town, and visit the souvenier shops. We were going to ride up the lifts that take you up to the top, but the price was 25 Euro per person, so we said forget it. I did find a magnet for my collection though for only 3 Euro (the sell on base for 6+!!!) I was happy about that. After walking around a bit, and after family of Car#4 couldn't get ahold of the tow company, we decided to leave. He coasted the car down the entire mountain side. Brave... Parked it, and we all crammed back into the 3 cars. Poor guy rode in our trunk the entire way home (which took an hour extra since Car#1 lead us through narrow roads (at one point we had to pull the side mirrors in) and roads on the cliff side with parts of the road caved in. OMG!) So that was quite exciting and scary. But we finally made it home.

Tony and I want to go back to try to hike to the top. I also want to go hike on a small crater that's near all the businesses. Anyway, we all made it home safely, and while I feel horrible that our friends' car quit working, I'm so glad that it happened when all of us were there with them. And at least we could make the best out of it. Here are the very few pictures that we took... (ugh... I'll have to add pictures later, Bloggers being funny)

Here it is

2006-09-01T06:34:00.000-05:00

Here's Tony's Birthday WishList!
woohoo!

*obviously, if you buy somthing, you don't have to buy it from Amazon. If you find it cheaper somewhere else, that's cool, just send it priority k? So, it will get here faster. :)

what a night...

2006-09-01T03:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I was going to try to get up early this morning in order to go to the Mom's club workout... that was until little miss Carlee decided to wake up at midnight screaming in agony... sigh... I got up, gave her some more tylenol (it had worn off at exactly 4 hours... grr) and more orajel. Rocked her back to sleep, or so I thought, tried to put her down in the crib... and as if there was a switch, she started up again. I tried to leave and close the door behind me, I thought that maybe once she saw I was gone she could calm down. Nope. She started screaming bloody murder. After two of those screams, my instincts took over and I went back in and picked her up.

So, I took her into bed with me, trying to rock her to sleep. She would get into a light sleep, then jerk herself awake to make sure I was still there. Then I would try to get her back to sleep, and her foot kept moving, she would NOT let herself fall asleep! After almost 2 hours of trying to get her to sleep in my bed, I finally said, No, the tylenol must be working, you're going to sleep. Rocked her in the rocking chair and then put her in her bed. Fifteen minutes later she woke up again, but I let her cry it out, and five minutes later she was asleep. Goodness! This teething business is not fun.

Anyway, so this morning's plan to workout was ruined since there was no way I was going to be able to get up early enough to get Carlee and myself ready. Oh well. Yesterday was fun. In the morning, I went to my first Mom's Club "Caffeine Kicker"... even though I don't drink coffee, I went just to hang out with everyone and to let Carlee play with the kids. Though, none of the other moms with one years olds went, so she was too small to play with the bigger kids, and too big to play with the babies. But I think she had fun anyway. Mommy did. haha.

I got quite a bit done yesterday. I studied, took Carlee to the park, I worked on my cross stitching project some more, and then I worked on this:
I used the monkey on Carlee's bathroom shower curtain as a pattern and put some of my forgotten scrapbook paper to use. I'm hoping to make at least 6, some palm trees, and bananas to put up on the wall in her bathroom. I like how it came out, he's cute.

This weekend is a 3 day weekend! woohoo! On Sunday, we're going to Mount Etna with some friends. I'm excited, I can't wait. We had wanted to try to go to Palermo too, maybe on Saturday, but that'd be a lot of driving for the weekend! who knows...

Happy September 1! *Geez! I can't believe it's September already!!!
Oh, Tony's "Almost Quarter of a Century" birthday is this month! haha. I've been bugging him. I made him make a wishlist on Amazon so that I could send it to all the family. I'll do that today probably, or I'll just post it here, well, probably both. :)

My whole wheat blueberry muffins

2006-08-30T05:22:00.000-05:00

This morning I felt like baking... so I decided I was going to try my hand at baking some blueberry muffins, the only hard thing would be using my whole wheat flour. I've baked a lot with my grandma, but I'm hardly a pro, so I know nothing about substituting ingredients for others. I did a quick google about substituting wheat for white flour and found out that if you're going to replace all the white flour with wheat, then use 7/8 cup wheat per 1 cup white flour.

I found a recipe online, and altered it a little, mainly the flour. I also ended up adding more blueberries than what it called for, and afterward I think I should of added a little more, just to give more of the blueberry flavor. I also didn't have a cupcake pan, so I just used a sunflower mini-bundt cake pan. It made 6 very big blueberry muffins. hehe...

But they came out good! I was so surprised. I expected them to taste more grainy, but they really are a perfect blend. There's just enough sugar to make it sweet, and if I'd had Splenda, I would of tried using that instead. Even Carlee liked them, she's still working on hers right now. I think I will definately make these again, since the whole wheat is good for you, and these take care of a sweet tooth.

Here's the recipe I used and my alterations if anyone's interested:

1 cup milk (I used skim)
1 egg
1/3 cup veg. oil (I used canola oil)
2 cup all purpose flour (I used 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup blueberries (I added a little more)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Stir milk, egg, and oil. Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and blueberries. Gently mix with as few strokes as possible.
3. Put in cupcake pan and bake for 20 minutes. (I had to leave mine in for a few minutes longer, not much though, probably because they weren't as small as cupcakes. I just kept using the toothpick check.)

I love tea

2006-08-29T05:00:00.000-05:00

I can thank my mom for my love of tea... lol. There's even duplicate boxes of my favorites that aren't in that drawer. This morning, I brewed a pitcher of 6 green teas and 2 raspberry zingers, and it came out reallly good.

Another Trip to Base

2006-08-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

The trip to base can get boring... so we have weird conversations:
(Sheena puts in an old Avril cd.)
Tony: She's such an Alanis wannabe.
Sheena: Hmm... never noticed.
Tony: Whatever happened to her anyway? After she got married? She hasn't put anything else out.
Sheena: Yes, she did, but it's not like her old stuff. Now she's all in love.
Tony: She did? I never heard it. Avril?
Sheena: No, Alanis.
Tony: Oh. Why does everyone suck after getting married? Even Madonna did it.
Sheena: I'm tired of seeing Madonna in 80s gym clothes.
Tony: I know. She's what... 90 now?
...a few minutes go by...
(Sheena put in a Simple Plan cd)
Sheena: I was like this song back in highschool. I was friends with everyone, but didn't really fit in with anyone. I wasn't invited to parties and stuff.
Tony: Me niether.
Sheena: But at least you fit in with the percussionists.... Why do we only fit in with eachother?
Tony: I dunno. Your personality is like older than your age.
Sheena: I know.
Tony: Like, what are girls your age doing on the weekends?
Sheena: Drinking probably.
Tony: Exactly... and what were you doing last night?
Sheena: Cross Stitching...... Am I too old?
Tony: No, I like you just the way you are.

*isn't he just so sweet? haha. (I picked up a cross stitching project I started three years ago! Hopefully I'll get it finished... eventually...)

We were heading to base again.... This time I had a doctor appointment. Well, not just an appointment, a procedure. At my welcome to the island check up, the doctor suggested getting one of my moles removed. The edges were just a little irregular, and it was just a little bit bigger than what it should be. I didn't argue. So, today was the day. A few shots which stung like hell (but I just thought about having Carlee, so I handled it,) and in only a few minutes, I was done and stitched up. The complete procedure was done before my appointment was even scheduled to begin... and for Tony to get 6 stitches the other day at the ER took over 3 hours! I'm doing fine though. It only hurts a little, and tylenol takes care of that. Better safe than sorry to get it taken care of now.

This afternoon, I studied for one of my online classes! I started with Business 1301 first. Read the first chapter, and answered the chapter questions. Took me about an hour. It's going to take me a while to get back into the swing of school. By the end of the hour, I was tired of reading text book material already lol... and I had wanted to do the first chapter of my economics book too, but couldn't convince myself to do it yet. The classes seem like they're going to be okay. The Business class is more you better learn it yourself and make sure to pass the Midterm and Final Exams. While the Economics class is more structured with assigned quizzes and homework, chapter tests, and the exams. So, it will be interesting to do two classes with two different formats to them. But I'm still enthusiastic about it.

Tonight we worked on the yard for a while. We finally found a nursery near Nas 1 that everyone keeps telling us about. They have really good prices! We wish we had found them first before buying 5 Euro plants at Auchauns. Grrr.... Today, the biggest plant (and it's pretty big) was only 3.90 Euro, and my pretty pink flowers for the window sill were only 1.50 Euro! Woohoo! We spent 25 Euro all together on a bunch of flowers and 2 bags of soil! The guy said they should be getting more flowers and plants in the second week of September, so I'm sure we'll be going back.

yesterday's challenge

2006-08-27T04:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning was a challenge... Carlee woke up around 8 (I had been up since 6:30 with Tony, since he had to go to work.) When I went to get her, she was crying, and even after I picked her up she seemed grumpy or something. So, I figured maybe she needed more sleep since she kept laying on me and giving a little whine. I laid down with her on our bed, and she drifted in and out of sleep. All of a sudden, she started gagging, for no apparent reason. I had no clue what was going on. She hadn't eaten yet, or anything. So, she spit up mostly spit and some mucus stuff. Well, I laid there for a while trying to comfort her (the gagging scared her really bad since she couldn't get anything up and couldn't breath in the process). She did it a total of 5 times throughout the morning.

I called Tony at work. I didn't know if I should take her to the ER or not... I mean, she wasn't running a fever, but this gagging was just freaking me out because she seemed like she was having a hell of a time with it. My only problem was that he had taken the car to work... nice. We decided I would try to give her some tylenol and give her some time before taking her in. She wouldn't take the medicine. I knew that if she didn't have a fever, the ER probably wouldn't even take her in anyways. But our thermometer was nowhere to be found, and the batteries are dead in it anyway.

So, I called a neighbor... she wasn't home. Called another, her thermometer was dying too. Finally, I got a hold of someone who had one and she brought it over right away. She helped calm me down (because by this time I was extrememly frustrated and stressed out,) and helped me take Carlee's temp. Not only did she not have a fever, her temp was unusually low, like 95 something on one reading and barely 96 on another reading. She told me it was probably a bug or flu, and that if Carlee's temp wasn't 103+ then they wouldn't take her. She gave me some pedialyte for her and gave some encouragement for me.

Carlee drank the juice... she held that down, so I gave her a few crackers. She held that down. So, at lunch I gave her shells and cheese baby food. She ate about half as she usually does, but at least she ate. I got her down for a nap, and when she woke up, she was fine.

I don't know what it was, but it was definately a challenging morning for me. It just sucked to be so new here. I felt so uncomfortable calling people I've barely known for a month at 9am in the morning. I just about had my one allowed overseas breakdown... lol...

She was fine in the afternoon, back to normal even, so we went to a birthday party that we had planned on going to for a while. She was fine! She played, she ate cake, she was perfectly fine. I talked to a friend there at the party, and she said it was probably Carlee's sinuses draining, because her daughter does the same thing when her's drain. So, I guess that's what it was. I just hope it doesn't happen again. It was a little scary.

She's also been teething for the past month, but the past two weeks have been hard. We can see a certain tooth trying to break through, we've been able to see it for over a week, but the darn thing just won't break through. So, she's a little warm today and I figured it's because of that. Gave her some tylenol. She's really latchy today. I don't know why. And she won't eat anything but crackers or goldfish today so far. I dunno... I really hope she's not coming down with anything. What's funny though, is she's not even acting sick. She's still playing, running around the house... or trying to rather. I'm making her wear her Hello Kitty house shoes. lol.. so she's really sliding around the house. Anyway. I'm not used to this. She's never been sick or had allergies. blah... hopefully it will pass soon. And she'll be completely back to normal.

A recent pic of us

2006-08-26T12:41:00.000-05:00

This is us when we went to our friend's getting out of the navy party a few weeks ago. A friend took this for us. :D

A Stress-Like entry

2006-08-26T12:32:00.000-05:00

I got to drive in an Italian town for the first time yesterday... We were at Niscemi for a hail and farewell BBQ when something happened, and I ended up having to drive all the way to Nas 1. An hour total time... Why? Here's the reason:
Tony was playing volleyball with the guys for their PT, and jumped over a fence to grab a stray ball... and this happened. He wasn't even going to go to the ER at first... but I think the lesson he learned from hurting his foot in Florida convinced him to go. He got 6 stitches... by a guy who didn't really seem to have a lot of practice in doing stitches... but he was a good patient.

yay, the toilet is fixed.... again

2006-08-22T04:30:00.000-05:00

A guy came and fixed the toilet this morning. woohoo! And this guy actually replaced a part, so hopefully it's good to go now.

Last night, I took Carlee to the park. Daddy had duty again. We ran into our friend's 2 daughters who were being watched by their nonna (grandma) and zia (aunt) who are visiting from Naples. I had met them before when we all went out to eat at Caltigerone, and the grandma rode with us. They don't speak English, so I got to try to say hi in Italian. Buonasera (good evening). They said it back, but knew I wouldn't understand much else. lol... They are really nice, and they adore Carlee. :)

Today, Carlee lost the back of one of her earings... :( So I had to put a different pair in... that was fun. not. lol... she acts like I'm trying to murder her or something, and all I'm trying to do is put in a new pair of earings! I finally got them in though.

It's almost lunch time... I wonder when Tony's going to get home. He was supposed to have a physical therapy appointment today for his knee, but since he was out at Niscemi and the car is here, I don't know how he got to base. I'm sure he figured something out though.

This weekend we were going to try to go to Palermo to visit the catacombs. There's an ITT trip on Sunday, but the bus leaves at 7 am, and Tony has duty on Saturday and won't even get home until 11ish on Sunday. :( I'm hoping to find a pamphlet or something with the hours on it when we go to base tomorrow. Maybe if it's open in the evening we can drive up there when he gets off of work. That would be fun...

Oh, and Carlee is 15 months today! Wow.

More later...

just a tad frustrated...

2006-08-21T07:36:00.000-05:00

Our master bathroom toilet is not working... A G A I N !!! Good grief! They "fixed" it last Wednesday, and Thursday night it was broke for the third time. Had to wait until this morning to head over to Housing and put in another trouble call. The front office guy is finally calling the contractor instead of just the handy guys. Maybe it will be fixed for good soon. The water just keeps running and running and the toilet won't flush. Thank goodness it broke after being flushed this time... lol. This is annoying.

Today, Carlee and I went to the Mom's club meeting. It was nice. I made another friend, today, turns out her husband works in Tony's company too, so that's cool. Carlee had fun playing with all the toys and being held by other moms and stealing thier kid's animal crackers... lol.

Today for lunch, I tried to make healthy MacNCheese... hehe. It's a little harder than I thought it would be. I used whole grain elbow macaroni, and then tried to melt cheese in a little bit of milk, well, it melted, but when I tried to put in on the Mac, it didn't coat it. It just hardened up again after cooling off. lol.. So that didn't work. I tried to see if Carlee would eat it anyway, but she turned up her nose. I decided to flavor it a little with some dressing, and then she liked it. I need to find a recipe for making some kind of cheese sauce for the macaroni.

That's all for now... I'm going to try to take pictures today. But just keep in mind, we're still not completely set up yet. :D

Catania Take 2

2006-08-20T05:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, we drove down to Catania with a couple of friends. The guys were in search of a tattoo studio. When Tony asked if I wanted to go, I said, "Sure... as long as we get to do something else too, like eat dinner in town or something." So that we did. The drive to Catania is about an hour from home, and Carlee hates being in the car for more than fifteen minutes.

We arrived in the middle of riposo so driving into town was a breeze since no one was on the road. Our friend said that the last time he drove through the same street, it was three cars wide in a street with barely enough room for two. We also easily found a free parking spot! woohoo! So, we began our search for the tattoo studio, in the hottest part of the day no less.... we finally found it after asking a local where the street was, but it was closed. So, we went to a second studio which was open and looked around. I wasn't too impressed with the flash on the walls. Tony found one that he liked, but wasn't convinced to get it there. Our friend made an appointment, and we left.

We walked down the street a ways, and stopped at a bar. The guys had beer, and Carlee and I shared a water. And I almost got ran over by a vespa. lol... the tables were out in front of the bar, and no cars are supposed to drive down there, but people on vespas do about anything. So one drove right behind me, probably less than an inch away. Anyway, after that we headed back to Mineo, and stopped at a restaraunt about ten minutes before home.

The restaraunt was pretty good. Fast service like American restaraunts, unlike the one we went to in Caltigirone the other night (we waited for two hours to get our food, and another hour for our check.) We'll probably eat there again someday, since it's the closest thing to the house.

Anyway, so the overall feeling of the day was that we weren't impressed with Catania like we were the very first time going. After being amazed at the old buildings and such, you then start to notice all the other things, like trash all over the place, pointless grafitti saying stupid pointless things everywhere, even on the nice department stores. Anyway.... that was our day yesterday.

Today it seems we're just going to hang out around the house. Tony thought about going to Auchaun's (which is like Italy's walmart) but it's in Catania... and we don't feel like driving all the way back up there and wasting all that gas... so... yeah, we miss all the convenient things that the States has to offer. lol... :D

The evilness of Trans Fat.....

2006-08-19T03:30:00.000-05:00

Eww.... So, I first heard about the different types of fat on the Oprah show, when she had Dr. Oz on as a guest... You remember that show, where he brought the bags of fat on stage? yeah, so since then, we've wanted to start eating healthy, just to eat healthy, plus because high cholesterol and diabetes run in my family. I know to some it seems early to start worrying about it, but I think once you have a kid, then all of a sudden you want to live as long as possible, well, that's how I felt anyway. So, Dr. Oz made sense... but the show went by too fast to let the details really sink in. So, I've been reading up on some healthy diets and food, etc.

Turns out, Trans fat is a fat that was invented not long ago, by taking oil and fusing it with Hydrogen then heating it up so much that it will never go back to liquid form. And since it's invented by man and not by nature, our bodies have no idea what to do with it. We can't digest it, we can't break it down... it goes straight to clot our arteries. Needless to say, I was a little disgusted with this, and immediately went to the fridge to check all the foods. The worse thing I found in the freezer were my Banquet chicken nuggets. The book I'm reading now says that it's not even being enforced for food companies to put the Trans fat content on the bag. (And they've been fighting having to put it on the labels, because it's THAT bad for you, and they don't want you to know.) Well, this bag didn't list the trans fat... big surprise. The author said to take the total grams of fat and subtract whatever fats they do list... whatever's left... is... guess... yep. Trans fat. So, after subtraction, for a 5 piece serving, there was 14 grams of trans fat in those chicken nuggets. Disgusting! And that's what I had been feeding Carlee for lunch once in a while. Can you believe that?!? No wonder we're so unhealthy today. That stuff is in the whole cookie and chip isle! And they cook with it in our restaraunts! American restaraunts anyway, Italians use olive oil.

So, we as a family are eating healthy. No more premade foods.... whole grain everything... no more vegetable oil, only olive oil, and some other points from the book. We're really excited. We couldn't believe how much stuff the food companies put in our food. Oh, and they hide it... it's hydrogenated oil (any oil, and partially can be in there too). If that's high on the ingredient list, then the food has trans fat whether or not they list it. It's really disturbing to think that the companies don't care what they're feeding us, that they're killing people slowly, as long as they make the profit. I wonder if they eat they're own food....

exhausted...

2006-08-16T14:46:00.000-05:00

that's what I am right now... Carlee kept me busy today, a duty day... so it was just me and her... and she's becoming quite the handfull! She's starting to bite me, and I have no idea why... I don't really want to spank her yet, because I know she's still to young and won't understand why I'm doing it, so I'm a little frustrated, because my scolding is not doing anything... grrr... She's constantly into something these days, I can hardly take my eyes off her. But she's still fun and I'm sure she'll always be... well, until she "hates us" and doesn't want to hang out with us, but even then I'm sure Tony and I will be laughing at her, so we'll still be having fun... haha.

So, on the 28th I start my online classes. I'm weirdly excited. lol... I ordered my books... man were they expensive, I forgot how much they cost. Almost as much as the class itself. It's rediculous. But I'm looking foward to it. I researched how the class was going to go since I've never taken one online before. It appears to be fairly easy to understand, and neat too. There's a forum where you can discuss the lesson and talk to the teacher and students. I thought that was awesome. Anywho...

I just got done watching Corpse Bride again, and washing dishes... and I'm tired. I wish I had more time to write... then again, I haven't done much exciting things to write about. This weekend we plan to go into Catania with a friend. He wants to find a tattoo studio and Tony wants to tag along, I agreed only if we get to do something else also, like eat dinner in town or something like that. lol... We're also thinking of going to Palermo soon. It's the capital, and it also has neat catacombs. Can't wait to start doing stuff!

We set the living room up yesterday/last night. The arrangement finally looks really good. We just bought a new corner desk to keep the laptop and all my school stuff, and had to move the tv across the room, in the opposite corner, which was actually awesome because now there's no glare from the window, and now the tv actually looks it's size. Because before it was up against a huge blank white wall and got swallowed, now in the corner, you can actually perceive how big the tv is. It's nice. Now we're just waiting on a couch we're buying from a friend. It's a wrap around couch... Tony's intent on making our living room a sea of sofa... hehe. I'll take pics soon... I promise.... but for now... a hot shower and off to bed.
:)

Niscemi

2006-08-13T11:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we drove out to the town of Niscemi, where Tony works. On the way there, I got to see my first Geep crossing! I was excited, lol... I'm easily amused. Once we got to town, we walked up and down the main street and went into the shops. I found a few things to buy, but Mr. Tony forgot his wallet in the car! lol... oh well, next time. It was fun, and let us practice getting into the society in baby steps since it's not nearly as bad as Catania. I should of taken pics in town, but I didn't want to carry the camara around. :)

nevermind

2006-08-08T13:59:00.000-05:00

i'm sick... sore throat or allergies or something.. so pics are going to have to wait....
ciao

i forgot

2006-08-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

to take pictures of the house again...
tomorrow....

They amaze me everyday

2006-07-27T14:38:00.000-05:00

Today was an awesome day. Started out by getting up earlier than usual. Got Carlee dressed, fed, and ready to meet the Mom's Club and their little ones at the main kiddie park. Right before we were ready to leave a new friend stopped by and joined us on our walk down there. I'm so glad I'm making so many great friends, and with babies Carlee's age!

So, Carlee played with the kids for about half an hour before it got way too hot outside. The poor thing was so red and sweaty I decided we should leave. My friend's baby was red too, so we went to her house to visit for a while. Her son and Carlee are the exact same age and it was so funny to watch them play and interact with eachother. I found out today that Carlee is a jealous little monkey. Anytime I showed the little boy any attention, Carlee would run (even from across the room), scream, and throw herself inbetween me and the little boy. Man, she's got some socializing to do! lol.. but other than that, she's really good with playing with other kids. I'm really surprised since I didn't really have the chance to get her socialized her whole first year. Anyway....

Oh! Here's my pic of the monkey bathroom set:
Is that not freakin cute or what!? The shower curtain matches and everthing! And now we have a place to put all the stuffed monkeys that Tony and I have bought eachother. :D And I also put up a couple of monkey themed children's books that I have. It's so cute in there, and I think Carlee likes it.... ANYWaY!... hehe...

The reason the day was so awesome:
Are they not just completley awesome?!? Watching Tony interact with Carlee just amazes me everyday. He is such a great dad. Tony was drumming away on Carlee's little LeapFrog drum, and she plopped over and started mimicking him. I published this in her blog also, but I wanted to put it here too.

Moments like this remind me of how wonderfully blessed I am.

Duty Day

2006-07-25T14:29:00.000-05:00

It always seemed that in Florida I usually wrote on Tony's duty days. Today's another duty day, but I hope to write more often now. Today went good. Carlee kept me busy. We even stopped by a friend's house to visit for a while. Carlee went to bed early tonight of all nights... There is nothing on tv... the whole 8 channels that we have.

Anyway, so I had originally wanted to write a lot about my experiences here, and I know I haven't done that too much. So my blog has remained not too interesting, I know... but whatever. So, here is something for you to look at. This is a flash and it's hilarious because everything in it is SO true! So go look.

Some things I've learned about Italians... They stare, it's not considered "rude" here, they're just curious so they're gonna keep looking... They are very loud, lol... the Italian firefighters here at our neighborhood take walks sometimes and listening to them talk, you would think they hate eachother and are fighting, but really they're just talking. They LOVE love babies, they will hold your child, give your child stuff, and possibly take your child out of the stroller without permission. (hasn't happen to me yet, but it did to a friend. The Italians love babies THAT much!) They do not waste space. Like the line example in the flash, if there is room, they'll take it. So, Americans who must have a personal space bubble will never get their order in anywhere. They go to driving school for 6 months to learn all the driving laws, get their licsense and immediatley disregard all laws. They speed and they will pass on a blind curve (in Sicily anyway, I hear it's worse here than anywhere else.) Italian time is even more behind than Island Time. Haha... But they are definately nice people.

Unpacking...

2006-07-23T14:10:00.000-05:00

So, the past few days have pretty much been spent unpacking. Yesterday afternoon, we did take a break and went to an Italian air show with all of our friends. We left the house at noon, got there a little before 1 and waited... and waited... in the blistering heat... and waited some more. Bought some over priced sorry excuse of a panini... and waited some more. We did see what looked like a crop plane as Tony called it, doing a few barrel rolls, but that was it. By 3:30 we were tired of waiting and decided to head home. At the parking lot we found out from security that the Italian version of the Blue Angels were flying at 4:30. We were wondering why they didn't say that the show started at 4:30 instead of Noon... Anyway, we were not about to turn back around, so we went home.

We were invited to the beach today, but we decided we really needed to concentrate on getting all of our stuff put away. We've finished the kitchen, living room, and dining room. All that's left is our room, Carlee's room, the spare bedroom, and the bathrooms. I did finish Carlee's bathroom though. I was so excited because I've never spent the money on a new and complete bathroom set. I've never really seen the point, but I found this monkey set at the Nex and I thought it would be so cute for Carlee's bathroom. I wanted to make it fun for her to be in, so we decided to get it. I'll post pics tomorrow.

So, we haven't done much more exploring or sightseeing due to the unpacking but hopefully once we get settled we'll go do something exciting that I can blog about. :)

Household Goods Finally!

2006-07-19T13:11:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, our household goods shipment is finally being delivered! We can't wait. We're really excited. We feel like we've been waiting forever. A month without all of our stuff has felt like forever, but we also know that we were a lot luckier than some people who were in temp. housing for that long! So, we'll be buried in boxes tomorrow.... We're also having problems with our internet connection already, but we're not sure if it's something on the laptop or if it's the connection itself... we'll find out when Tony's new computer gets here.

On another note, I am registered for two classes this fall. I am so excited to be starting school again. I'm really optimistic. I'm only taking two since I've never tried online classes before, and I don't know how much extra time I'll have to study with the baby and all. If all goes well, next semester I hope to take even a few more. First I'm taking Business Principles, and Macroeconomics.

Today I drove to Nas1 for the first time today. It's about a 40 minute drive. I'm getting more comfortable driving here, thank goodness. :D

Other than this, we haven't been up to much. Tony's been working for a few days now. He likes his new job a lot more than his old one at Mayport. I've been to a few Mom's Club meetings. All the moms here are really nice. The meetings have been really fun, and Carlee loves playing with all the toys and the other kids. That's all.... :D