I did it

Lily and I took a walk down to see the Gulf. I somehow stubbed my toe and pulled off the nail about half way, ouch. We came across a man who was fishing. He spoke in the exact accent that the guy on King of the Hill, who you cannot understand, uses. It cracked me up. I had no idea what he said. Instead of saying, what? I asked him if he had seen seen the alligator. He said he hadn't seen her today, but that he say her earlier in the week. Then he started going off in that accent I cannot understand. I just kept walking. I wonder what he said? He wasn't cute like the guy on King of the Hill, he was old and had a dirty shirt, with his big belly sticking out. I think he was the first back water good ole boy I have met since moving to Mississippi, he seemed nice.

Pompeii

In January 2002, shortly after my first miscariage, Jeff decided what we really needed was a trip. He picked Pompei as our destination. We rode the trains from where we lived in Pordenone to Pomepei. Picture northeast corner of Italy to mid to lower west coast of Italy. This train trip took us through Rome, the only time in my two years living in Italy that I saw Rome, was out the train window. I guess our time in Italy was spent taking the road less traveled. We kept putting off Rome and then we were gone.

Pompeii was completely destroyed in the year 79, by a volcanic erruption of the nearby Mount Vesuvius. The entire city of Pompeii has been escavated and you can go there and see an entire Roman city. There is so much detail. It is not a couple of buildings but blocks and blocks of buildings, an entire city. There is so much detail, the paintings on the walls inside the homes and shops. The address outside each house along the street. Sidewalks, billboards, two arenas, fountains, so much detail. We were the only people there that day, the whole city to explore on our own. It was amazing. The hotel we stayed at was phenominal. We didn't have the opportunity to stay in hotels very often during our time in Europe. We lived there. When we did stay in hotels it was always on a budget, and our rooms were always so small you would not believe it. In Pompeii our hotel was lovely. Our room was good sized. We even had a balcony.

We hoped on the train from Pompeii and explored a bit of the northern portion of the Almafi Coast. We had a lovely dinner and bought some lovely jewlery. I think that I had the best lasagne of my life on this trip. As luck would have it I was able to find photos of this adventure. Enjoy.

Are we there yet?

Does anyone have any ideas for a blog post? This is excruciating. How many days left in November? Why do I always wait until the last moment?

One of the things I love most about being a stay at home mom is the fact that I am never in a hurry or running late. I like to live my life at my own pace. It is peaceful. Someone taught Lily how to tell time. She is driving me crazy.

Every day we have the same tentative schedule, we do things in the same order and most likely at about the same time. I don't really look at the clock so who knows. I wont bore you with the details of our mundane schedule today. At breakfast Lily has started asking me what time are we going to do this, that and the other. I tried to tell her, whenever. She did not accept that answer. I tried making up approximate times. She is now holding me to those arbitrary times. All day long she is like the rabbit with the watch, telling me we are late, we are late. I am going to have to read her Alice in Wonderland.

I am being hustled out the door by a four year old so that we are not late for the playground. Today was a lovely day at the playground too, a short sleeved shirt day, with blue skies. I think Lily gets the majority of her personality from her dad.

On the other hand... We were at the grocery store later and Lily was being her normal incredibly happy and social self. Saying hello to all the people and to all the isle numbers, the apples, etc. She has a bounce in her step that make it seem as if her feet don't even touch the ground. She is always talking, with so much happiness and love for life that people tend to stop what they are doing and take notice. I am used to the child and I don't know that I particularly notice her love of life every moment. Occasionally someone will say something, like is she always that happy and it reminds me of just how lovely it is to be with her all day. After that reminder I spend the rest of the day marveling in how happy and fun she really is.

Even if she is reminding me that I have to hurry because we are eating lunch in exactly one minute, not when we are hungry, or when we happen to think about it, we must eat lunch at exactly twelve zero zero.

Assisi

Another of our day trips while living in Italy was to Assisi, which is also located in the Umbria region. Assisi is the birth place of St. Francis. We went to Assisi on a tour bus instead of driving there ourselves. We discovered on this trip that we preferred to travel with our own car. Tours are nice, you get to sleep instead of drive and you get a guided tour. Jeff and Mandy do not like the guided tours, too much talking, and I don't like to ride on buses so much.

We arrived in Assisi on a very cold, rainy day with extremely cold and strong winds. The town of Assisi is full of hills, so imagine us walking up steep hills in the rain with 100 mile per hour wind blowing toward us. This is how I remember Assisi. Whenever we got to a location of interest and took shelter inside. We got to see the church that St. Francis attended as a child. We got to sit in the pew and look at the cross he was looking at when God spoke to him.

My favorite part of the day was at the church built after his death a monument built to him. Inside this enormous cathedral was the small home that he lived in during his adult years. St. Francis was born into a wealthy family and grew up as a playboy of sorts. He enjoyed spending money and having fun. When he was fighting in the army and then held prisoner for over a year he contracted a fever and almost died. During this time of extreme duress he found a deeper meaning to life. He began a journey of discovery and eventually became a saint. During this journey of discovery, at one point he was feeling that he wasn't close enough to God, or that his spirituality wasn't enough and he decided that perhaps if he were to go outside and roll around naked in the brambles, that the pain and duress would help him to journey even closer to God. When he began to roll in the brambles just outside his house they were miraculously changed from brambles to roses, but roses have thorns and would hurt just as much, not these roses, these roses were thornless roses. He found himself rolling around in thornless rose bushes.

Inside this cathedral made as a monument to St. Francis is his old home, a tiny brick house no bigger than a closet. But, also there is a garden, a garden filled with those thornless roses. Which have been carefully and lovingly tended for over a century by the people of Assisi. Within this Cathedral, you go down a hall and you look through a window, and through that window you can see the rose garden. You cannot go into that garden or touch those roses but even on a cold and blustery winter day there were a few blossoms on the very truly thornless rose bushes. I felt an enormous spiritual connection to St. Francis that day. I believed the miracle of the rose bushes. I don't normally believe in the supernatural aspects of religion all that much. If I hadn't been in that church I would have thought of that story as a fairy tale like that of Cinderella, but having been there I have to tell you it felt very real to me that day. I am most certain that a miracle happened, the miraculous thornless roses.

I like to think of God in this way, I take that thought of a loving God who would not want his child to suffer, I take that with me everyday. I don't believe that people need to suffer to learn or to grow.

All quilted out

I have spent the last few days doing almost nothing but quilting. Trying to complete my very first quilt. It has been a long road. I have found that I am not very good at measuring, not very good at cutting, not very good at sewing a straight line...All that and it was still going pretty good. But, today I found out that you should actually read all the directions and not just assume you know the rest. So I am not very good at following directions. I made a huge mistake and spent the rest of the day trying to fix it. I am a little disappointed but the end result is ok. I still have a bit of fixing to do tomorrow and then maybe I will take a picture or two.

Lily helped me with the whole thing. It is a new quilt for her because she has outgrown her baby quilt. She loves it tremendously, I guess that is all that matters. I really learned a lot and I can now say that I can thread the machine, fill the bobbin and sew a very straight line.

In other news Trent Lott resigned but I cannot figure out why. He is actually from a town just down the road from where I am currently living. He is also responsible for doing a great deal of good for this community after Katrina. I always say that we all have more in common than we imagine.

The Christmas Tree

We still haven't gotten the lights outside put up, I guess the turkey still has us in a fog. It is almost gone, back to having to cook I guess.

We own a fake white Christmas tree. You can go here and watch a video I made last Christmas of Lily singing her ABC's next to our Christmas tree. Ok, you only see a little bit of the tree, but isn't Lily cute? We originally bought this tree because I am allergic to the real thing. Jeff went to the store and bought the cheapest tree he saw, he didn't notice that it was white or that it was only about 3 feet tall. The picture on the box was of a green really tall tree.

We had the little white tree for many years. The first few years we covered her in Christmas lights that had a green wire, we finally found a white strand of lights last year and our tree looked almost respectable. The thing about fake trees is that through all the moves and all the time spent in boxes the tree starts to look pretty bad. This year when we took it out of the box it was not only all scrunched up and pathetic but it had turned brownish. I don't know if it was the water damage from the move or from the high heat and humidity of our garage this summer, but our little white tree was retired this year.

Instead of getting another fake tree, I let Jeff get a real one. He was so excited. So here I am typing to you sitting next to my enormous real Christmas tree, anyone have any Clariton?

Now we couldn't very well put our white strand of lights around our green tree. We decided instead to take the green strand of lights that we had bought to put up around the house, around the tree instead. Except Jeff didn't think that was such a great idea, because the strands are terrible long and it was difficult to get around the tree. I was also complaining that Jeff had put the tree too close to the wall making it even more difficult to get the lights up. Chad sat back and took intermittent pictures of our tree trimming "discussions". I have a feeling after spending time with us Chad will never get married.

Mandy had a hard day at work and did not want to participate in the tree picking or tree trimming. Or even the going out to Chinese food for dinner. Lily helped decorate the tree by throwing ornaments into a hole between the branches. Which I did not notice for some time. Who knows how many of our ornaments were tossed into Lily's black hole. Now we just have to do the outside of the house and we will be set.

A perfect day

While I should be doing homework, we are sitting around watching the Virginia vs. Virginia Tech game. Go Virginia. My belly is full of leftovers. Don't have to cook. Another perfect day.

Nice Matters

Dixie was kind enough to give me the Nice Matters Award that I would like to pass on to some of my blogging buddies. Of course you are all very nice!

Lynn, one of the nicest people I have never met, always kind on her blog and on others, always finds something nice to say. I hope I can be more like Lynn someday.

Shelia,is a great combinations of nice and smart. Always giving good advice and thoughtful blog posts and comments.

Lorelei, OK so she is a bit of a Yankee, but still sweet underneath it all. I bet if I ever needed anything Lorelei would be there, stand by your friends thick and thin kind of girl. And it is nice to have someone who always makes you laugh and tells it like it is.

Angel, Can't ever have a list without Angel. Not only are you nice but you are fun. Where is the Moscato.

Kimberly, I know you are out of town and wont even see this, still I would feel bad not putting your name down.

Laura Capello, We have been blogging buddies forever now. Always nice to get a chance to sit with the popular kids.

Mrs. Grumpy, I know that nice is not how you are currently feeling about yourself, but that is how I see you. Sending good thoughts.

Everyone else who takes the time to stop by and read my blog, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your friendship and comments. I almost forgot to post today and just got this in by the skin of my teeth. Hopefully I will tag those I left out on the next one that rolls through. I still have a ton of these to pass out. I am slow, sorry.

Jumping the Fence

Our dinner went well. I cooked the whole thing on my own, with a lot of help from Wal-Mart. Nothing was perfect, I actually forgot to put the mashed potatoes and stuffing on the table until we were done. I made everyone sit back down and eat some. Most years my turkey gets done a couple of hours past the time I estimate, this year it was a couple of hours earlier. Is that Karma? Otherwise it was a perfect meal. Everything tasted great and we were all happy and thankful. The only thing Lily will eat today is carrots, raw sliced carrots. The rest of the food she wont even taste.

We played football in the yard. It was a crisp fall day. We are not terribly athletic and Lily was not having any fun. She said, "Excuse Me Everybody, I want to play hide and seek". So we did. We were hiding in our neighbors yards, crouched behind garbage cans, jumping fences, laughing our butts off. I am surprised we didn't get shot.

After dinner, I took a lovely nap. Then we had the outdoor games, dessert, and then... We went to the Big Lots sale and got our Christmas decorations. We haven't had the opportunity to decorate outside of the house before so we stocked up. It was so much fun. We saw many of the Griswald type decorated houses on our way home. I am excited to be in the competition. Tomorrow we are hitting the sales bright and early. We have marked down all the stores we have to hit and what we are getting at each store. This is my first holiday season in America is many years and I am so excited.

Don't forget to check out, Ugly Christmas Lights.

happy Thanksgiving

I hope y'all have a lovely turkey day.

Turn that frown upside down

This post is brought to you today by the word SMILE, lol-I crack myself up-too much Sesame Street I suppose...

We did eventually make it over to Pisa. It was a bit of a drive from our home in Pordenone. If memory serves it was a 5 or 6 hour drive? We left our house at 0'dark early and arrived at around 10AM. We were of course hungry, but there is no food served in Italy until 12:30PM therefore we stopped at Camp Darby, an Army Post, and grabbed a quick bite at the Burger King.

When we arrived at Pisa I was very disappointed. The whole thing is a courtyard with the tower and a church and I think there is another building? We did not have a reservation to climb to the top of the tower and it was very expensive if memory serves. For some reason we didn't climb to the top. We walked around, went in all the buildings and an hour later we were looking at each other like, what now?

I had noticed on our way to Pisa that we had driven past the city of Vinci. I looked it up in my travel book and it was the Vinci - as in Leonardo di Vinci (Leonardo from Vinci). It was on our way home, if you think getting off the main road and driving on tiny back streets for a hundred miles is on the way. (that is a really rough and most likely exaggerated estimate). Mandy and I were able to convince Jeff to take the detour. We arrived in Vinci at about 5PM. By this time we had been on the road for a very long time, Jeff was not in the mood to do a lot of museums. I love museums and Vinci has tons of museums all about our dear Leonardo. Jeff made me pick one.

I picked the closest museum and we entered. It was like a house the had been turned into a museum. There was an entry way and then you traveled from room to room. This was the most wonderful and fabulous museum in the entire world. You really have to go. Leonardo kept a sketch pad of ideas. He would think of an invention and then draw out a sketch, he would include dimensions and mechanical jargon. Most of these inventions never made it past his sketch pad. The people of Vinci had taken these sketches and built the actual item from the sketch. The actual sketches are housed in Paris, but copies of the sketch are framed on the wall next to an actual rendering of the object. They also show the year Leonardo made the sketch and then the year that object was actually invented. You see he invented all kinds of things hundreds of years before those things were invented by someone else. I always wonder if the second person who saw his sketches or if it was a coincidence? Some of these items include the bicycle, the helicopter, the machine gun, the hand glider, that is all that comes to my mind. It was so much fun to see all these things.

We also bought a print of one of Leonardo's sketches for only a couple of dollars. It says on the bottom of the sketch that it was printed in Vinci, Italy. So cool. I had it framed and it is one of my most treasured pieces.

By this time we were very hungry, it was around 6PM no restaurants serve food at 6PM in Italy. So we stopped and ate dinner on the way home at a rest stop along the Autostrata, an Auto Grill. It was pretty good.

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I have been tagged for a ton of Memes and I have been so very bad at keeping up. So sorry, I feel like an ingrate. I am going to try and put a meme at the bottom of every post until I catch back up.

This first one is an award given to me by the Nap Warden. This is the makes me smile award. Thank you very much. Be sure to check out her blog, Chronicles of a Stay at Home Mom. Her blog is smart, funny and very upbeat. I am passing this award along to some of my blogging buddies who have left comments that made me smile this week.


meno, I loved your yellow lab comment.
mamadaisy, I loved that you felt about the Colosseum the same way I felt about some of the places I have been-feeling history.
marion, sitting on the stones that told the stories of the ages, I love that you put into words what I was thinking.
luckzmom, I too have been moved to tears by the history of a place, glad to have a kindered spirit.
lorelei, you totally made me smile with your comment about a good meal, "The only thing I can make is reservations."

Walking

Jeff and I are doing a walk your way to fitness through the holidays thing with the base. We got pedometers and we have to keep track of our daily steps until Jan. 1st. Jeff and I are competing with one another to see who does the most steps between now and the end of the contest. We haven't decided what the winner will get. So far he is beating me, big surprise. We did go for an evening walk together. I am amazed to see how sedentary I really am. Hopefully I can kick it up a notch. Any ideas what I should ask for when I win?

Pixie the wonder dog

Last night our dog was out in the back yard barking up a storm. Jeff opened the back door to call her in, but she wouldn't come. He put on some shoes, went out into the yard and tried to get her to come in the house. I was in the house listening to Jeff yell, "Pixie" for quite some time. I finally went out to see what was going on.

There was an enormous opossum on the top of our fence. At least that is what we are saying it was in actuality it was dark and it was huge, it had a bald tail and that is about all we know. We were afraid to get between Pixie and the opossum so we were trying to call Pixie away from the fence. Of course she wouldn't listen. Jeff has this habit of standing up with his full six feet and yelling, "Pixie" and wondering why she never listens to him. I always just squat down and hold out my hand. I don't even have to call her she just comes to me when I do this. This is especially helpful when she runs out the front door and down the street at the speed of lightning.

I picked her up, even though she is a pretty good sized dog, and carried her into the house. She was upset and wanted back out. I was proud of her for protecting the family.

Later that night, our friend Chad, who is staying with us off and on, came to our house late at night when we were all asleep. Our lovely dog didn't even wake up.

Mean Girls on MySpace

Have you heard about this story?

A 13 year old girl killed herself after being targeted on MySpace. Someone from her neighborhood who did not care for this girl pretended to be a boy named Josh. "Josh" spent a month sending messages back and forth with this girl. One day "Josh" told the girl she was cruel, and a slut, and fat. The girl killed herself.

I remember when I was 13, I remember when Mandy was 13 sometimes I wonder how we ever got through it all. Even now at nearly 17 Mandy sometimes gets her feelings really hurt by her girls friends. When I was growing up we didn't have MySpace, we had the school bus and the playground. People were still mean, they found a way. Is it worse now with the anonymity of the Internet?

Gubbio

One weekend not long after our trip to Salzburg, we decided to go to see the leaning tower of Pisa. It had just re-opened and they were allowing people to climb up to the top of the tower again after having been closed for quite some time for renovations. Just as we were about to leave, we found out that in order to climb to the top of the tower you needed to have a reservation. They only wanted a few people per day to climb up the tower and it took awhile to get a reservation. So we decided to go another day. What is the point of driving all that way if you are not going to get to climb up the tower.

Jeff and I couldn't decide where we should go instead. Our gas tank was full, we had snacks we wanted a trip. We decided to give the tour book to Mandy and let her pick where we would go that day. Mandy picked Gubbio.

Gubbio is a little town in the middle of the Umbria region. Italy is broken up into regions like we are broken up into states. Each region has differing characteristics just like our states are very different. For me the Umbria region is my favorite. While Verona is my favorite city, Verona being in the Venito region, Umbria is my favorite region and Gubbio is my favorite city in Umbria. That probably makes no sense to anyone but me.

There is not a train station in Gubbio, this makes it very remote. The Umbria region is mountainous and to get to Gubbio you have to drive and you have to drive along windy roads. It took forever but we finally found the little town.

While we were in Salzburg we bought a Christmas ornament for about $50, we saw one in Gubbio for about $2, you see the difference between being a tourist town and an out of the way town with no trains going through.

There wasn't a McDonald's or a tourist book at the newspaper stand. We saw a big castle at the top of the hill and decided to start our tour of Gubbio there. Aren't we clever? It turns out that the Castle/Fortress was turned into a cool museum. We had a lot of fun browsing the museum. Around the museum are little shops. We browsed the little shops and bought a ton of medieval weapons. They were very reasonably priced and authentic weapons. Like a ball and chain, a cross bow, daggers, etc. We spotted a suit of Armour. Head to toe, full suit of armour with amazing details. It was only a couple hundred dollars. We decided not to buy it that day. Can you believe that? I have regretted it ever since. Jeff and I often talk about going back to Gubbio, just to buy that suit of Armour. I wonder if it is still there. Probably missed our opportunity. Wouldn't that make the coolest library, a suit of armour and our massive weapons collection. While I collect art, Jeff and Mandy collect weapons every where we go. We have a ton of weapons,which is so weird, for a peace lover like me.

The Concert

Last night I stayed up until midnight waiting for Mandy to come home. She went to a concert on a school night. Aren't I a great mom? It was called the Carnival of Chaos and there were four bands: Red, Three Days Grace, Seether and Breaking Benjamin. I have never heard of any of them. Mandy says I would recognize their songs if I heard them...

A boy invited her, he paid for her ticket, he picked her up, he brought her home (actually he doesn't drive either so it was his parents). She says this is not a date. I wonder what a date is? She had so much fun, she was bouncing off the walls when she came home. I imagine that she is sleeping in class right now.

There was another concert in town this week one featuring Rick Springfield and Eddie Money, now I have heard of them.

Salzburg, Austria

We actually went to Salzburg twice, you can read about our first trip here. It is also a funny story where I make fun of Jeff and there are a few photos.

Our second trip to Salzburg was with some friends, we wanted to go visit the famous Christmas market. Our friends had a Dodge Durango, an enormous vehicle, we had a lot of people in that vehicle and a lot of room. The drive from Italy to Austria was a lot of fun with a SUV full of fun people. It was snowing that day, and our driver was a bit of a daredevil. I was scared we were all going to die, but I tried to keep it to myself. I always like it better when Jeff drives, he is an excellent driver and not one of those guys who feels the need to push the limits past what is safe.

Driving up through Austria we pass by beautiful mountains, and castles, the whole drive is almost as fun as the destination. In the summertime what I really love is the crops growing on the sides of the mountains. Like a patch work quilt the smaller greener mountains are covered with squares of crops. It is quite an interesting site. Other mountains are the really tall rugged type, that are stone, and harsh, Jeff loves those types of mountains. The view along the drive changes and I always loved driving up to Austria.

When we got to the Christmas market in Salzburg, we got some warm mulled cider, that was good. The day was just cold enough for snow, we dressed appropriately, the big fat snow flakes were falling from the sky. There wasn't any wind, and we were warm as we walked around. The city looked like a Christmas village, all lit up, snow falling, quaint centuries old buildings. I felt like I was in a movie. We had a big lunch and then we went about the task of browsing through all the wares at the Christmas market.

Mandy was at that age, where she knew everything. I tried to tell her to dress warm before we left. She assured me that she knew. I let it go. She wore tennis shoes and thin socks. We were walking around outside in the snow for hours. Her feet got very cold. At the Christmas market I bought her a pair of new socks. The cost about $100 dollars. Never buy new socks at a Christmas market in Austria, they were really warm, wool, thick, but $100. Jeff was furious. That was pretty much all the money we had brought with us. But, Mandy's feet were warm.

We also bought a hand painted Christmas ornament. I still have it. It is lovely. Reminds me of that perfect day at the quaint Christmas market. Later I tried the hot wine, and all the snacks we could get our hands on, they were tasty. The market wasn't all that big, just some tables in the middle of the town square. The stuff being sold wasn't that interesting, unless you count the socks and the ornament. But, we just had an enormously wonderful day. I think it is one of those things that you really only get to see if you live in Europe. It wasn't really a tourist event as a local event. I will always remember those fat snow flakes and the hot wine. It really was a great day.

Happy Anniversary

I had a lot of fun reminiscing about Italy yesterday. Today our seventh anniversary, Jeff and mine. Jeff took the day off from work and then when Mandy got home from school we went out on a date. It was a lot of fun. We even went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We strolled through town. Browsed the antique shops, the art shops, the toy store. We love it here. We go out on a date every year for our anniversary, we usually talk about our dream home, this year, we own our dream home.

Anniversary story year 6

Anniversary Story year 5

I am married to a man who is honest, not in the...you look fat in those pants...way but in the...does what he says he will do, is where he says he will be, never hide things...kind of way.

I am married to a man with integrity. He would rather do the right thing, than do the thing that would be in his own best interest.

I am married to a man who loves me and our girls. He shows it every day, in every way.

A month ago Jeff saw through a store window the perfect anniversary present for me. I went in the store and they didn't have any more. Only the display model. They didn't even have a box. He had them put it in a box that didn't really fit. He called me from the parking lot he was so excited about this gift.

He walked through the front door and insisted I open the gift. Both his feet had not even gotten in the front door and he was insisting that I open the box right away. A month to our anniversary. I complied.

The gift was a lovely globe. Almost as tall as me. One of those old fashioned looking globes in the neutral colors. It is on a beautiful wood stand. It is really the best present ever. I love globes. I have it next to my favorite chair. I am always looking over at my globe, yesterday I looked to see which state is above Louisiana, just cause I was curious. And what it that country that is the size of a city, between Switzerland and Germany, I always forget that one. See a globe comes in handy. I got Jeff a shirt with fish on it.

In fair Verona

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene
-William Shakespeare from Romeo & Juliet

One of my favorite trips was to Verona. We were only there for an afternoon, still it has been with me ever since. Maybe because we got some great artwork and I look upon the scenes from Verona every morning. Maybe because this city is the setting for Romeo and Juliet. Whatever the reason, Verona is my favorite city in all of Italy, maybe in all the world.

This trip was one of the first trips I took with Jeff after we got married. One of my very first adventures. Jeff, Mandy and I drove from our home in Pordenone to Verona. I think the drive was two or three hours, not far. We arrived in the down town section, the older section of town and found a place to park our car. We then found a newspaper stand and bought a book about Verona. The thing about Europe that makes travel so easy is that they take care of the tourists, the bumbling Americans who have no knowledge of the language or history. Every city sells books about their city in a variety of languages. All you have to do is find a newspaper stand and buy a book. They usually only cost a few dollars. The books tell you everything you need to know about that city, big beautiful pictures, history and maps. As soon as we buy our book we find the nearest McDonald's and we get ourselves a lunch and plan our day. This is pretty much how we bumbled our way through Europe. Had a great time. Saw many things. It is nice to live there for a few years, to be able to just show up and look around every weekend was an adventure.

What I remember most about Verona is going to see Juliet's house and standing on Juliet's balcony. At first I was skeptical, because Romeo and Juliet is a work of fiction, not a true story, not a story from a history book, it is a play, made up by William Shakespeare. It is a wonderfully written story, it is world renowned, a story known by all, but it is not a record of actual events. Well, not according to the people of Verona, they say that William witnessed the true and actual goings on between Romeo and Juliet and wrote he play about actual events. So we went and stood on Juliet's balcony. Jeff took our picture. It is in a box in my garage, maybe someday I will dig it out and scan the picture and prove to y'all that I once stood on the balcony of Juliet, where Romeo stood below and said those sweet words. I believe my husband called up to me from bellow, something about hurry up, I am hungry. Just kidding.

While Mandy and I pushed our way through the crowds to descend back to the street, through the house of Juliet, Jeff secretly bought a sketch of the balcony. He later had that sketch beautifully framed and he gave it to me for a present. I cherish that picture still today, it hangs in my dinning room, near a framed poster I bought while we were on the streets of Verona, that I later had framed. I guess you could say that I have a dinning room dedicated to the memory of my trip to Verona.

The other thing that really stands out in my mind is the Arena. It looks like the Colosseum in Rome, maybe a little smaller. It was built in the first century. For two thousand years it has been used. First for the gladiators, now days it is used for Operas and concerts. Elton John played there while we were in Italy, I almost bought tickets, I still kick myself for not going. While we were there that day, we bought tickets and just wandered around the arena. It surprised me how much it is like the coliseums in our modern cities. A big entrance, you follow signs to get to your section, you go through tunnels, the tunnels split, you go this way or that way to get to your section. The only difference is that it is all made of stone, the walls, the ceiling, the stairs, the seats, the stage, it is all stone. The stones were worn. Where you place your feet, walking down the stairs, there stone is worn. The seats are worn wear you sit. How many feet, how many butts does it take to wear the stone. Two thousand years worth of wear and tear. It makes me feel a part of life, all the life that has existed, all the lives that have passed through this arena. All the feet that wore away the footprints on the stone stairs. All those events.

You know how it feels to be at a concert, to be at a sporting event. The excitement of the crowd the pulse of the event courses through everyone there. I think I was able to feel a bit of that history a bit of the spirit of all that excitement, as I sat in the empty stone seat on that warm summer afternoon.

I guess this is one of the reasons I enjoy traveling so much. I enjoy learning the history of places and I sometimes can feel the history of a place, the spirit of that place seems to exist, like the place has a memory of all that has happened. I have felt that way only a few times, here in the Arena in Verona. I also felt it in the concentration camp we visited in Germany, I felt it at St. Marcos square in Venice, and at the Pyramids in Egypt. Have you ever felt that way, felt the history of a place, felt the spirit of the events of the people.

Eatin' Well

Jeff, Mandy & Chad went to The University of Southern Mississippi to see a football game. This was Jeff & Mandy's second time going there to see a game. They had a blast. Jeff took pictures and complains that I do not post stories of the things he and Mandy do or post the pictures he takes on my blog. He thinks this blog belongs to our family and I am just the gatekeeper. Now I understand why others don't tell their husbands about their blogs.

It always surprises me when Jeff reads my blog and has a differing recollection of events.

After the game, driving home, Jeff and Chad decided that they wanted The Shed for dinner. Mandy does not like bbq at all and took a pass. She offered to take care of Lily so I could go to out to dinner with the boys. How sweet is that?

They didn't get back until almost 9PM. We went straight to The Shed and had the most fabulous bbq in the world. There was a live band and a bon fire, the temperature was perfect. We had a great time. But, I really do not recommend eating bbq at 9PM, especially if you are planning on going to bed afterwards. Still it was a lot of fun and I just love those baby back ribs, the meat melts in my mouth.

Today I worked on homework all day. Trying to catch up. It is going OK, I still have a long way to go. Jeff offered to cook dinner. He went to the store and picked up some steaks. Not the cheap steaks he normally picks up but real steaks. He put together the bbq grill I bought him for father's day. Actually we did that together, reminiscing over the other times we have put things together. Seven years of marriage has taught us how to work together a little better. More laughing and support less bickering. I guess we know each others strengths and weaknesses now. I don't follow directions well and Jeff doesn't handle tiny pieces well. It only took us an hour.

Jeff cooked us up those good steaks, he cooked them to perfection, over a charcoal grill. It was even better than The Shed, melted in my mouth like butter. How did I get so lucky? I guess I am going to have to cook tomorrow. Grilled cheese?

Eight Things

My new blogging buddy Marion, a fellow blog villager tagged me some time ago for a meme. Marion's blog Herbal Connection is wonderful. She is such a wonderful writer. An ordinary trip to the story is told with so much personality that I feel such a connection to Marion. All those things that run through our heads as we lead our life, she has a magical way of capturing life, that makes me feel like saying, yes-that is just what I think. I strongly recommend that you add Marion to your daily read. Sorry it has taken me so long to do this meme. I am supposed to tell you eight things not generally known about me....

1. I have zero grace. I am incredibly envious of people who have grace. I just bumble through things, always in a hurry, always efficient, never graceful. I took ballet as a little girl, I can only imagine what that looked like. I still have bruises on my legs from bumping into things.
2. I have a brown thumb. I buy plants, I plant things, they all die. I want to be a gardener, but it usually does not work out so well. I am most surprised that my animals and kids survive me.
3. The only sweet I like is chocolate, I don't really like any other type of candy or treat, I don't particularly like ice cream either. But, I love me some chocolate.
4. My favorite colors change all the time. One day I can love a color and the next day, not so much. I always love green. Some days I adore turquoise some days I can't stand it, same with pink.
5. Speaking of color, Lily and I wear the same color everyday. We have the same coloring and I tend to, buy her the same colors as I buy for myself. I don't do it intentionally, I honestly don't even notice that we are wearing the same color until Jeff points it out. Even right now we are both wearing pink shirts. I don't know how it happens, she picks out her own clothes now. I am not sure if I am copying her or if she is copying me. It happened when she was a baby too. It freaks me out a bit, because it really is not intentional. I just don't pay attention, and it just happens.
6. I believe that drinking water will cure anything. Anytime anyone in my family has any problem at all, I give them water. Headache, when was the last time you drank water. Stuffy nose, drink some water. Twisted your ankle, you need water to improve your circulation and kick start the healing process. Plus if you freeze it you can have an ice pack.
   
7. I collect globes, maps and clocks. Maybe this is why Lily is the way she is?
8. I don't like Christmas, this year I am doing my very best fake it till you make it, I have almost convinced myself that it is going to be SO MUCH FUN.

I am tagging, all you poor souls doing NaBloPoMo that are struggling like me, or anyone else it is easier than you think once you get going. Thanks Marion for tagging me.

Are you sure?

My luck is changing, everything is coming up roses for a change. Knock wood.

Here is a fun story. I may have told it before, forgive me and my addled brain if you have read this before...

October 2004. We are in Hawaii. Everyone in the family got to do a couple of things that they really wanted to do. Mandy got to swim with dolphins and ride out in a boat into the ocean and see hundreds of dolphins frolicking in the surf. I got to go for sunset walks along the beach, boogie boarding, and an afternoon sunbathing on a lovely beach. All Jeff wanted was to hike to the top of Diamond Head Mountain.

On our way there, we got into a heated discussion about which way to go. Jeff had been there before, he thought he saw something on a sign, I was reading a map, he wouldn't listen to me. I wouldn't listen to him. It got ugly. For some reason my sweet easy going Jeff turns into a monster when he is behind the wheel. I just hate that. I feel like he is not trusting me. I think that having navigated our family through dozens of foreign countries would have taught him that I can indeed read a map. I would think that he would trust my map reading abilities, but he does not. Which seriously ticks me off. Every time he is driving and I am navigating he is second guessing my instructions. And he second guesses me very loudly and very rudely. You would think after all these years I would be used to it. I am not.

On this trip I got so mad, I insisted he turn the car around and take me back to the hotel. I refused to hike Diamond Head. And we never discussed it again.

Until...

Sunday night, we were watching the first episode of the new season of the Amazing Race. Jeff says to me, I really want to do the Amazing Race. I say to him, not with me your not, I would kill you. He says, "I haven't forgotten Diamond Head." I say, "nether have I."

For the sake of our marriage I don't think having cameras and an audience would help us to deal with our traveling issues. Anyone interested in being Jeff's partner. He runs marathons, does triathlons, has traveled all over the world, he is sweet as pie, easy going and fun. You just can't be sensitive when he asks you 27 times if you are sure you are supposed to turn here. Are you sure? I thought I saw a sign.

Men...

one of those weeks

Poor Little Miss Lily is still sick. What a week. She really hates the diarrhea, she cries, and says, Mommy help me. She doesn't want to let it out. It is traumatic. We get it all done and I comfort her. Poor thing. She is quite upset that she is unable to will herself better.

I had Jeff go around the hospital, where he works, and ask all his doctor friends for advice. Like is there a medicine that I can give her? Or am I doing the right things? When is it time to take her to the doctor? Each doctor, each nurse, had completely different advice. Very frustrating. Some say no milk, some say yes milk. Some say give her medicine, some say no medicine use clotting foods. They give me a list of foods and drinks to give her and none of those things are things Lily eats.

I am proud of the fact that Lily is not dehydrated and she doesn't have a rash. The germy house is being kept hospital sterile. Mandy hasn't gotten sick.

My Lily is such a energetic little girl, it is hard to see her be quiet. She hardly ever wants to cuddle and this week, she just wants me to hold her. She isn't asking me any questions, no why is it Thursday? She isn't telling me no.

Yesterday evening, we woke up from our nap and were feeling pretty good. I wanted to see Lily laugh so badly. I started saying the bad words that we are not allowed to say, just cause I know she gets a kick out of saying bad words. We said: butt, shut up, and boobies. When Dad came home she told him to Shut his butt. It was so fun. I feel a little bad, but it was so nice to see her perk up and laugh.

Today she is the same, when is it supposed to get better? The "Mommy help me" thing is killing me. I missed the deadline for my homework. My living room light/ceiling fan has a short and goes off/on- off/on, the cable for the computer hasn't come even thought my card has been charged, it has just been one of those weeks.

Picasa

This posting everyday thing is rough. How y'all doing? Today I thought I would tell you about Picasa web albums.

If you have a blogger blog you are going to love this. The photos that you have uploaded to your new blogger blog are all stored over in a web album at this site. You can even go there and upload whole folders of photos all at once, instead of one photo at a time. Once uploaded you are able to post those photos to your blog with the click of a button, you can post them as a slide show, post them as an album or post them one at a time. It is very easy to use and convenient.

You are also able to download the program Picasa to your computer. This program organizes your photos and enables you do to some simple photo retouching and a whole lot more. Best of all it is all free. I personally do not like Picasa because I use photoshop and because I have a really slow computer. Picasa is always running in the background making my computer even slower. But, if you do not have photoshop and if you have a new computer, if your photos are all over the place and you need an easy way to organize you might want to download Picasa.

I guess I am telling you all this because I was so excited when I accidentally discovered I can upload a whole folder full of photos at once instead of one at a time. I know that many of you have blogger blogs and wanted to make sure you knew about this too. Of course I am probably the last one to know and you have all been doing this for years. Happy blogging.

Mama don't work

Last night as I felt the cold coming on, Lily woke up feeling poorly. I had to stay up for a couple of hours and help her with the squishy poopy and overall feeling poorly. As I was rocking her back to sleep I was flicking through the channels on the TV. Not yet ready to put Lily back to bed. Holding her tight, worried, and incredibly tired myself. I came upon a young woman, a TV anchor who was voicing her opinion on mothers. This young woman, said something to the effect that while she herself was not yet a mother, the moms she sees who look at their children as work instead of as gifts disgust her. This woman feels that caring for her future children will be the greatest joy of her life.

It ain't rainbows coming out of my sick babies butt. Maybe it is because I am bone weary. My husband took a day off work to sleep when he got this crud, me I had to stay up all night and all day cleaning stinky poopy and stinky puke. Anyways, this attitude that what we do isn't work. Of course it is a joy, of course I love my girls, but if it ain't work I don't know what is.

Everyone is sick

Even my laptop. The cord that plugs into the wall and re-charges the battery broke. Mandy didn't tell me until the computer went dead. I ordered something on the Internet, hope it is the right thing. Jeff came home from work sick. Lily is sick. Mandy and I are sick with sadness about the computer. At least I have old Betsy the desktop. I spent the morning trying to load all the programs I need to do my homework assignment. Now I am sorta doing my assignment.

The lady with the furniture called, she is supposed to have movers there today. We shall see. She said they were going to come last week but she forgot she didn't have a key. I think she is mental. She offered to come to my house and pick up the key so I wouldn't have to wait for the movers. I (hopefully) politely declined. However, with the homework and sickies, this is not going to be a fun day. Hope your day is going better.

I am however, learning JavaScript. Maybe I will learn how to do something cool. See y'all tomorrow.

Where are all the travel stories?

I promised you all stories from my travels. I have not been able to put something together in my head. They all go something like this, we went to ___ we looked around and we left. Jeff and Lily are coming down with colds. Just a little bit, nothing serious so far. Still they are needing some tlc. I have been resting up after all that work and eating yesterday. Reading romance novels and napping instead of doing homework.

I have been waking up at about 2AM lately. Doing a bit of homework and going back to bed. How weird. Hope I wake up tonight because I seriously need to get it done by midnight tomorrow. Hope your weekend is great.

A Watch in the Garage

First thing after breakfast today we cleaned the garage. Our Chad is coming next week. Jeff was sure that cleaning our garage would take 2 hours tops. It took about 10. We didn't even stop for lunch. Our Chad will be living in our garage off and on for the next six months. We are attempting to make it nice for him. He is taking a leave of absence from his construction business to come and build homes for people who are in need. We have a whole lot of need here in Mississippi. He is doing all this with his church and we are offering him a place to come and get away from it all and regroup when he needs it.

Mandy had to work today from 4pm-10pm. I woke her up at 1PM today and asked her if she would like to go out to dinner with us, before she had to go to work. She said she would rather sleep. Jeff, Lily and I planned on going out to dinner after we dropped Mandy off at work, Mandy was distraught that we would be going out to dinner while she was hard at work. She was sleeping while I was cleaning the garage. Could have gone with us, but preferred to sleep. Jeff felt bad and got her a dinner to go. I didn't feel bad.

Lily had developed a love of time. She somehow discovered clocks. She absolutely has to know what time it is at all times. Driving down the road, she will ask me fifty times, what time is it now. In between the 1,000 questions beginning with why. I have begun to hand Lily my phone, which has a clock on the front, whenever we get into the car. At the restaurant, the air conditioning was on high and blowing right on Lily. She moved to the other side of the table next to her daddy, where it was warm and cozy. Every few minutes she would climb down from her seat and come over to my side. She would route threw my purse and look at the phone clock, whisper the time and go back over to snuggle up to her warm daddy. It was lovely. We ate and ate. Had warm and buttery buns. Lily was perfectly content to sit quietly and participate in the conversation, as long as she could check the time.

I am thinking of getting her a watch for Christmas, only just to be mean I was thinking of getting a regular, not digital watch. Wouldn't that be funny?

The best laid plans

Jeff and I recently agreed to become property managers for a friend who owns a house locally and lives far away. He was unable to sell his home in the current market and we are taking care of trying to find a renter. Turns out I have actually been doing all the work. It has actually been a lot of fun. I get dozens of phone calls a day, I have shown the house a few times, no renters yet.

There have been all kinds of drama. Being involved in other people's lives so intimately. We have the previous renters who got divorced and sold their furniture to a local lady. This lady keeps putting off getting her furniture out of the house. She is a sweet little old lady who gives you a real good sob story and show, but the furniture, she bought it 6 months ago and still hasn't picked it up. Jeff and I flip coins over who has to call her next. While the house was on the market, the real estate agent was unable to get her to pick up the furniture. It seems that she bought this really nice high end furniture for almost nothing from the previous renters. Her home was destroyed in Katrina and being rebuilt. Meanwhile she is living in a tiny apartment and would have to put the furniture in storage. Plus, this house is air conditioned etc. So she is getting free storage. Plus, she is trying to avoid paying to have it all moved twice. I am fixin' to call and tell her that the Good Will truck is coming to get the furniture tomorrow if she wants it she needs to come and get it before Good Will. This furniture is actually nicer than my furniture, I keep thinking how lovely it would look in my house. I worry about Karma though. Better to give it to the needy. A whole lot of needy people in Mississippi. It would totally crack me up to see this top of the line brand spanking new furniture at a Good Will.

I also had to clean the kitchen and bathrooms, not so much had to, as no one asked me. Still, would you rent a house with a dirty bathroom? Would you buy a house with a dirty bathroom? I couldn't believe that the relater would try to sell a house in this condition. It is a really nice house. Worth at least twice as much as my house. One of the more expensive, high end homes being sold in our area, on the market with dirty toilets? For six months. The owner was out of town and did not know. I guess this is why he needed us.

I also noticed that when you walk in the front door, the first thing you see is the living room, with a beautiful fireplace, gorgeous mantle and two floor to ceiling windows on either side of the fireplace. Outside those windows is a beautiful backyard and behind the backyard is a lovely forest. The windows were covered with drapes, the drapes were closed, I thought, what? The above mentioned furniture was placed in front of the windows and the drapes were closed. So I opened them up and moved the furniture, gave the room a good flow, and some light, accented the beautiful view. I spent two whole days at the house, cleaning, replacing light bulbs, rearranging furniture, opening blinds etc. Still no renters.

The funny thing is that no one asked me to do all this stuff. It just needed to be done. Or at least I thought it needed to be done. Jeff was a bit upset that our bathrooms at home are in serious need of a good scrubbing and I was off cleaning someone else's bathrooms. Men.

When we moved here from Japan. I did all the research about the area. I made graphs and charts. I researched every neighborhood within 50 miles of Jeff's work. I found where I wanted to live, based on the schools, crime, home values, Katrina flooding etc. I came out here on my own and bought my house. Jeff tells me everyday what a great job I did and how much he loves our home. At the time I would ask him endless questions about what he wanted, which drove him crazy, but now he is glad. We all love our home and, if I do say so myself I got a great deal.

Sometime during the last week or so Jeff and I both had a thought, we had it independently and when he mentioned it to me I was shocked to see that I was thinking the same thing he was thinking. I have my life all planned out. Jeff and I have plans, my education and future job. How long I will be a stay at home mom. When he will retire from the military. Every detail for the next 50 years is all planned out. But, we both had this weird idea, to throw a wrench into all the carefully laid plans. Can you guess what it is? My mind is just bubbling with ideas and alternatives and plans. I just don't know.

A night to remember

I was able to get Lily to take a nap. Things were going quite well. We walked out our front door at exactly 6:00PM, our community trick or treats from 6-8PM. No one was about. I live on a street with dozens of children, I saw none. I saw the neighbor across the street getting into his car and asked him if his (four kids) were going trick or treating and he told what was going on. My neighborhood has no street lights or sidewalks, so most of the people take their kids downtown. We have a quaint little downtown area that is quite often used for festivals etc.



The area was blocked off to traffic and all the store owners decorate the street and hand out candy. It was packed with people. There was a live band. There is always a live band in Mississippi, Mandy says that her school cafeteria has a live band on Fridays. As it became dark, the street filled to capacity. People of all ages dressed in adorable costumes. It was a lot of fun.

As we were pulling up to our parking space a black cat ran right across our path. That was exciting. We only stayed about a half an hour. Lily and crowds don't really mix all that well. We filled her pumpkin with candy and headed home. We all had a blast. I love living here where people put so much love and kindness into things like Halloween.

When we got home, we found that a few people still trick or treated our neighborhood. Which was a good thing because we had a LOT of candy. I was filling the candy bags of the kids who came to our house. Only two or three houses per street were passing out candy, so I was loved. I gave the rest of the candy to Jeff to take to work.

We got home and Lily forgot to eat a single piece of candy. She didn't mention it and neither did I. Isn't that funny. I did have a very hard time getting her to bed. Taking the nap and all the crowd and excitement left her a little wound up. It took me almost an hour to get her to go to sleep, it was almost 10PM before she dropped off. I hope your Halloween was fun too.