May 29, 2009

Twitter?

It seems that everyone is talking about Twitter. I got on today just to see what all of the hype is about. I don't think that many people that I know are on it, so it isn't very interesting keeping up with strangers. I had to set up an account to check it out, so now I'm on the site. I might try it out for a few days and see how it goes. If anyone has an account and either likes or dislikes it, let me know what you think!

May 20, 2009

It's the little things......

It's the little things that you take for granted that I miss the most. Right now, we are without a car. Our transmission burnt out in the Jeep, so we are currently stuck with riding our bikes and taking the bus. Life is so much easier with a car. You can go wherever you want, whenever you want and buy whatever you want! Now, everything I do must be calculated. I can only fit so much into my bike basket and backpack at one time. So I have to plan exactly what I need before I go to the store and i must make sure that I am able to get it home. Anything that is too big to fit in my basket, just doesn't make the cut. Also, getting to "mandatory fun military functions" (ex: Coffee's, Hail and Farewell, Ball etc.....) is a real problem!!! On the bright side of things, we are probably saving money by not purchasing big items and only buying the essentials! Also, I honestly enjoy riding my bike around town, it's so beautiful. It's just trying to get the stuff that I buy home that gets on my nerves!Air-Conditioning is another thing that I am seriously missing!! It's starting to get pretty hot outside and after riding my bike around with 100 lbs (I'm exaggerating) in my bookbag, I am hot when I get home. In the States you walk into your home and immediately feel cool air when you open the door that hits you in the face. Here it seems that the inside is sometimes hotter than the outside. If I open all of my doors and windows and turn on the fans, it cools off, but it still isn't the same as central air-conditioning!!! We always said that when it got hot, we would buy a portable airconditioner, but now that it is hot, we have no car to take us shopping for this big item!!! What Bad Luck! Our laptop is broken, which means that we must use our old computer (it is so old that it has floppy disks portales). You can only imagine how slow it is. We are going to look for a new laptop when we are in the States in July, but until then, I'm stuck on the slowest machine ever!!!!!!!!! But at least we have this computer so that we can take our time and buy a good new computer.

I have gotten used to the fact that I can only have one appliance running at a time, (or else the fuse will blow). But I feel that it is worth mentioning in this blog because it sort of goes along with the theme. Also, the fact that to do one load of laundry takes about 5 hours! (and it's a pretty small load too!) But these are things that I have already adapted to.

If you go back a few blog entries, you will notice that I wrote a blog about being positive and having a good attitude but today, as you can see, that went out the window. I think that overall I have a good attitude, but right now I just needed to vent about our bad luck. Sorry if I'm bringing everyone down with my rant!! But I already feel better!

May 11, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to our Moms We miss you and love you both so much!

May 10, 2009

Wine Tasting

Lately, I have been asked to go on several wine tasting trips. It's kinda funny, because now I can't drink and I am finding all of these wonderful vineyards! I guess it's just that time of year.
We went on a wine tasting tour with our FRG and some of our friends. It was so much fun. Even though I couldn't drink much of the wine, I was able to swish some tastes in my mouth and get the idea. It was such a beautiful day and the countryside drive was absolutely picturesque.

At one of the places, you just put your glass up to a spicket on a huge metal cannister and pour a little out. You can also bring your own jugs and bottles to fill instead of buying the pre-bottled wine. At other places, you sample the wine from the bottle. It just depends on where you go. It's kind of neat just being able to walk up and pour your own little sample from the source. I think that this is an awesome way to go wine tasting!!! So much fun!

One of the places served bread, cheese and olives too. So I got to enjoy in some food. I did buy several bottles to add to our collection and to have for our guests! I couldn't resist.

We even stopped along the way at a cafe for cappucino's, (and since I'm trying to limit my caffine) Kristin (she's preggo too!) and I got ice cream instead!!! yummy! We wanted to indulge a little too!

It was a wonderful day and I'm so excited to take my parents in a few weeks back to some of the neat little places that we found.

May 7, 2009

One Year Blogging Anniversary

I started writing this blog exactly one year ago today. Reamer was in Ranger School and I was looking for a way to express my feelings about all of the changes we were going through. We had the move to Italy ahead of us and it seemed like it would take forever and was a million years away. But as time does, it flew by.

As I spent my time counting down the days until the completion of Ranger School, I also started reading other people's blogs. Many of them were Military Spouse blogs. It was so interesting to me that they all wrote about their lives and experiences and I too wanted to become part of this counter-culture. I realized that we would be moving far away from our family and our friends and that blogging would be a great way to "stay in touch" with people.

While blogging, I have gone through my ups and downs and at times have taken several weeks off. And the style and content of the blog has changed several times (as does life). But overall I really enjoy writing. Now with the baby on it's way, I know that I will continue to blog. I don't think that I will be at a loss for material!

Thank you to my faithful readers for supporting me!!! It makes me feel great to know that I have people who care enough about me to read about my thoughts and feelings on life!!

May 6, 2009

Baby Gender Predictions!

Ok, so I have had some free time on my hands while Reamer has been in Germany for training.

The last time I went to the doctor, she checked the baby's heartbeat and told me that if you go by the wives-tale of beats per min, that our baby would be a girl. ("Obviously, you can never be sure of this", she told me, but she said she had a feeling it might be a girl).

So, this started a curiosity in my mind about what other predictions would give me about the gender of our baby. According to every one, we are having a girl.

The Chinese Calendar was the first one I did. You input the mother's age birthday and time zone. You also enter the date of conception ( tired several dates around when we think it was) and they all come up with GIRL.

I also did the ring on the string prediction. You put your wedding ring on a string and hold it above your belly. If the ring moves in a circular motion instead of a back and forth motion, it will be a girl. And Circle it did.

I also answered 20 questions to an old wives tale. It had questions about morning sickness, weight gain, hair growth, etc.. and the answer was that it would be a girl.

Now, who knows if this is true or not, but it was really fun. It's going to be interesting to find out if these wives-tales have any truth to them. Hopefully we will find out in about a month!

May 5, 2009

Toby Keith Concert

Toby Keith came to our military post last week. It was part of his USO tour. Usually these artist stick to performing for the deployed soldiers, but somehow we made it onto his schedule. It was awesome! Unfortunately a lot of the guys were gone for training, but the families were able to really enjoy the show.
It is so amazing to know that music artists like Toby Keith are doing things like this out of the goodness of their hearts. He put on an amazing show and I'm so happy that I got to go see him! I only wish that Reamer would have been able to enjoy it too.

It was hilarious to me to see the Italians that were excited about it. They got more dressed up than all of the Americans (cowboy hats, cowboy boots, belt buckles, etc...) I had no idea that Italians would like country music.
During the concert, Toby Keith made a few statements about only doing this concert for the Americans. It was kinda funny. He is so patriotic and most of his songs even center around that theme.
My friend Kristen is pregnant too and is due any day so we took a pic of our bellies to show our babies first concert! I wonder if they could hear the show in there? Maybe feel the vibrations? I'm glad that little peanut was able to attend his/her first concert and that it was country!!! At least peanut will know where he/she came from!! ha ha he he ha!

I'm Back

I have seriously had bloggers block and haven't felt like writing in the past month, but I am back! So many things have happened. Jennifer and Nathan came to vist and we had a great time! We literally saw the entire country of Italy in 2 weeks! What fun we had.

It was so great being able to show them everything that we have learned about Italy and share in all of the beautiful cities.
We toured Vicenza (several times of course). We showed them Theatro Olympico, the parks, Monte Berico, the market and several restaurants and bars. We even took a bike ride tour around town and went to the Villa Rotunda. I enjoyed showing them by bike, because they were able to see a taste of my daily life. (riding bikes like a 9 year old :) (JK).
We went to Verona and toured the city. I think that Jennifer really liked the Romeo and Juliet attractions the most! We even went to our favorite vineyard Recchia for some wine tasting. Of course I was only able to smell the delicious wine, but I was able to get some gifts!










We spent the day in Venice and Reamer and I were able to take our first Gondola Ride with them! It was so neat. It is different seeing Venice from another angle.

We also took an overnight trip to Cinque Terre and hiked to all 5 towns. It is quite a workout and I think we were all proud of ourselves for accomplishing the hike!





















We spent a relaxing day in Lake Garda and even took Champ along for the ride. We went to the market in Vicenza in the morning and bought some food to bring with us for a picnic. We walked around and saw the beautiful castle. Champ enjoyed the trip more than we did!
We also spent a day in Florence and saw all of the art and museums that the city had to offer! After Florence, Jennifer and Nathan took the train to Rome and explored the city for a few days by themselves!
We are so happy that they were able to come and visit and spend time with us! We had such a great time while they were here! I know that Reamer wishes he was able to spend more time with them, but the time that we spent was amazing! Can't wait to see ya'll again soon!
Ciao!
(More updates on what I have been doing to come....)