TOGA, TOGA, TOGA!!! Reamer's Baby Shower!

My amazing friends Tonya and Kristin threw me a TOGA themed baby shower! It was so much fun!!! Everyone came in TOGA's and we had a blast!! Everything was so amazing and Reamer and I really racked up on the gifts! I was so happy that most of my friends came and celebrated with me! It was such a great night! Thanks to everyone that helped with the shower and to everyone that came and brought fun gifts for baby Reamer and I!! You girls are awesome!!

Here are some pics below of all of us at the TOGA Shower!!

While the boys are away.......

.....the girls will play. When all of our husbands are gone, it is amazing how often all of the ladies get together. We are all going through the same things and can help eachother throught the lonely times. It has really helped me to have such wonderful ladies to make the time pass by quickly and to have some fun!!!!

For my birthday, I had 2 celebrations! On my actual birthday Janet (the birthday fairy) brought me flowers and chocolates! She even made me birthday cupcakes! Then Tonya, Kristin, Janet and I went to a concert ontop of Mt. Berico! It was so much fun! (it did rain for a little bit, but it only delayed the concert)

The next day we all went to an agriturismo to celebrate my birthday! An Agriturismo only serves food where 70% has been made on the property. It was so delicious! What an amazing experience! I had a great birthday thanks to such fun friends!!!

I have had a great time with the girls spending time on the beach, shopping, going to Ikea, eating at eachother's houses, BBQ's etc..... We even went to a medevil festival.

I am excited for Friday for my Baby Shower!!! I will post pics after the shower!!
But for now, here are some pics of my adventures with the ladies!

I can't wait until Reamer comes home though. I miss him so much! It won't be long now! After he gets home, only a few more weeks and we will have our son!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 2 year Anniversary! I can't believe that we have been married for 2 years. When I think back on that day, I realize that it was the best day of my life! I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man. Thanks to our family and friends, we had an amazing day! Here are some pics of all of us celebrating on our special day!!!

Ferragosto

In Italy during August, the entire country literally shuts down! No kidding! Well, maybe I'm exaggerating, but most places close down for the holidays. If you go to a major tourist city, things will stay open, but in most towns, Italians flee to the beach or the mountains for the month and take a vacation. On most businesses here in Vicenza there is a sign on the door that states they will be closed for the holiday. Most people want to get out of the summer heat and head to the beach for a month! (sounds like fun huh??)

The actual holiDAY is Aug. 15th, but lucky for them, they can celebrate for a month. The holiday itself celebrates The Virgin Mary's ascention into heaven. This is one of the most celebrated holiday's in Italy only next to Christmas and Easter.

Needless to say, the beaches are packed and the roads to the beaches are insane!!!!! Reamer had a 3 day weekend before he had to leave for his month long training, so we wanted to relax at the beach. We knew what we were getting into and decided it was worth the hassle to be able to relax at the beach for a few days!

We decided to go to a beach that is near Vicenza (Jesolo Beach) and usually would only take about 1 hour to get there. But because we picked the actual Holiday weekend, it took about 3 hours to get there. On the way to the beach, you must drive on a 2-lane road for about 25 kilometers. This normally wouldn't take long at all, but when there are tons of people trying to get to the beach, this becomes more difficult. Reamer and I couldn't believe how insane these people are when it comes to driving. Traffic would be stopped and people would try to pass oneanother with huge semitrucks speeding toward them on the other side of the road. They would literally come seconds from a head on collision just to move ahead one place in the traffic. And don't even get me started on the motorcycles/scooters!!! These people seriously have a death wish! We couldn't believe the crazy things that they would do just to be able to reach the beach a little bit sooner!

Anyways, we finally made it to the beach and happily found a nice little spot to enjoy the water and the sun. We walked around the beach town and had a great dinner. The town was in celebration mode with stages set up for performers, carnival rides, and everyone walking around and shopping etc. They even celebrated with fireworks! What a great day! We wanted to spend the night, but after calling tons of places during the day, we were unable to find a hotel on the beach. We decided to drive about 20 mins away and got a hotel there! We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard! It was so nice and just like an American Hotel! It was wonderful!

We went back to the beach and bought awesome rafts so that we could just lounge in the water for the day. We also rented beach chairs too! (a pregnant lady has to be comfy!) We seriously had a wonderful day. Neither of us wanted to leave!

I think that these Italians have the right idea. Why can't we take an entire month off of work just to relax! I really think that we need to adopt this tradition! We really wanted to tell the army that we were observing the Italian culture and Reamer would not be back until the end of the month! Unfortunately this wasn't possible, so he is gone for training in Germany until the end of September! Booo!! Sure do wish that we could have stayed at the beach instead!

(I will try to do a better job of updating this blog... Sorry I have been so slack about it!)

An Update: 2 Months worth!!!!

I have been the worst blogger ever lately! Just a little update on what has been going on with me. My family (mom, dad, and erin) came to Italy for the month of June! What an amazing time we had. We traveled all over: Vicenza, Venice, Verona, Florence, Lake Garda, Rome, Naples, Amalfi Coast and we even took a cruise throughout the Greek Isles! Wow! What a whirlwind! It was so great to share Italy with them and exciting to have my family here for so long. I already miss them being here and wish that they would hurry up and come back to play with me. We left for the "good ole US of A" for block leave and went to spend some time with the Argo Family. Amy got married on July 5th to our friend Mike Muskus! It was a beautiful wedding! She was an absolutly beautiful bride! Reamer's sister Jennifer and her family came from Colorado and we got to spend time with the whole clan! After the wedding, we spent most of our time at the lake just relaxing. So much fun.
The day before we were headed back to Italia, my parents had a good-bye bbq! My family and our friends came to see us before we had to go home. It was a bittersweet reunion because it was way too short! It almost made me miss everyone even more! It was so nice to see everyone and eat some of my parents amazing food! (Reamer enjoyed the meal too)!!! We arrived back in Itlay and now we are preparing the nursery! Luckily most of our baby furniture arrived so now all we have to do is paint and decorate! So exciting!

Well, that is what has been going on with me lately! Sorry that I have been MIA for so long! I'm going to try to do a better job now that life has slowed down a tad!

Number 5!

Reamer Welker Argo V

is coming to your world in Oct 2009!! Yay!!!

ANGRY at the army!!!!

I am a pretty patient army wife. I understand that mission come first and that my husbands job takes up almost all of his time. But today, I'm pissed!!! Reamer changed jobs and is now an XO. Unfortunately this change happened the day my parents came to visit. Since they got here, he has been working until 10 or 11 at night every day! He hasn't even seen my parents at all. The only real day that he has to spend with them is today! We were supposed to go to Lake Garda and right as we were about to leave, he got called into work. Apparently, if there is any alcohol incident at all, they have a policy that they will call everyone into work. I do not understand this at all. This is ridiculous! This is not fair to the people that are doing the right thing. Why punish the entire group for the actions of a few idiots! Why can't they just make the punishment for the offender extremely harsh? It is insane to punish so many people for one person's mistakes! At this post, our husbands are taken away so much more than other places and they work so much longer hours! Why take them away even more? I am very angry. It really seems unfair that this policy is even in effect! How can they do this? I am seriously starting to get frustrated with being stationed here!