Definitely been too long...

However, without internet access what choice do I have???

Here are the "deets" for my "peeps"...

We did the walk-thru for our quarters (for non-military folks that is our house) on Tuesday the 16th. On the 17th we finished moving from the hotel into the house. I made 3 trips on Tuesday and James made one later that night. Then we each made a trip on Wednesday. I went to the house early on Wednesday morning to sign for the temporary furniture. Very "practical and utilitarian" I think and not at all comfortable. However, the closets (or schrunks) are really cool and fold-up until they are practically flat like a box. And, wonder of wonders, they are made in Vermont of all places.

On Wednesday morning while waiting for the 2nd delivery (first one was for the appliances - washer, dryer and refrigerator) James calls the Transportation Office to check on our HHG. They said they can make a partial delivery tomorrow. So on Thursday we accepted a partial shipment of 10 out of our 15 crates. Not sure how they got separated as I have been told they aren't supposed to be separated. Everything is supposed to go into the same shipping container. But that did not happen. We are still awaiting word on the arrival of our last 5 crates. It has been over 2 weeks but they still have the until the end of the month before they are "required" to be here in the warehouse ready for delivery.

The crates are packed in a totally random manner and so of course we have a weird assortment of items that have arrived or not! Here is a partial list....
Boys bedroom - complete except for bookcase (technically wasn't in their room)
Books - the ones that go on the aforementioned bookcase
Basketball backboard and rim, base but NO Pole to mount it on
Master bedroom bed - complete - lampshade for lamp completely crushed though the box looked undamaged, did not receive the bench in front of our bed, though.
Beautiful antique German bedroom set - night stands - check, bed, matresses, frame - check, lamps on night stands - NOPE, German schrunk - only part of it came so we just have panels and hardware, no bottom or top.
Large antique schrunk that was in the living room - only parts of this arrived
Less than 1/2 of my polish pottery arrived but the china cabinet it was in arrived as well as most of the other items in that room.
Most of my craft room arrived - still need to finish going through boxes to see what I am missing other than my little tv and THE LEGS TO MY CRAFT TABLE. Yep, got the top but no legs to stand on.
We also received the big pink chair but not the old couch or recliners for the taverna (basement living room). And we received the big leather chair and foot stool but not the loveseat or couch for the living room.

There are a few more things I could tell you but at least you can see how totally random it is. Almost comical really...what else can I do but laugh???

I have no pictures to post right now because my other big issue is no telephone or internet yet at the house. When James signed up for phone and internet they made sure to request a transfer of internet service. However, it seems that was not done. Apparently here in Italy internet is a new thing and so it is not always available. And when it is available you sometimes have to go on a very long waiting list to get service. (Hence the reason for a transfer of service and not new service). Anyway, we received our message on Monday saying that our contact was ready to sign. James went to the Housing office (he was at work) while I was still trying to get boxes unpacked. When he went in to sign the contract they told him that we were unable to get internet service. Not available any more. He discussed it with the liason and they are currently working on the problem. Until the issue is solved however, we will not have phone service either. We may have to come up with another option like wireless which can be pricey or check on another company that I just heard about yesterday. Telekom was the only provider here for internet and phone service for many years and thus had a monopoly and didn't work to please its customers. TKS, another company just came in about a year ago to offer phone and internet services. We used TKS while in Germany and liked their service. When we moved to Garmisch we had to go with Telekom and had numerous issues with them, including one 6 months after we left Germany.

So, anyway, right now I am sitting here at the library computer typing as fast as I can to get some words down as an update for all of you who are following our saga! Thanks for sticking with us. I only get an hour here before I have to relinquish the computer to someone else. However, the USO Center has free wireless so I may bring the laptop (after taking house photos and loading them up) and go to the USO to blog. The only problem there is it is also the BOSS Center which is for single soldiers. Not really a problem except that it is just full of young boisterous soldiers relaxing while watching movies, playing games etc. Sometimes the conversations they have or the movies they watch aren't ones you want to accidently overhear language wise. I will try to "catch" my wireless from outside at the picnic tables first. They let us know at inprocessing that the wireless in always on and that you can usually get a signal from outside at the tables in case the center itself is actually closed for the day (around midnight I think).

So, don't give up on me - I will "git 'er done".

Love and miss you all...

P.S. We have started an English bible study on Sunday evenings with the church. All of the Americans attend (all 6 of us adults plus our two boys and the two little girlies) and then any of the members of the Italian church that want to better their English. And on Saturdays, Titus & Pam (missionary intern for the summer) have started an English bible study for the young Italian kids at church. The boys are going to start attending that so that they can contribute and help the Italian kids who will be able to now understand a bit of what the boys are going through. So that is really great news!

Ciao for now. Have to run to my Italian class now.