Our House

I know you have all been waiting to see our house so here it is. There are a lot of pictures but I won't add them all. I just want you to see the basics.

front of the house
view from the front door
the foyer looking into the kitchen & dining area

foyer into the living room
dining area
door to the back patio
view out our back door from the patio (right of the dining room)
the patio

small stove top - cannot cook with 2 large pans at once.

this is my tiny sink - the small saucepan is in there to give you an idea of the size. If you notice the picture above that has a plastic bowl on the stove that is where we actually wash the dishes and then rinse in the sink. There is just not enough room in that little sink to wash. where we wash dishes
corner of il salotto (living rm)
entrance to il salotto
the stairs up to the bedrooms and down to the taverna
one bathroom outside of our bedroom - James' bathroom, around the corner to the right is the shower.
the hallway between the bathrooms
camera da letto (our master bedroom)not a large room but since we only sleep in there it is okay.
il bagno di donna (lady's bathroom) right beside James' bathroom. Since the house has 4 bathrooms I claimed this one as a "boy free zone"
yes, this is a really long and big room. Largest bathroom I have ever had.


up the stairs yet again you come to my craft area - Yippee, nice sized area for me to play in...


this is the view of the craft area from the computer area - it is to the left of the entrance to that floor and right next to the stairs for the boys room. You can see in the back corner another door - that is a long storage room under the eaves of the house. There is another one on the computer area side of the room.
this is the computer area which is to the right when you come up the stairs
the boys even have their own very large bathroom - shower is to the right

the stairs into the mansarda (the attic) which is a HUGE room the boys share

This is the back of their bedroom.
the large area behind Jared's bed
Jared's side of the room
Caleb's side of the room (large play area behind his bed too)
the view from the boys' bedroom into the craft/computer rm
stairs down into the taverna
the largest bathroom in the house is in the area that leads to either the taverna on the left or the garage on the right. It has the largest shower too.
view from the back end of the taverna bathroom
looking into the taverna from the stairs
dining room in taverna
living room area in taverna - cooler down here so there is where we watch movies
exercise area behind couch in taverna
taverna guest room
taverna guest room
view from the guest room
a little niche that I made a pantry
storage area under the stairs
back of the garage - I have to back in at an angle because there is a beam in the middle of the garage
right side of the garage
view of the garage from the driveway
looking up the driveway from the garage
looking down the driveway from the street

Sundays are Market days

Every Sunday morning there is market in our little town of Camisano. It is one of the biggest and most well known ones in the area. And, fortunately for us, it is only a few blocks from our house. So, on Sunday mornings, after we get ready for church and I make breakfast for the boys, James and I walk to the market. We take a few bags with us for the produce we will bring back. And we take an empty tummy because we will be getting fresh fried fish, shrimp and lobster tails for breakfast. SO YUMMY!

This market goes on for blocks and you can buy everything from the aftorementioned fish, grilled pork, rotisserie chicken, fresh produce, underwear, towels, curtains, socks, shoes, birds, kittens and bathtubs. That is just to name a few things. It is really neat to walk around and see the people and enjoy the fresh food and produce.


These are a few photos we took of the market 3 weeks ago.

Softball Tourny

Early last Saturday morning we headed to the base for the softball tournament. The 509th Signal BN team played well on Friday night and won. So Saturday morning was the day we learned where we would place in the tournament. We played at 9:30 am and smoked the Medics. Wow, it was a great team and they played with heart but we beat them 20-3.

Second game we played after maybe a 20 minute break. This time we were playing AFN (guys from the Armed Forces Network). We started out really well and then let them pull ahead of us by 5. Last inning our last up to bat - this is it the end of the line. One after another we fill the bases then it is 3 runs in. Then 3 more. We pulled it out just in the nick of time. That was an exciting last 5 minutes to the game.

Finally, we are now going to play for first or second. If we win this game we will have to play the same team again to earn First place. Unfortunately the SETAF Delta Company won that game.

I have to say that our guys did an excellent job. They played well. Of course there were errors but I think we did well considering this was the third game in a row for our guys. Out of 10 players we had 6 over 40, one who was 38, one - 31 years, 2 that were mid 20s and one who was 21. The heat was intense and we were outside from 9 am until almost 2 pm. We had two with hamstring pulls, one groin pull, several bad knees and an exhausted team. They still went out there and gave it there all to a team full of under 30 year olds. It was awesome to watch.

I got to watch up close and personal because I was in the dugout too. I started out subbing for someone who wasn't able to make it. I played one game and then one inning of another game. But for the last 4 games I was the Team "MOM". I kept the guys in line. I yelled out the at bats, on decks and next up. I kept track of outs and runs and let the guys know what the score was. Finally, I tried to get them all to drink water or gatorade. I was the Team MOM and it was fun. Can't wait for the next season - maybe I can play then or be the Team MOM again.


James getting ready to pitch a NO HITTER


in the dugout

cheerleaders - Christina, Abby, Lindsey & Tiffany (in the back)

me cozying up to the pitcher
team photo after the awards ceremony where we earned 2nd place in the tournament.

Internet today?? Maybe??

Well today is the day we are supposed to have our internet installed. Yeah! I am so tired of using this little wireless modem and trying to make it work. It takes so long for each page to load. It can take me an hour or more just to check email, try to go to facebook and google anything. Often, I just give up and wait until I can go to the library (still pretty slow) or the weekend when we can take the laptop into James' office and connect.

Now, I believe that what we are getting is not as fast as what I was used to in the US but it will definitely be better than what we currently have. And the boys will be happy because more than one computer will be hooked up to the internet. Currently, it is whichever computer we hook the wireless modem to, only.

Very excited to be finally getting real internet at home.

Today we have another ball game. The 509th lost last night but killed the other time on Tuesday night. Hopefully, we knock it out of the park again tonight. The team we lost too last night though was so arrogant. Just a team of young guys who know they are good and just rub your face in it. Sad thing is the opposing team's cheering section was the same. A couple of our people were sitting in their stands(back to the sun and mostly in the shade) but had to move over to our stands because of how rude they were being. It was awful and apparently there were even rude hand gestures. Cute side note here: I have heard the saying "you kiss your mother with that mouth?" when someone curses but one man last night said "you shake your mother's hand with that wrist?" I thought that was great and funny.

After the game we are also going to be picking up a young girl that is coming in from Florence. Titus and Angie will pick her up at the train station. She is coming to see if she wants to work with our church. Wow, that would be great to have another person here to work with. She is staying with us for the weekend. I don't know her name yet nor even where she is from.

Oh and more good news that we got last Sunday night...the church has purchased 10 headsets for translating the service into English for the few Americans that attend. We only have to bring the batteries for our head sets. This will be great. We will still be singing in Italian but now we will be able to understand the entire message instead of picking out the words we know. Very excited about this prospect.

Well, I need to get started on my day. Hang the laundry on the line, exercise and shower, and do some reading with the boys before we all get to play (me stamping & make cardings and the boys reading or playing games). Can't go anywhere today until after the internet is installed. Hope they are done in time for us to make it to James' ball game tonight.

Miss you all!

Ciao.

Gas strikes...

Today, they announced on the news that there is to be a gas strike throughout Italy. I think it is in protest of the G8 Summit being held in L'Aquile (the citta' where the earthquake was in March or April). Anyway, the strike started yesterday I believe and will continue until 7 am tomorrow.

Bad news for me is that I am running on less than a 1/4 of a tank of gas. I am supposed to pick up our missionary friend, Angie, her 2 daughers and Pam, the church intern for an afternoon on base and bowling. Whoops!

The only time I was out to get gas though was on Tuesday. And Tuesday after the huge storm that rolled through I was in a hurry to get home. I needed to be here between 1 and 5 for the temporary government furniture to be picked up. They didn't show up until 3:30 pm and I never left the house again.

Wasn't planning on being out yesterday but the opportunity for Jared to be in a commercial called and so we left. On my way home yesterday all the gas stations I saw had a sign out by the street that said "chiuso" which means closed. The OMV down the street looked to be open but I didn't stop to gas up.

Fortunately for me, we have a brand new gas can full of gas for the lawn mower. It has been used to put gas in the mower two times and holds 10 liters. So, I used that this morning to put some more fuel in my tank. If it weren't for the bowling etc I would just have waited until tomorrow but...I had already promised Angie and company that I would come and pick them up for the day since Titus is out on a church camping trip for the week and she is without a car.

Anyway, lesson learned. When in a foreign country - never let your car run below 1/2 tank. I knew this in Germany and this is mainly due to the long staus (traffic jams) that you would run in to. No kidding, sitting in your car with no place to exit the highway for hours on end. We once sat in a stau at the Brenner Pass, just out of the mountains from Germany and Austria into Italy, for over 2 hours. We were in view of a McDonald's but we couldn't get to it. No exits, no shoulder to pull over on, nothing. So, now I know, the Italians may not have long traffic jams but they do have gas strikes quite often I am learning.

Got to run. Need to finish up some schooling we didn't do because of all the moving, unpacking, etc.

And a Star is Born...

Today we received a phone call at 11:30 am asking if Jared wanted to be in an AFN (Armed Forces Network) television commercial. If he did we needed to be on base by 1 pm. His job, should he choose to accept it, would be to annoy the “mom” in the commercial, along with the 2 other children. He said that he thought he could do that.

At the time that we received the call I was at my friend’s house using her super hi-speed internet. So, we shut the computer down and raced home to eat lunch. Then we raced to the base so that we would make it on time.

This time I opted to take the tangenziale. The tangenziale is the road that runs alongside the Autostrada (which is a toll road). I decided to take this route because it is supposed to be faster. There are less rotari to take (traffic circles) and a faster speed limit. I was really nervous though because I had never taken this route before and didn’t want to get off on the wrong exit. Or worse, miss my exit. However, we did make it okay and on time.

We went to the AFN office and waited for the commercial to shoot. The kids had to sit in the back seat of a car and sing annoying songs while the “mom” rolled her eyes and then turned on AFN Eagle (the radio station). Because the car they were sitting in was American made it couldn’t actually pick up the radio station and that part had to be played on an IPOD. Too funny!

Shooting the commercial took over an hour. Jared said it was fun but a little hot. They did sit outside in the sun in a vehicle for most of that time. Glad he enjoyed it though.

Ci vidiamo!

How High's the Water, Mama??

Recognize that as the line from a Johnny Cash song? I do and I will tell you why I refer to it.

Yesterday (Tuesday) the boys and I went to the base around 9 in the morning to get our sogiorrno photos taken. This photo will be put onto an ID card that shows that the Italian government has given us permission to live here. The sogiorrno is in addition to the mandatory Visa we had to get in our passports. And it is a long process to get this too.

Anyway, after getting our picture taken, I went to check on a different internet provider while the boys went to the library to play on the computers and check out books. After checking on Goldnet internet service I headed to the PX because I knew that I needed to buy something. The problem was I forgot what I was in there to get. I walked around most of the place in hopes that I would jog my memory but alas that did not happen. (I didn’t actually remember until sometime last night at home). Then I headed to the library to check out books, surf the net and wait for James so we could eat lunch together. It was only about 10:30 or 11 am when I headed to the library.

I walked into the library and reminded Jared that the Summer Reading Program that I dropped him off to participate in was starting. I then took over at his computer and told Caleb he should look outside because it was getting pretty dark.
About 20 minutes later you could hear the thunder start rolling. Just going and going and going. Then we heard a loud rushing sound and looked out the window to see it pouring down. No kidding, the rain was coming down in sheets. The parking lot was full of water.

James was going to ride his bike to meet us for lunch but decided to wait until the rain stopped. I needed to get back to the house by 1 pm so that our temporary furniture could be picked up. (and of course they didn’t get to the house until 3 pm…bit I digress). So, I decided that I would brave the rain and pick up lunch and then we would drive over to James’ office and eat lunch with him.

Well, fortunately I was wearing sandals. The boys, on the other hand, we wearing tennis shoes and socks. I gave them money and told them to walk along the sidewalk and get in line for lunch. I would run our books out to the car and get an umbrella and move the car to a location where they could get in without soaking their feet. I took off my sandals and started to run through the water. But it was so deep that wasn’t really possible. I ended up just wading through water that was over my ankles and it was still raining quite heavily. And, silly me, I had left the umbrella in the car so I had no protection from the rain. Fortunately, for me, I am not made of sugar so I made it okay.

Right after I found a different parking spot and went inside to pick up the boys so we could take James lunch….it stopped raining. Of course! It did, however, rain off and on for most of the rest of the afternoon. Certainly cooled the temp down to the low 70s which was quite nice.

Just a little update here in the heart of Italy!

Ciao for now!