Into everything

Isn’t her hair getting long?  It’s pretty curly too, which is super cute!

 

Abbie loves looking in the fridge.  She recently discovered the little thing on the side that makes the light in it go on and off.  She’s wearing the dress grandma Browning sent her recently. 

She still stands on her tippy toes quite a bit, but she eventually puts her heels down when she’s standing for a while.

Riding on her daddy’s shoulders is one of her favorite things to do.  She always gets a big grin on her face when he puts her up there.

She loves to point the way.

She’s recently started saying “puh-puh” which is her version of puppy.  Now anytime she sees or hears a dog, she says “puh-puh”.  She’s also signing please and thank you now.  I have to cue her when to do it, but if I say one or the other, she’ll do the sign for it.   

Side note:  Our internet connection is VERY slow at uploading.  I’ve tried numerous times to upload pictures to Shutterfly so I can print them off and it freezes my whole computer most of the time, and when it doesn’t it uploads like 5 pictures in an hour.  I have HUNDREDS of pictures to upload.  So we’re in the process of upping our internet package, along with getting a landline phone so people can call us more easily since Skype hasn’t been working the best either.  I’ll let you know once we get these things upgraded.

Our little town

We took a little stroll around our town yesterday, just to explore some and take a few pictures.  I thought I’d share them with you.

Here’s the view from our driveway.

Our house with the flowers on the porch.

The cutest guy and kid in the town.

Our neighbors little vineyard.  The vines are growing so much!  When we got here they were completely bare and now look at them!

  I’m fairly certain this is a little outhouse.

The bell tower with part of the mountain behind it.

Here’s our little grocery store!!

Here’s the main street of the town and one of the very old buildings on the street.

 

Every town here has a bell tower and a church and they’re almost always right next to each other.  If you ever need to find the center of town, just look for the bell tower.

There are these old rock walls everywhere.  I’d love to know how old they actually are.  They definitely give the town a lot of character.

Here’s one of the roads to our house.  

And this is the other road to our house.  You can see our house up there on the left.

So there’s your 10cent tour of Sarone!

The Bazaar

Twice a year they have a bazaar here at Aviano.  It is where vendors from all over Europe come to sell their goods.  It was pretty neat and they had a lot of cool (and very expensive) things for sale.

There were lots of vendors selling wine, as could be expected when you live in Italy, along with olive oil, and other products made from olives and their oil.  There were lots of pottery vendors – ceramic dishes that were beautifully painted.  There were 3-4 vendors selling furniture that was absolutely exquisite, and very expensive.  Most of it was refurbished hutches and wardrobes dating back to the early 1800’s, and most of it was well over $1500-$2500, so we decided to save up for something like that.  There were a few vendors selling clocks, grandfather and tradition Austrian coo-coo clocks.  They were also neat but the grandfather clocks were around $3000 and the coo-coo clocks where around $300-500, so again, we didn’t want to spend that much, but they were neat to look at.  There were a few rug vendors, directly from Turkey (Turkish rugs are a big thing here, but again, also very expensive and I just can’t see spending thousands of dollars on something you’re going to walk on).  And a few artist vendors that had neat paintings.

We bought a few things.  The first day I was there I bought Mark a pewter magnet and wine stopper that had his squadron patch on it.  And I bought a few small gifts for a few people and I don’t want them to know what they’re getting so I’m not going to tell you what they are.  The second day when Mark and I went back, I talked him into getting another good knife from one of the dealers.   I have one good knife that I use all the time, so now I have 2 good knifes.  Eventually I’d like to get a decent knife set, but they’re uber expensive so that’s another thing to save up for.

We also got some cheese – smoked gouda and other kind of garlic gouda/butter cheese that we liked.  And we ordered a mosaic tile sign that we’ll hang on our porch.  It should be here the first week in June so I’ll post a picture of it then.

The one thing that I wanted to get, but didn’t because they were expensive (surprise, surprise) was a cork purse.  I’ve never seen purses made of cork and it was fascinating to me.  It looks and feels kind of like leather, but it’s made from the bark of a tree, and they don’t kill the trees making them, they just cut the bark off of them every 9 years and then process it in a special way.  They were really cool and the one I wanted was $150, so I’ll save up and hopefully get it at the fall bazaar.

A Pippers update

I absolutely cannot believe Abbie is going to be a year old in a little over a week.  I cry every time I think about it.  I just want her to stay little forever, but she’s getting so big!  That’s what everyone says when they meet her for the first time.  “She’s big!”.  Yeah, I know…  She’s not “big”, but she’s very tall for her age.  Mark and I are guessing she’ll be about 5’10” when she’s an adult.  We’ll see though.

She’s such a little copy cat now.  She copies pretty much everything you do.  You laugh, she laughs.  You sneeze, she makes a sneeze sound.  You clap, she claps.  It’s pretty funny.  One of her toys has a lion that roars and she copies that too.

She’s infatuated with hair.  If I let my hair down she gets really wide eyed and stares at it.  If she sees me brushing my hair, she’ll look for her brush to brush her hair.  And I got her this ball at a store here in Italy that she LOVES.  She gets so excited when she plays with that thing!  She’ll chase it all over the place.  I think she’s going to be Mark’s little basketball player.

She loves music and loves to dance.  Her version of dancing is swinging her arms around in the air and shaking her head and bouncing all at the same time.  With an occasional scream thrown in for good measure.  I really need to get that on video soon.

 

I really want to get her involved in playgroups, but that is super hard with only one car.  As soon as the Passat gets here, I’m going to start taking her to a playgroup on base.  She is really attached to Mark and I, and I want her to interact more with kids than she has been.

Yesterday we were eating at a food court on base for lunch.  A lady sat down next to us with an ice cream cone.  Abbie of course, zeroed in on that right away.  She started pointing at the ice cream cone and signing “more” and then pointing and signing and looking at us in between.  Mark and I were cracking up.  She’s had ice cream TWICE, and apparently she knows what it is.  Mark said “if she’s not her mother’s daughter, I don’t know who is.”  What can I say?  =)

The Military Wife

My friend Jenn just sent this to me.  Thank you Jenn.  I appreciate your encouraging words.

Just wanted to share with the rest of you.

 

The Military Wife
a Poem

The military wife is a special individual. When she was a girl, her dreams were bold, as bold as her fine, free gaze; And every gift of grace and mind was hers in her younger days. When she was a girl, a golden girl, with a soul as fine as fire. She could outshine the brightest jewel that a rich man's love might buy her. Yes hers could have been the glittering path through a careless, carefree life. But she fell in love with an soldier, so she became a military wife.

Away from the home of her childhood she marched at her husband's side. For she chose a wide and winding road when she became a bride. And sometimes the road was a hard one, so different from what she had planned; And sometimes she wept for the home she had left as she lay in a foreign land; And sometimes her steps would grow weary as she followed the drum and the fife; But she set about making the world her home because she was a military wife.

She learned to build a hearth for them wherever her man was sent; And she knelt to plant a garden every time he pitched their tent. Yes, she always planted a garden though she never saw it grow, For she knew before the flowers came that she would have to go. But she left each garden gladly though it cut her like a knife, For she hoped it might bring some comfort to another military wife.

To the hardships in her married life she brought one simple truth, A promise that once was spoken in the ancient words of Ruth: "Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Thy people shall be my people and thy God shall be my God." She shared his joys and sorrows as they made their way through life, For she was proud to love a soldier and to be a military wife.

She bore the weight of worrying what fate might hold in store; And the wordless fear of waiting when her soldier went to war; And the nights that she spent fearing that her waiting was in vain; And the pain of wanting someone she might never hold again. But she bore his children gladly through uncertainty and strife, And they never heard her crying for she was a military wife.

She raised a military family with the faith her love had taught her; And she gave the pride she had inside to her son and to her daughter; And she taught them to love freedom and to know what it was worth, As they helped her plant her gardens in the corners of the earth. And she never wished for better than the road they marched through life. Because she was as much a soldier as she was a military wife.
--Author Unknown

A hot mess

I don’t know what my deal is this weekend, but I’ve been a hot mess.  Okay, well I partially know what my deal is, and I partially know what’s causing it, but geesh…

Friday was not a good day in general, except for when Mark gave me the orchid.  On Friday I learned that one of my good friends from high school was murdered by her boyfriend.  I hadn’t seen her in 10 years, since we graduated, but we’d kept in touch through Facebook and emails.  If we had flow out of Baltimore, we were planning on getting together for dinner, but that didn’t happen.  She was 5 months pregnant and he apparently strangled her to death.  The thought just makes me sick to my stomach and it’s been in the back (and front) of my mind all weekend.  I hope that guy rots in hell.

On top of that, at the First Friday, Mark’s commander started talking about all the times they’ll be gone and the deployment.  They added 2 weeks onto their TDY this fall, so he’ll be gone 7+ weeks then.  And I guess they haven’t completely ruled out the 6 month deployment like I thought they had.  And he said that a 4 month deployment means they’ll be gone about 5.5 months with travel times and all that stuff, and a 6 month deployment means they’ll be gone closer the 7.5 months.  Yay.  I could handle 4 months.. Maybe.  But 7.5 months??  I cry every. single. time I think about him being gone that long.  I told him it was a good thing he was around for most of Abbie’s 1st year, because it sounds like he’s going to be gone the majority of her 2nd and 3rd years.  I was a hot mess for a month before Mark left for survival training and he was only gone 3 weeks, so I guess it stands to reason that I’m already a hot mess about him deploying.  I’ve known this was coming for 5+ years, but now that it’s up close and personal, I’m having a tough time dealing with it.  Mark is who keeps me sane, and who I look forward to spending time with every  day.  I can’t wait for him to get home when he’s been gone for 7 HOURS, how on earth am I going to deal with him being gone for 7+ MONTHS??  That’s the majority of a year.  Now I get all teary-eyed every time I say goodbye to him, even if it’s just him going to work for the day.  I think I was crying in church yesterday more than I wasn’t.  Between it being Mother’s Day and seeing mom’s there by themselves, and seeing other women cry, and having a guy sing this song about the importance of mothers to his wife who was in the first row and HIM crying, and thinking about Mark not being here next Mother’s Day and thinking about my baby growing up too fast…  *sighs*  I’m falling apart at the seams.  Luckily Mark is here to keep me together, for now.

My first Mother’s Day

My first Mother’s Day was pretty great, thanks to the best husband in the world.

Friday night we had a First Friday at the squadron and families were invited.  So we went to that, got introduced to everyone, found info out about when the guys will be gone (more on that later…) and then Mark gave me a tour.  He showed me all around the squadron which was neat, and ended it in the squadron gym, which was really nice.  I was impressed with the gym they have there, so impressed that I didn’t notice Mark’s 1st gift to me.  He got me a BEAUTIFUL orchid plant!! 

I was very excited to say the least.  Hopefully I don’t kill the thing…  I’ll feel terrible.  I already feel terrible that I won’t be able to get it back to the States, but luckily I’ll be able to enjoy it for a few years before then hopefully.  It’s already bloomed another flower.

Mark also got me a pretty white gold angel necklace with little diamonds in it to signify our little angel Abbie.  I really like it.  And Mark’s family sent me 3 cards, a box of stationary, and an Amazon gift card that I’m pretty excited about (and a really cute outfit for Abbie).

And I guess I’ll call it my Mother’s Day gift to myself, but not really because I would have bought it even if I didn’t have a good excuse – my new Hydrangea plant!!  Flowers make me very, very happy.

But not quite as happy as these two people.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day.

Flowers and plants!

It’s been raining here for the past 2 days.  I like it thought.  I missed the rain in Phoenix.  The only reason I don’t like it is because the clouds make our internet really slow.  But other than that, I don’t mind.

I posted a few days ago about the plants I got at the commissary.  Here they are.   

I still need to get a few of them in pots.  Mostly my spices.  I have chives, oregano, rosemary and basil.

And here are the flowers I got yesterday!  I’m pretty darn excited about them.  Most of them didn’t have tags on them, so I don’t exactly know what they are (besides the fuchsia and the daisies).  I just know they’re pretty and I like them.  And they cost 38Euro for all of them.  (Not including the pots.)

I also got tomato plants, red and white onions and zucchini plants.  Each of the black containers was 1Euro.

 

It’s funny.  I remember thinking, when I was younger, why on earth would anyone want to garden?  I couldn’t think of anything more boring.  And now I could spend all day looking at plants…  Funny how things change.

But now, despite the crummy weather, our porch looks very nice with all the pretty plants.  (Except for the dirt got everywhere… I don’t have a broom yet…)  And my little side kick was out there helping me the whole time.

All the plants and flowers are pretty, but the most beautiful thing out there was this:

Disappointed

It’s been really hard to meet people here.  I guess most of the girls in the squadron are super busy, or have their own agendas, or forget what it’s like to be brand new in a foreign country, or maybe a combination of the three.  Either way, there’s really only been one girl here, Jennifer, that’s made an effort to include me in anything, and I will be forever grateful to her for that.

So the squadron wives have coffees – which are usually dinner at someone’s house – once a month.  In this squadron’s case, it’s the first Wednesday of the month, aka –today.  Unfortunately, kids are not invited to the coffees, which is super dumb in my opinion since most of us have kids.

I’ve been asking Mark for 2 weeks now if he’d be able to be home before 7pm to watch Abbie so I could go to the coffee.  We had it all worked out, but last night at 10pm, his schedule changed and now he has to work until at least 8pm.  Big bummer.  I’m really disappointed.  This was the one thing on my schedule for the entire month, and I can’t go.  I was looking forward to meeting more people and learning what’s going to be going on in the squadron during the next month.  But since everyone I do know here is going to that meeting, I don’t have anyone to watch Abbie.  Luckily the squadron is changing command soon, and the new commanders wife (who typically is in charge of running the coffees) is going to change that policy and make the coffees earlier in the day and kid-friendly.  I emailed her and she sent me a nice email back.  She seems very nice and down to earth and I’m looking forward to getting to know her better.  Mark is very excited about her husband taking over command too.  He’s had nothing but good things to say about him and really likes him.  But he likes his current commander too.

Anyway, so unless Mark by the off chance gets off really early tonight, Pips and I are going to be at home by ourselves all day (and night) today.  Oh well.  Better luck next month.

PS:  Mark’s starting to fly next week!  I’m nervous about that.

Creamice?

So the other day I was on base and decided to stop by the coffee shop there.  They have a little place that sells Starbucks.  I was really missing my Davinci Mocha’s, which I used to get once or twice a week when I lived in Enid.  I knew I wanted something mostly chocolate-y, with only a little coffee taste.

So the coffee shop had a whole section of “creamice”.  I’d never heard of a creamice and I wasn’t even sure how to pronounce it.  I thought maybe it was an Italian thing.  It looks like an Italian-ish word.  So I asked the girl behind the desk, “What are those cream-E-chey (which is how you’d pronounce it in Italian) things?”.  She gave me a weird look and said “You mean cream-ice?”  (As in like ice cream but backwards…)

Yeah, I felt like an idiot, but seriously, creamice?  Is that even a word?

Adjusting to the house

I am way behind on my blogging.  Between our 17 trips to the base trying to get all the adapters for the electrical stuff for the house, and trying to figure out the fricken Internet, and trying to get things halfway organized around here, all while taking care of Abbie – I just don’t know where the time goes sometimes.

We’re slowly getting adjusted to living here, although this place definitely doesn’t feel like home to me yet.  It feels very bare and cold.  The walls are concrete, the floors are all tile or wood, and the lights are scarce and dim.  I HATE dark houses, and this house feels very dark to me right now.  We managed to get 2 nightstand lights for our room, and one floor light for the living room while we were at Ikea, but I need to get a BUNCH more.  We bought rugs when we were in AZ, so those will be coming with the rest of our stuff at the end of May, and that will help a lot.  I really wanted to be able to leave our shutters open at night and put curtains up instead, but I don’t think that’s going to happen now for 2 reasons.  1.  The walls are concrete and I don’t feel like drilling a bunch of holes into them and 2. even though it’s completely claustrophobic in here at night with all the shutters closed, it is safer.  Every single one of our neighbors has ALL of their shutters closed at night and I don’t want to be the only one with them open (aka a perfect target for the gypsies).  It does feel very European to open the shutters and see the mountains every morning, so that part is pretty neat, I just don’t like feeling so closed off at night.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The other thing that’s taken some getting used to is the electricity here.  Europeans are very environmentally conscious so the houses aren’t equipped to handle a bunch of electricity being used at one time.  In our case, we can’t run both the washer and dryer at the same time.  It’ll cut the power to the entire house if we do that.  We really need to figure out the transformer thing also since the few times we tried to plug in a 2000watt transformer it blew the circuit too (and we only had that and the fridge running).

Hopefully all of our stuff we be here at the end of May and then we can really start getting settled into this house.  Mark’s heard from co-workers that it takes months to get things organized though because of the lack of closet and storage space.

Trip to the Italian grocery store

Mark and I were all geared up to run errands yesterday and drove all the way to Pordenone to go to Centre Casa (House center – which I guess is like an Italian Wal-Mart kinda, without the food and clothing sections).  We got there and realized that May 1st is the Italian Labor Day, and that place, along with every other place we wanted to go to, was closed.  Nice.  So we tried again today and realized the sign said “closed Sundays and Monday morning”, not “closed Sunday and Monday morning” like we thought.  I need to learn Italian very quickly.  Not being able to read or understand anything around you is quite aggravating at times.  But we noticed that the Italian grocery store was open, so we checked that out instead.  It.  Was.  Amazing.

It was probably a very high end grocery store by our and Italian standards.  It seems as though places here are pretty dumpy, or they’re pretty nice.  This place was beautiful inside.  The produce section was pretty neat – they had a lot of dried beans and things like that in these big bins that you could scoop out.  The bakery was amazing, and of course the cheese section was very impressive.  The meat section actually had “normal” meats, which was surprising to me.  At the base commissary, all of the meats are seasoned or marinated in some way, and you cannot buy chicken until it is boneless and skinless, which I thought was very odd.  But the Italian store actually had non-marinated meats and chicken with the skins on.  I was glad to see that.

This is their biscotti aisle.  Notice it is an ENTIRE aisle of just biscotti cookies.

On the other side of the aisle was all different kinds of cookies, although they were mostly wafer type cookies.  I didn’t see any Oreos or chocolate chips.  Thank God I can still get those on base!

They had an entire aisle just of pasta.  There were so many different kinds of pasta, many of which I’d never seen before.  I was very impressed!  And it was cheap!  Most of them were like .70Euro.  (So around $1.)

And this section with the pre-packaged noodles with the sauces on them already was at least 10 times bigger than any you’d find in the States.  

Their freezer section was smaller than one aisle.  You can tell that most Italians don’t have big freezers at all, unlike Americans who have big freezers on their fridge and then another deep freezer somewhere.  (Italian fridges in general are VERY small – most are very narrow and don’t hold much stuff.)  At least 1/4th of the freezer section was frozen sea food.  Like this:

And this:

And all their ice creams looked like this:

 

We bought one with 4 different flavors in it, and it’s pretty darn good.  (And I’m quite the ice cream connoisseur.)

We decided to try our hand at making an authentic Italian pizza.  We made one with tomato sauce and one with just olive oil, and then put salami (they don’t really use pepperoni here, it’s usually salami or prosciutto), garlic, onions, fresh mozzarella and basil from my new basil plant on it.  They were pretty good, although I should have cooked them longer.

Oh, and the big bottles of olive oil were only 3.70Euro!!  I couldn’t believe it.  Those bottles are like $8+ in the States!