Abbie new toy

Mark’s grandparents had ordered Abbie a slide and one of those red and yellow cars on Amazon for Abbie’s birthday.  We ordered it at the beginning of May and it still hasn’t shipped.  Not quite sure what was up with that.  I saw this in the BX so I asked Lucretia if she wanted to switch to this slide and she did.  So Abbie’s great-grandparents bought this slide for her.  She LOVES it!

Here’s the photo evidence.

Helping daddy put her new toy together!

“This thing is fun even when it’s not put together!!”

Daddy taking his frustrations out on the slide.  (He put it together wrong to begin with and then couldn’t get it apart again to put it together the right way.  =)  He eventually got it.)  In the meantime, Abbie and I enjoyed the show.

Chasing daddy outside to try out her new toy.

Trying it out backwards first.

Enjoying the view from the top.

First slide down!  (With Oliver at the bottom to catch her.)

Daddy teaching her how to go up the ladder by herself.

 

What the heck just happened?

I’ve got this figured out now! 

Thanks great-grandma and great-grandpa Browning!!  Abbie LOVES her new slide!

Online shopping

The good, or maybe bad, thing about living overseas is that you get to do a LOT of online shopping.  Buying things on the economy is expensive here because the dollar isn’t worth much at all compared to the Euro, and the base doesn’t really have a huge selection of anything.  So the majority of what we buy is online.  Amazon is my friend.  And so is Target.  We’re Amazon Prime members (doesn’t that sound important??) so we paid $75 for a year worth of free shipping on anything we get from Amazon.  I’ve probably saved $200 in shipping costs by doing that.

The bad thing about shopping online is that it’s WAY too easy to spend money.  A few clicks of the mouse and you’ve got stuff ordered.  The good though about shopping online is that when you get all the stuff you ordered it’s just like Christmas!  You all know how much I LOVE getting mail (even if I did ship it to myself and pay for it)!

Here’s what we got this week.

This goes with our Ergo baby carrier.  It’s a little front pouch that velcros on to the strap of the carrier, but can also be used as a purse.  I got this from Babysteals.com for over 50% off!  And it matches our Ergo.  That thing was probably one of the best baby purchases we made.  (Thanks Em for convincing us!)  We’d carried her all over Europe in that thing.

We also got this portable booster seat for Abbie.  The majority of restaurants over here don’t have high chairs or booster seats (or changing tables..) and we’ve been using the waist band of the Ergo or the strap of her diaper bag to keep her in a chair.  We think this will be much better though, and it was under $25.  We’ll definitely get a lot of use out of it.  We can also take it to friends house’s who don’t have kids when they invite us over for dinner, or use it as a 2nd high chair for friends with kids that come to our house.

 

And lastly, here’s the clothes I ordered for her from Target.  They’re all 18 months or 2T in size.  She’s so tall for her age!  She got:

• 1 swimsuit
• 1 pair of jeans
• 2 pairs of black cotton pants
• 2 pairs of leggings
• 4 long sleeved t-shirts
• 3 footie pajamas
• 1 zip up hoodie
• 8 pairs of socks

All of that for $85, which included shipping!  I wish I could get that many clothes for ME for $85!

Lazy days are best!

 

For my birthday on Sunday, we spent all day at home just lounging around, and I loved it.  It was so nice to have Mark home all day (more often than not he goes in to work for at least part of the day on Sundays).

Mark and I got iPhone 4G’s for my (our) birthday!  He was looking for one for me on eBay, but they were $450+, so we decided to just sign the contract with AT&T.  He was looking at 3GS iPhone’s, and we ended up getting the newest version of them for less than it would have cost for one on eBay.  Another advantage to being overseas is cell phone companies let you out of contracts really easily.  So now we just have to wait for them to arrive.  YAY!

Here are a few pictures of Abbie and Sadie.  Abbie LOVES Sadie and Sadie likes Abbie a lot too.  Sadie is SO good with Abbie.  She never once has growled or tried to bite her, and Abbie gets right up in her face and pokes her in the eyes and yanks on her ears and pounds on her.  Sadie takes it like a champ though.  It’s so cute to watch them play together.

Abbie still loves looking at books.  I think it’s adorable when she goes and grabs a stack of books and sits down by herself to “read” them.

She still likes it when we read to her too though.

 

 

And daddy is still her favorite playmate!

 

Octoberfest… kinda

Last night the squadron commander and his wife had their annual party with an Octoberfest theme.  Dirndl and lederhosen were the required attire, which is why we stopped by Munich to buy some on our way home from Prague.  Last night was their big début and it was a lot of fun to dress up.  We got some HILARIOUS looks from people driving by as we were walking to the party though.  We know we looked funny (especially in Italy – we probably would have fit right in in Germany) but that was kind of the point.  It was a lot of fun to get out and spend time with friends.  We’re looking forward to the squadron Christmas trip to Austria where we get to wear these during one of the parties.

Here are a few pictures of me with my beautiful friends, Sara and Cassy.

                                                    

Mark’s squadron commander’s wife found us a babysitter since I wasn’t having any luck.  Commander friends of theirs have an almost 15 year old daughter named Victoria, who was willing to watch Abbie for us while we were down the road at the party.  I was nervous about leaving Abbie with a 14 year old, mainly because I didn’t remember what the maturity level of a 14 year old was like.  I’m not around many teenagers and it sounded young to me, but we didn’t have any other options.  But Victoria was GREAT.  She seems very mature for an almost 15 year old and she did really well with Abbie.  Abbie didn’t even cry when we left for the very first time, OR when we got back.  It was a huge relief for us and Victoria said she’d love to watch Abbie again so I am super excited about that.

When we got back to their house, we found Abbie dressed like this:

                                                    

We both thought that she was just playing dress up with Abbie.  Haha!  Turns out that Abbie got in to the dogs water bowl and got her clothes all wet and I didn’t have another outfit for her in the diaper bag (lesson learned on that one..) so this is all she could find to put Abbie in.  (There was a onesie in her bag but I guess it was buried.)  It’s an American Doll outfit.  HAHAH!  We cracked up!  But Victoria did great with Abbie and Abbie was super tired (1.5 hours past her bedtime) but completely happy when we picked her up.

On a side note:  Abbie apparently takes after her dad and me because last night she was “talking” in her sleep quite a bit!  She went through her whole repertoire of words and we heard mommy, daddy, puppies, Ollie, Sadie, horse, moose and a few other words amongst all her muttering.  At least she wasn’t screaming like she does sometimes in her sleep.  That startles the heck out of me!

Three Decades

 

The years teach much which the days never knew.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A few weeks ago I was reading a magazine my mom left behind from her visit here.  I thumbed through it, reading various articles and really liked it.  I turned it over and was a little shocked that I’d been reading “Good Housekeeping”.  It was just a moment of realization for me, that I am officially an adult now that articles in “Good Housekeeping” are much more relevant to my life than articles from “Glamour” or “Cosmo”.

Today I turned 30 years old.  I’ve been on this earth for three whole decades!  Looking back, I realize I have been very blessed in my lifetime.  I’ve had supportive and caring parents, who love each other and love me.  I’ve had amazing friends who have always been there when I wanted and needed them to be.  I’ve had countless experiences that I consider myself very lucky to have experienced.  I grew up in a wonderful and supportive church and am still in contact with many people from there.  I married a man who is my soul mate, confidante, and best friend, and I feel as though we have a very solid marriage.  I’ve traveled around most of the United States and a good portion of Europe too. Together we created our beautiful little girl who brings us so much joy and happiness and lights up the whole house with her laughter and smiles.

I’ve never been afraid to get older and I don’t dread birthdays.  I try to embrace them and be thankful for all the experiences of that year that have made me the 30 year old I am today.

Do not regret growing older.  It is a privilege denied to many.  ~Author Unknown

What I like about Italy

I did my “what I miss about the States” post a while ago, and I probably have quite a few more things I could add to that list now but my mom keeps asking me when I’m going to do a post about what I like about Italy, like I promised.  So here it is.

I’ve had quite a few friends in the States make comments to me like “I could never live overseas” or “I’d never want to live outside the US”.  Some of them haven’t even BEEN outside the US (or to Europe in particular) so when people make these blanket statements, it astounds me at times.  I think many people would be surprised at what they could do, if they were given the opportunity.

Yes, living overseas is a HUGE adjustment.  They do things very different over here than what we’re used to in the States.  But what an experience!  Even if the Italian ways drive me nuts at times, I’m still glad I’m over here experiencing it first hand, instead of listening to someone else’s stories.

I love living at the base of the Alps.  As I’ve said before, they are by far my favorite mountain range that I’ve been around so far.  They’re just beautiful and seeing the beauty of them, at times, still takes my breath away.  I love driving to base and looking at the mountains and watching the weather roll in over them.  I’ll never get tired of them.  It’s also nice to have the beach 45 mins away.

I like being immersed in another culture and being around another language.  It’s amazing how much you can communicate with someone when they speak very little English and I speak very little Italian.  Hand gestures are flying all over the place, but we can usually understand each other.  It’s fun trying anyway.  (I say that now. At first it was terrifying.)  I’m getting to the point where I can pick out more and more words when I listen to Italian.  I’m not nearly at the level I was hoping to be at this point, but I’ll get there eventually.

Our squadron here is AMAZING.  Mark REALLY likes the leadership in his squadron and everyone else too.  The wives are all very nice and helpful and willing to do just about anything to help you out.  I’ve made some great friends here, in and out of the squadron, and I will forever be thankful for all of them.

Lastly, and most obviously, the travel opportunities here are unbeatable.   We’ve been here a little over 5 months and we’ve been in 6 countries since we arrived.  How many people can say by the time they were 15 months old they’d been to 7 different countries?  Too bad Abbie probably won’t remember most if it, but luckily I’m a picture-taking fiend so she’ll have thousands of pictures to remind her.  There are so many neat and OLD places within 2 hours of here.  It’s fun to drive somewhere for a day to check it out and if you don’t get to see it all, you know you’ll have other opportunities to come back.  Mark and I both love traveling, and we couldn’t have asked for a better base to be stationed at as far as traveling goes.  I have a list of places I’d like to go that we haven’t been to yet.  They are:

• a Mediterranean cruise (in the works for next year)
• a Baltic Sea cruise (to see northern Europe)
• Ireland – all of it
• London, England
• Barcelona, Spain
• Salzburg and Vienna, Austria (both only 4-5 hrs from us)
• Cinque Terre, Italy (again, about 4-5 hours)
• Budapest, Hungary
• Montenegro
• Munich and Dacau (the concentration camp)
• Croatia
• Sicily and all of southern Italy
• Lipica, Slovenia (where the Lipizzaner stallions are bred)
• Eastern Mediterranean cruise (Turkey, Egypt, Israel)
• Bolzano, Italy (about 3 hrs from us – up in the mountains)
• Bologna, Italy (about 4.5 hours from us)
• Geneva, Switzerland (with more planning than I did for Zurich)
• Marseille, France
• The beaches of Normandy, France
• Brussels, Belgium (to visit my friend Christine)

We have at least another 2 years here, hopefully longer, so hopefully we’ll be able to get to all of these places.  I still can’t believe we can hop on a train and be in Venice in a little over an hour.  We are very lucky to have had the opportunity to live here in Italy.

Friday Fill-in

Do you set goals for yourself during deployment?  What are some of them?

Since our first one is still coming up, I’m not quite sure how to answer this.  I just read a friend’s blog and she has a whole bunch of fun stuff planned for when her husband is deployed.  I’d like to think if I was child-less, I’d have a whole bunch of things planned too.  But for now, I’m planning on going home and spending time with my family and Mark’s family and letting Abbie enjoy the company of relatives she hasn’t gotten to spend much time with.  I’m also planning on spending a bunch of time with friends near my hometown that I haven’t gotten to spend quality time with since I lived at home 6 years ago.    But these aren’t really goals, per se.  I guess my goal would be to be the best parent I can to Abbie and try to fill both Mark and my shoes while he’s gone.

What would you say to someone dating a military guy or gal?

As in advice?  If they asked for advice I’d say it does get easier over time.  Not being in control of some parts of your life really sucks, and not being able to play more than a few days ahead at time sucks even more.  But you learn to roll with it and deal with things that come up last minute.  Also, choose your friends wisely because they’ll make all the difference in the world when your husband is gone.  They can either knock you down or hold you up, and the ones that knock you down aren’t friends to begin with.

 

If you have children, how do you prepare them to move to a new place?

I haven’t thought about this much either since Abbie is only 15 months old.  I plan on being open and honest with her about moves and explaining that being wherever daddy is when we can go with him is the most important thing as far as being a family.

Name one hobby that gets you through alone time. 

I’d like to work on my quilting and crafting stuff, but since I’m going home and all my craft/sewing stuff will be here, that might be kinda hard.  My mom said I could use her sewing machine and that she’d quilt with me, so I’ll bring some of my books and maybe ship some of my supplies home.  And I’d love to play the piano more, which should be pretty easy considering my baby grand is sitting in my parents living room.

What’s the one food you don’t ever get tired of?

Steak.  I love it.  Ribeyes and prime rib – I could live on them.

Padova

Today we took Brittany to Padova.  I was wanting to go somewhere fairly close-by and we hadn’t been there yet, so we decided to check it out.  It’s a little over an hour SW of where we live.

Padova (Padua to the Italians) kind of reminds me of Verona in a way, except the emphasis here was the churches.  It supposedly is the setting for most of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and it claims to be Northern Italy’s oldest city.  You can still see most of a wall, that once enclosed the oldest part of downtown Padova.  It also has a much newer area with malls and an Ikea.  Galileo apparently taught at the University of Padua, which was founded in 1222.

This is Prato Della Valle.  It was a huge round park, with a round mote of water around it with 78 statues all along the mote on either side, and a fountain in the middle.  Very pretty.  I wanted to take pictures of Abbie here, but she was asleep by that time, so I took pictures of the fountain instead.  It is believed to be the 2nd largest elliptical park in Europe.

                   

 

This is the Basilica of St. Anthony, otherwise known as Il Santo.  This church was extremely ornate inside, with lots of little chapels along the sides.  The tomb of St. Anthony is in this church and there were pictures of babies and kids taped to boards next to his tomb, along with letters.  There were a few people touching the back of his tomb while praying.  Because in most of the drawings of St. Anthony he is pictured with a baby, I assumed he was the saint of babies or something like that, but after reading about him on Wikipedia, that doesn’t really seem to be the case.  His story is pretty interesting though, so Google Saint Anthony of Padua if you want more info on him.  Unfortunately taking pictures in the church was forbidden, so I didn’t take any while in there.  You’ll have to come visit and I’ll take you there if you want to see it!

However, it didn’t say anything about taking pictures outside, so I snapped a few out in the courtyard area.  This magnolia tree is by far the largest I’ve ever seen.  It was absolutely beautiful!

Abbie had a great time chasing the pigeons (and other Italian girls) in front of the church.

This is the Palazzo Della Ragione, which is said to have the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe.  I was looking forward to going in and seeing it, but apparently they’re closed on Mondays.  Go figure.

This the the cathedral of Padua.  It’s the 3rd building built on this site.  The first one was built in 313, but was destroyed by an earthquake in 1117.  Abbie discovered that her voice echoes pretty well in these huge stone churches so she was having a grand time making a bunch of noise in there.  So I was only able to snap one picture inside before I took her outside where she could make all the noise she wanted (and naturally she was quiet when we got outside…)  =)

     

Below is the abbey and basilica of Santa Giustina.  It is supposedly on of the largest churches in the world, and I don’t doubt that.  It was HUGE.  It was built in the 5th century, and while it’s no where near as ornate inside, as Il Santo, it was beautiful.  (And you could take pictures inside.)

      

There was also plenty of shopping to do in the historical part of Padova, and parts of it we didn’t get to see, so I’d like to go back sometime.

Living in Italy truly is a blessing and I am thankful we get to see all these neat places that you probably wouldn’t visit unless you lived here.