Now picture me at the gym this evening on the treadmill.  I'm running, my heart's pumping, jammin' to my ipod, and breaking a sweat. I'm pacing myself and all is well....that is until I grab my towel to wipe sweat from my eyes. I must have covered my eyes a second too long because  I flew off the treadmill, lost my footing, and almost hit my head. How embarassing!!!  With my ipod swinging from my ears all I could do was get back on quickly and have a good laugh. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself and was able to finish running.  Mental note to self : Do not cover your eyes while on a treadmill ever!!! LOL

****** I've decided to stop using my chidren's real names in my posts and will address them as dd-Tinky, ds1-Cowboy, and ds2-Mater.**** 

A summary of last week:

 Mater started his Kindermusik class last Wednesday and we both had so much fun. He absolutely loved it and even gave his teacher Ms. Nicole a hug and sat on her lap when it was his turn to introduce himself.  Cowboy  helped pick up trash on base as part of his service project for Cub Scouts. My hubby and I watched I Am Legend and ate dinner at a place located in Vacaturno. The food was tasty and the dessert was even better. The school week went very smoothly as well. So there you have it....I can't complain at all.  I'm off to bed now.

Ciao,

Stephanie

Oh, how I've neglected this little blog of mine!!!  My last post was in May 2007 and it is missing pictures in different entries. Time to clean up shop and start fixing things up around here. I'll admit part of my absence here has been due to me struggling with homeschooling  and severe PMS on top of that. {I'll save the topic of PMS for another post. } Life in Italy, otherwise, has been spendid. Since May we have traveled to Milan, Lake Como, Bellagio, Florence, the Island Procida, the Amalfi Coast, and we spent Thanksgiving in Paris. Every trip was amazing and such a blast for our family. I can't wait for what this New Year has in store for us.  Here are a few pics:

Lake Como and Milan:

Learning how to make Margherita pizza on the Island of Procida:

Wine tasting in Benevento, Italy:

I'll have to post more pics from our trips in the next post. I haven't done this in so long I know there must be an easier way to post multiple pics at once. I like the slide shows from slide.com but I have yet to figure out how to put one on here. I'll look into that tomorrow if I'm able to get around to it. There just aren't enough hours in the day......  at least for me.

Stephanie

Last night we attended a farewell dinner for our sponsor who is moving back to the states next week.  We ate at a family owned restaurant and the food was fabuloso. The spread  consisted of  fresh baked bass, fried seaweed, fried minnows, steaks, marguerita pizzas, assorted pasta dishes, bruchetta, grilled veggies, antipasto, tiramisu, and lots of house red wine. Afterwards several of us went over to Dr. Lawsons house to drink limoncello and more red wine. It was a great night. Our friend Raphael, Trent, and I had to walk home since we couldn't drive. I haven't had that much fun in a while.

I did learn some stuff about our surroundings. Like I've been recycling for nothing because where we live the mob controls the trash pick up and all they do is come on base pick up all the trash and recyclables then they drive off base and dump it on the streets. I had heard about this before, but I still kept recycling because it made me feel good...like I was still contributing to saving our enviornment. 

Alas, Naples is beautiful with lots of history, but trash can be seen almost everywhere in some places. They even dump trash along the highway....it's such an eye sore. Oh well that's just life here....they don't call Naples the armpit of Europe for nothing. Trash, mob, and all I still love it and feel blessed to live here! LOL

         Fresh lemonade anyone!!

American gas guzzler and a European car. Isn't it amazing the size difference.

Did you know that the British call a grocery cart a trolley? I had never heard this until yesterday while we were at the commissary. A lovely family was getting their cart at the same time as I when I heard this:

Daughter: "Mummy where's daddy?"

Mom: "He's getting us a trolley."

Then throughout the store the father  could be heard warning his daughter not stand in the trolley.In the states I've heard others call it a  basket, buggie, or shopping cart, but never a trolley. It's neat how the  English language varies depending on where you are, but it probably makes it difficult to master as a second language. My girlfriend recently came back from her vacation in Australia, I bet she heard many words used differently there.

Today we did not accomplish as much school work as I would have liked. Especially since Gabe, my fast little climber, had a very bad fall off our recliner onto the hard floor. He cried a lot and scared me since he hit his head pretty hard. I made sure to watch out for signs of a minor head injury, but as of this evening he is his normal self.  Besides our school work our schedule now includes two baseball practices,  and one sometimes two Boy/Girl Scout  meetings weekly.  

 This past weekend Noah had his first baseball game and he scored two runs. He played  extremely well. On another note we have enjoyed watching a myraid of  bats flying around in the evening. The neighborhood kids found a dead one by our building which Trent quickly disposed of in the trash bins. I then had to lecture the kids about bats and rabies. Well thats about it for us.

Ciao

I just don't have any words to express the sadness and horror I feel about this incident. What the hell is this world coming to!!! My thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives were cut too short, the injured, their families and the whole student body/staff. God bless them all.  

 We've just been hanging out over here. The kids and I have been busy with school work, planning for next school year, and planning a trip for Memorial weekend. We are going to the Milan and Lake Como area for four days. While there we are going to see  Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper fresco and shop.  Trent and I are still planning everything out & I hope Gabriel will be okay on the long ride there. Today we went to the Ipercoop to buy gardening supplies and some very fresh meat. We all got our haircut  and I especially was way overdue for one. I was just so hesitant since I didn't know any of the stylist. Turns out I sat in Rosy's chair and we were able to communicate well. Her english was very limited, but since her husband is Spaniard we were able to converse that way. Now I must say my spanish is limited, but I know and understand it better than italian. Well here are some pics from this week:

 & Noah's latest collection..."Wackos"  the new hip thing  with the kids in the neighborhood.

I walked to the library yesterday and loaded up on some books. Some will be used in next weeks lessons and others were just for the kids.  Note to self.... next time you walk to the library DO NOT check out 29 books you need to carry all the way home.  In the evening we watched our Charlotte's Web DVD and enjoyed it just as much as the book. Suprisingly even Gabe sat through the movie....and we all know he only does that for Elmo. Once the boys went to sleep Lesley and I watched Bride & Prejudice. Let's just say it was different.

Trent & I were up early getting Easter baskets ready for the kids. In addition to eggs and treats Lesley & Noah both got new Tony Hawk skateboards /helmets.  After Mass it was straight to the skatepark to practice ollies and go down ramps.  They absolutely loved them. For dinner we ate Fajitas, mexican rice, pinto beans w/ cilantro and tortillas . We cracked our cascarones and had a fun filled day...I hope you had one too. 

My goodness my PMS had me emotional today. Not in an angry moody type of way, but in a weepy sort of way. For example.....after much anticipation, the movie Bridge to Terabithia finally played here on base this evening. { I believe it's been out for awhile in the states} So I'm there watching the movie w/ the kiddos when it gets to the part where Leslie drowns!! I knew it was going to happen since we had previously read the book, yet when it did I cried, & cried, & cried. Geez  it was as if  I had suffered the loss personally.  Then it dawns on me.....HELLO....it's that time of month.  Aside from the crying it was an excellent movie. We really enjoyed it.

We made our traditional cascarones for Easter yesterday. Cascarones are confetti filled eggs. The kids also made some crafts with the homeschool group today.