Semi-Wordless Wednesday

I took this looking out my bedroom window this morning.  This part of Italy is very foggy--something that I didn't know before I moved here.  I can't help buy think of Heathcliff walking across the moors from Wuthering Heights. 

A Picture Book by Trey

It consistently drives me crazy that my children fight and don't want to spend every waking moment cuddled in the embrace of one or all of their siblings, but since I'm an only child, I'm told by my friends with siblings that I'm totally wacked to think that behavior would ever be normal,  I can dream, right?  And then every now and again they actually act like they don't want to kill each other. Here's proof:

Trey wrote this book about his adventures playing outside and catching lizards with his sister one day after school a couple of weeks ago.  He's been begging me to share it on the blog, so here it goes:

The captions are the words that he wrote for his picture book.

Delilah and Trey's Lizard Hunt

With Sparkle the Lizard 

We are going on a lizard hunt

We look for lizards

Then we find one

We name it Sparkle (Mom's Note: Delilah names everything Sparkle)

We have to let Sparkle go

Sparkle has to go home

Bye bye Sparkle

Credits

*Mom for the pictures

*Delilah for being a great lizard hunter

*Sparkle for being calm while we took pictures

*Me, Trey for everything else

He came up with the story on his own and then printed it himself. 

And then he read it to her...

I'd love your vote, pretty please!!

Wordless Wednesday

I frequently think about how we are all forever changed by the opportunity we've been given to live and travel overseas.  I am so thankful.

I'd love your vote :)

Amber Waves

I see the tractors circling in fields around mine and I know. I know that they are coming like vulchers for the fields of wheat that I have grown to love this spring.

I can remember how my military friends who were from the Midwest would talk about the wheat.

Watching it grow

And turn from green to golden

It swaying in the breeze

The sun hitting it just right, so as to create its own sea of golden sunshine.

I will miss it when the plow comes, silly I know.

But those of you who grew up near it understand.

As I now do,

Just what he meant when he penned the verse 

"Amber Waves of Grain..."

See you next year.

I'd love your vote! And leave a comment below to let me know a little about yourself!

Wordless Wednesday--Springtime in Italy

Ciao!

Goodnight Sun...

New Blog Series-YCMTSU

My friend Shannon (she's my person here) and I were recently talking about all the craziness we as Americans experience here in Italy that is impossible to describe to anyone, especially someone who has never lived outside of the United States.

She is a frequent blogger also and so we both decided to add a new series to each of our blogs entitled "This Doesn't Happen in America" or as we like to call it between friends, "You Can't Make This Shit Up..." I cannot tell you how many times a day I think these exact thoughts in my head or say them out loud.

Don't get me wrong, living in Europe and Italy can be amazing!  The opportunities and experiences we are having and that are kids are having are life changing.

Making sand castles in Paris 

But for every amazing thing, there seems to be just a little craziness to go along with it....

So, it's here in my own little corner of the blogosphere that I'll try and enlighten you with (or at least share in the humor of) the craziness that is our Life in Italia...

Back in December, when my father had just arrived for Christmas, we noticed that the exhaust fan in our fireplace wasn't working.  We have a giant fireplace in our kitchen--it's one of the things that I liked best about our house when I first saw it.

Our fireplace (before we moved in)

 Keep in mind that Italians actually use their fireplaces for heat because they frequently keep their thermostats set in the 50's.  Gas for heating is VERY, VERY expensive! Without a fireplace, your house would be freezing. When we first moved in back in January of 2012, our downstairs would frequently drop into the high 40's INSIDE.  It is COLD without a fireplace!

This is what it was like the first month we lived in our house....

We contacted Claudio, our landlord, about the exhaust fan not working and he arranged a time for himself and Lucca, the electrician, to come over.  It was a Saturday when they decided to come and I had run out to the market.

When I got home, I had missed them.  I had started to put away the groceries I had bought, when I noticed an empty wine bottle--a big one--and 4 wine glasses sitting on the work table we have in the kitchen....and next to it all was an empty container of fudge that my cousin had sent for Christmas.  Keep in mind, it was barely NOON by this time....

I said some thing to my dad and Steve about who was drinking wine at 10:00 in the morning and Steve laughed and said that when he had asked Claudio if he and Lucca wanted something to drink, Claudio had pointed at the giant wine wrack we have in the corner of our kitchen...and then he went over and PICKED OUT A BOTTLE !

All of this might sound fine up until this point. Claudio, though he doesn't speak a word of English (except for Wednesday, flip flop, and Mercedes--he has one, the other two he learned from me), is the NICEST man and we honestly couldn't ask for a better landlord....I had NO problem with them socializing...

BUT, keep in mind these important facts...

1. It was 10:00 in the morning
2. They had come over to fix something involving ELECTRICITY
3. They had to climb up on the ROOF to do so
4. Italian wine is much, much higher in alcohol content than American wine is--the bottle that they drank was 13% alcohol...
5. They drank the wine BEFORE they climbed on the roof
6. They ate all the fudge... :(

My dad, seeing the humor in the entire situation and not wanting me to miss it, took a picture of the whole thing from my yard...thankfully HE had some sense!

The men on the roof--Steve is in the red shirt, Lucca is to the left and Claudio is in the center

You can see the chimney just peeking out on the corner of the the house. This picture is just to show you HOW high up the roof actually is...

Can you imagine this happening in America?  Honestly, I can't make this shit up....  

If you've enjoyed my new blog series, leave a comment and become a follower!  And as always, don't forget to vote...

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Our Street :)

What is Via Fontanelle? It's the name if our street here in Italy!

And the Babysitter of the Year Award Goes to....

NOT Steve!  This is post number 2 for today, so if you haven't read the other "main post" click here.   I had to run to the market this evening to pick up something for dinner.  When I arrived home, this is what I saw:

The back end of our backyard had flooded at little and the kids had dragged their toys over to that end. It had become their own little adventure water theme park.

Then they were nice enough to use the towels that I had JUST washed and JUST hung out on the clothes line to dry off with... Steve's excuse: By the time he noticed what they were up to, they were already wet, so he just let them have at it... At least they had fun! Sorry so many of the pictures are so blurry...I forgot to switch my camera to "action shot" apparently!