It's starting to look like a home instead of a house!
Getting our stuff. HILARIOUS. Everything here has been HILARIOUS. I'll do my best to come up with different words to explain things, other than hilarious. First off, Chris is goofball. Our amazing sponsor had already had our house full of temporary furniture so first they had to come pick that stuff up before our stuff arrived. We were like kids on Christmas morning. We were so excited waiting on our stuff to show up. OK...setting the scene... Wake up. Get ready. We hear a truck pull up. Chris yells "they're here!" Great, kids are in the tub. Just want I want to deal with is my nekked chillren running a muck while all these Italians are moving stuff. I tell them, DO NOT GET OUT OF THE TUB UNTIL I GET YOU. DO NOT LEAVE THE BATHROOM UNLESS I SAY YOU CAN. Yes, I'm terrified people are going to see blonde haired girls and immediately try and steal them. (Hey, you've always known I'm a little paranoid, I'm worse now.) So as I'm running around upstairs like crazy trying to find iPads, computers, DVD players, clothes for kids, the whole nine yards, Chris is downstairs talking to the men. I meet him at the bottom of the steps where he informs me "They brought the wrong truck. They pulled in and opened it up, AND IT'S EMPTY!!" He's just cracking up about them not bringing the stuff. Before I really have to say anything to him, it starts to dawn on him... Hey, genius, they have to get the borrowed stuff first. (I normally wouldn't blast him like this, but it's extremely rare that Chris has a "blonde" moment. Me...ehhh not so much... And he likes to entertain people with my moments. So it's kinda like karma right now for me!) So after explaining to the guys that HE was wrong and that they most certainly have the correct address, they came in and started moving everything out.
While they are moving out, the other guys show up with our stuff. They are at a standstill just hanging out waiting their turn. These guys are extremely friendly. They come in, introduce themselves, attempt to communicate. I run back upstairs to check on the girls and let them know they can come out of the bathroom. When I walk back down to the kitchen Chris has become the center of attention and about 5 men are gathered around him. He's pulled out his eCigarette and started smoking it. They loved it! So there he is, talking to them like an Vanna White, showing how this thing works and they are all in awe. Meanwhile, the girls have snuck into the kitchen and climbed into the pantry. It's big enough that they can both sit in the bottom and hide. They grabbed a couple mini bags of chips and their iPads. One of the men notice the cracked door. I explained about the girls and opened it up. He thought it was the cutest thing in the world. They always tell the girls "Ciao Bella!" (hello beautiful). He starts saying "Ciao Bella! Ciao Bella! Don't be scared!" Then he turns to his friends and what my extremely limited Italian has taught me, tells them to come look at these cute American girls hiding in the pantry. So here they come.. all 15 of them (even the ones from outside) come in to say hello to the girls and tell them to not be scared! Lots of laughing and them trying to coax the girls out. Eventually they come out and all is well.
It really didn't take too long to get our stuff unloaded and unpacked. We started immediately unpacking stuff and had our downstairs put together in about 5 hours. That seems like a long time, but according to others, we didn't bring a lot of stuff. Our house seems very empty. I wish I would have realized this because some of the stuff I stored at home I would have brought here. Especially the Christmas decorations. A lot of people have lights on their houses and yard ornaments up. The driveways serves more like a large covered porch than a garage like we thought. College/Pro sport team flags are every where. Tables, chairs, swings, grills are all sitting out front under these car ports. I really wish I could show them my redneck flair. I've asked my mom (she'll be here the 18th) to bring us an OU & Thunder flag so we can proudly show our state. But if anyone would like to send me a Tony Stewart flag, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm not sure if I'll get to watch a NASCAR race while I'm here, but I for sure want to sport my redneck lifestyle. So everyone has their houses set up for Christmas and I have 2 different things and NO Christmas tree. That is VERY depressing. Especially since we're like the Griswold's of Forrest Oaks!
I hope you are all doing well. My thoughts and prayers are there for those families involved in the CT shooting. It's amazing how scary it is to watch that on the internet in a foreign country.
Until next time... Ciao!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sono in Sicilia!
Whew!! I'm here!
One thing I learned about blogging while moving your life to Sicily.... You don't have time to blog. I guess I could have sat down and MADE time, but I decided to spend as much time as I could with family and friends.
Leading up to the big day:
Wow. What an emotional roller coaster. You'd be amazed at the jerkfaces you have in your life. And the know it alls. The ones who comment on EVERYTHING you're dealing with. I mean, I get the whole thing about putting my life on FB for all to see...and then everyone feeling entitled to letting you know how they feel about your feelings.. But COME ON PEOPLE. I swear that, welcome to the REAL Navy, or I've been there done that line... Geesh. It's one thing if I've actually talked to you about this in person and you KNOW what I'm trying to say... Anyway. Moving along.
It was weird packing everything up and it getting shipped off. We lived in our house up until about a week and a half before the move. We moved into my mom's the Monday after Thanksgiving. So we went almost 2 months with living out of suitcases and sleeping on the floor. I'm extremely grateful for being able to stay with my mom during the last week or so, but I'm not sure I would do it that way again. It made it feel more emotional than what I was already feeling. Even tho she's my mom, I still felt like we all had to be on our best behavior at all times. We only had one big blow up while I was there, and I think that's pretty dang good. And it's understandable why. It was our last full day there and we were all trying to make sure everything was done, packed, loaded, washed, etc.. It was also the day I had to say bye to everyone. My Papa called right before we had those "words" so my emotions were on edge. He has Alzheimer's and on a good day he remembers me 80% of the time. So trying to get emotionally ready to tell someone fourteen hundred times, all in one visit, that you're moving the Sicily was really tough. BUT, he knew. He remembered. He remembered the entire time we were at his house. It's hard to stop and think about. Every time we talked I always reminded him I was moving. Sometimes I'd call and he'd be amazed that I was still in the country. Other times he had no idea and it was like telling him for the first time. He served in the Navy as well, and when I'd tell him I was moving he'd tell me all about his tour and the countries he went to. Our last goodbye was one of those good days where we pulled out the globe and looked at all the countries he saw. He didn't remember it quite the way he used to tell it, but he remembered a lot. I cried most of the time I was there. When we finally got up to leave (and I lost it yet again) Papa looked at me like I was a nutcase and said "You're only going to be gone 3 years. It's not like that's forever!" But walking away from his house, I know with him, it is forever. His mind will either be so gone he won't know who I am, or he'll just be gone. I can't imagine not being there when he passes. He is such an important part of my life. I hate thinking that he's at home forgetting who I am or wondering why I'm not calling or coming to see him.
There wasn't really anyone that was easy to say bye to. My friend Lindsey. We did good. (Not you, Mad Chemist, the other Lindsey). We agreed NO TEARS. So our kids said goodbye. We said "see you later" and she got in her jeep and drove away as I walked into my mom's house. No muss, no fuss. That was nice to have. We had some amazing friends join us at Charlie's Sports Bar in Choctaw and then later on at the Landing Zone the Saturday before we left. We shed a lot of tears that night. When I say we, I mean me and my girl friends. The guys stood all around with macho faces drinking their beer and consoling their weeping wives... Must be nice to not have that emotional gene in your body.
The girls did really well. They enjoyed the camping lifestyle in our house and then moving into Grammy's before we left. Matti understood it more than Chrissy (obviously) but Chrissy was much more emotional at the airport than Matti. She kept saying, I don't WANT to move to Italy. But once we got in the air they had no issues. We alternated on where everyone sat. The first leg was the three girls on one row and then Chris across the isle. Second leg (to Norfolk, VA) I sat with MewMew and Chris sat with Matti. If I knew how to post pictures on here I'd post the picture of the girls holding hands through the seats to give each other "strength." It brought tears to my eyes taking the picture. They are really great girls. They drove us nuts... but all in all they were amazing. Chrissy had a melt down in Rota, Spain when we saw Pete. We were able to get him out of his crate from under the plane during our layover and you would have thought we were giving him away when we put him back in! But he did great as well. I was really worried about how he'd do, but other than being a little freaked out when we got him out of his crate, he seemed fine.
Getting here went better than I thought. Chris has a friend who lives in Norfolk, VA that picked us up from the Navy Lodge, where we stayed the night, and then drove us around until we had to board the flight for Sigonella. That was a life saver. If he didn't do that we would have been at the terminal from 1pm to 7:30pm when we finally left. It was dark when we left VA so I never got to see the ocean from the sky (dark when we arrived the night before). The sun came up about an hour before we landed in Rota. It was FREEZING when we got off the plane there. That flight was a little over 7 hours. They served us a snack, dinner (if you're doing this with kids I suggest you get food they like and take it with you....) another snack and then cold breakfast before we landed in Rota. I, personally, didn't mind the food. Luckily Chrissy slept every time the served food or else she would have starved. I know she wouldn't have eaten any of that stuff! Matti slept a little and so did Chris. Or he attempted to. He said he didn't (I think he did). I read almost 2 books on that flight and got a mini (15 min) cat nap. After the layover Matti & Chrissy switched spots and I got to have a nice lunch with Matti. It was neat eating foods from packages we couldn't read. What we thought were barbeque chips (from trying to translate ourselves) were actually like Fritos. They were pretty good but had a weird texture to them. Everything else was normal. Except what I think might have been vanilla pudding. I wasn't in the mood for sweets so I never tried it. Matti & Chrissy both slept most of the flight into Sigonella (3hrs). I woke Matti up in time to see the Mediterranean Sea and Mount Etna. It's crazy to think we're living by he world biggest active volcano and it has snow from the top and halfway down it! How does that even happen?!?!
Since this was the first time I've ever moved away for the Navy I wasn't sure what to expect. Arriving here was pretty dang neat! Our sponsor, Carmello, is not only a Chief but he was born and raised in Sicily as well. So he's knows EVERYTHING! Plus a lot of the Chief's in our command came and welcomed us at the airport!! I can't remember any of their names and I couldn't pick them out of a line-up, but By George, they were there and shook my hand. Carmello was amazing for us. He already had our house on base picked out and temporary furniture placed in it so when we got here we could go to sleep. Chrissy was only awake enough to make it from the plane to the car. Then the car to the house. She was asleep on the couch before I could even go upstairs and see the place. Chris and Carmello dropped us girls and Pete off then went back to get our bags. It gets dark around 4:15pm here, which makes it hard to figure out what's going on. When they got back with our bags they took off to get some misc stuff from the store so we could have dinner. I feel asleep on the couch and slept an hour or so, I think. The first few days are a big blur to me. Trying to get on the right schedule is tough. Not like....Ohhhh mmmyyy wooorrrdddd. I'm sooo tired I can't function... tough. Even though the next day that happened to me. But I think it was because I'd sleep around 2 hours and wake up thinking I'd been asleep for 10 hours. So I'd read some of my book and then fall asleep, then wake up in two more hours. It was NUTS! Chris was the same way. Luckily we're all on a good schedule now and we're getting used to this dark before 5pm thing.
Another cool thing about living on base (or at least HERE on base) is how people will show up and bring you food! Our first night we couldn't figure out how to work the heater. We only had 2 blankets between the 4 of us and it was about 60 degrees in the house. This extremely nice lady who pulled into our neighbors house saw that we were new and asked if we needed anything. We told her it was cold and didn't know what to do. So she came inside and informed us we'd been running the AC the whole time and showed us how to heat up the house. She showed up today at lunch with White Chili and brownies for us to eat!!! It was amazing. The second day we were here I met both of our neighbors. Tandi on the right has two little boys and then Mehan on the left has one. Mehan made the most amazing Asian food I've ever eaten. She brought it over our second night here and introduced herself. I told Chris it's funny how we moved to Sicily and our first homemade meal was authentic Asian food. She also made a huge batch of cinnamon rolls from scratch today and brought them to us for a snack. Carmello's wife made us a Sicilian dish as well the second night we were here. I have no clue what it's called... but it's good as well. Basically a penne type noodle with a red sauce. Saturday night a friend I had met on Facebook brought her family and stuff to make Tacos. It was a blast. We ate until we were stuffed and then Chrissey (her name) and I shared a pitcher of Margarita's on the kitchen floor while we shared our life stories and became great friends. I felt like I've known her my whole life. Another lady I met the other day at the gym stopped by this morning and told us she was bringing dinner. She seems like another one I'll enjoy being around and spending time with. She lives right across the street, which helps as well. She made spaghetti, grilled chicken and roasted egg plant, zucchini, cherry (I think) tomatoes and garlic in the oven. She also brought us a bottle of wine called Fourplay. The food was AMAZING, the wine, not so much :( I've decided unless it taste like grape juice, I won't like it. And since wine won't ever taste like grape juice, I'll probably never drink it. I'm still suffering from eating all those tomatoes, tho. I've decided I'm just going to have to take medicine everyday to avoid getting sick from the food over here. Every meal we've been given has had either tomatoes, peppers or both in them. It's a way of life over here. Maybe I'll eat the stuff enough that my body will build up an immunity to it and I won't be allergic to it anymore!!! Hey, you can wish!! Right?!
I have so much more I could tell you, but I think I'll get off of here for now. I'll do a little more research about this blog site and figure out how to add pictures. I can't wait to get my good camera out and not only tell you about my life here but SHOW you what Sicily and Europe has to offer!!
I love and miss you all!!!
Until Next Time.... Ciao!!!
One thing I learned about blogging while moving your life to Sicily.... You don't have time to blog. I guess I could have sat down and MADE time, but I decided to spend as much time as I could with family and friends.
Leading up to the big day:
Wow. What an emotional roller coaster. You'd be amazed at the jerkfaces you have in your life. And the know it alls. The ones who comment on EVERYTHING you're dealing with. I mean, I get the whole thing about putting my life on FB for all to see...and then everyone feeling entitled to letting you know how they feel about your feelings.. But COME ON PEOPLE. I swear that, welcome to the REAL Navy, or I've been there done that line... Geesh. It's one thing if I've actually talked to you about this in person and you KNOW what I'm trying to say... Anyway. Moving along.
It was weird packing everything up and it getting shipped off. We lived in our house up until about a week and a half before the move. We moved into my mom's the Monday after Thanksgiving. So we went almost 2 months with living out of suitcases and sleeping on the floor. I'm extremely grateful for being able to stay with my mom during the last week or so, but I'm not sure I would do it that way again. It made it feel more emotional than what I was already feeling. Even tho she's my mom, I still felt like we all had to be on our best behavior at all times. We only had one big blow up while I was there, and I think that's pretty dang good. And it's understandable why. It was our last full day there and we were all trying to make sure everything was done, packed, loaded, washed, etc.. It was also the day I had to say bye to everyone. My Papa called right before we had those "words" so my emotions were on edge. He has Alzheimer's and on a good day he remembers me 80% of the time. So trying to get emotionally ready to tell someone fourteen hundred times, all in one visit, that you're moving the Sicily was really tough. BUT, he knew. He remembered. He remembered the entire time we were at his house. It's hard to stop and think about. Every time we talked I always reminded him I was moving. Sometimes I'd call and he'd be amazed that I was still in the country. Other times he had no idea and it was like telling him for the first time. He served in the Navy as well, and when I'd tell him I was moving he'd tell me all about his tour and the countries he went to. Our last goodbye was one of those good days where we pulled out the globe and looked at all the countries he saw. He didn't remember it quite the way he used to tell it, but he remembered a lot. I cried most of the time I was there. When we finally got up to leave (and I lost it yet again) Papa looked at me like I was a nutcase and said "You're only going to be gone 3 years. It's not like that's forever!" But walking away from his house, I know with him, it is forever. His mind will either be so gone he won't know who I am, or he'll just be gone. I can't imagine not being there when he passes. He is such an important part of my life. I hate thinking that he's at home forgetting who I am or wondering why I'm not calling or coming to see him.
There wasn't really anyone that was easy to say bye to. My friend Lindsey. We did good. (Not you, Mad Chemist, the other Lindsey). We agreed NO TEARS. So our kids said goodbye. We said "see you later" and she got in her jeep and drove away as I walked into my mom's house. No muss, no fuss. That was nice to have. We had some amazing friends join us at Charlie's Sports Bar in Choctaw and then later on at the Landing Zone the Saturday before we left. We shed a lot of tears that night. When I say we, I mean me and my girl friends. The guys stood all around with macho faces drinking their beer and consoling their weeping wives... Must be nice to not have that emotional gene in your body.
The girls did really well. They enjoyed the camping lifestyle in our house and then moving into Grammy's before we left. Matti understood it more than Chrissy (obviously) but Chrissy was much more emotional at the airport than Matti. She kept saying, I don't WANT to move to Italy. But once we got in the air they had no issues. We alternated on where everyone sat. The first leg was the three girls on one row and then Chris across the isle. Second leg (to Norfolk, VA) I sat with MewMew and Chris sat with Matti. If I knew how to post pictures on here I'd post the picture of the girls holding hands through the seats to give each other "strength." It brought tears to my eyes taking the picture. They are really great girls. They drove us nuts... but all in all they were amazing. Chrissy had a melt down in Rota, Spain when we saw Pete. We were able to get him out of his crate from under the plane during our layover and you would have thought we were giving him away when we put him back in! But he did great as well. I was really worried about how he'd do, but other than being a little freaked out when we got him out of his crate, he seemed fine.
Getting here went better than I thought. Chris has a friend who lives in Norfolk, VA that picked us up from the Navy Lodge, where we stayed the night, and then drove us around until we had to board the flight for Sigonella. That was a life saver. If he didn't do that we would have been at the terminal from 1pm to 7:30pm when we finally left. It was dark when we left VA so I never got to see the ocean from the sky (dark when we arrived the night before). The sun came up about an hour before we landed in Rota. It was FREEZING when we got off the plane there. That flight was a little over 7 hours. They served us a snack, dinner (if you're doing this with kids I suggest you get food they like and take it with you....) another snack and then cold breakfast before we landed in Rota. I, personally, didn't mind the food. Luckily Chrissy slept every time the served food or else she would have starved. I know she wouldn't have eaten any of that stuff! Matti slept a little and so did Chris. Or he attempted to. He said he didn't (I think he did). I read almost 2 books on that flight and got a mini (15 min) cat nap. After the layover Matti & Chrissy switched spots and I got to have a nice lunch with Matti. It was neat eating foods from packages we couldn't read. What we thought were barbeque chips (from trying to translate ourselves) were actually like Fritos. They were pretty good but had a weird texture to them. Everything else was normal. Except what I think might have been vanilla pudding. I wasn't in the mood for sweets so I never tried it. Matti & Chrissy both slept most of the flight into Sigonella (3hrs). I woke Matti up in time to see the Mediterranean Sea and Mount Etna. It's crazy to think we're living by he world biggest active volcano and it has snow from the top and halfway down it! How does that even happen?!?!
Since this was the first time I've ever moved away for the Navy I wasn't sure what to expect. Arriving here was pretty dang neat! Our sponsor, Carmello, is not only a Chief but he was born and raised in Sicily as well. So he's knows EVERYTHING! Plus a lot of the Chief's in our command came and welcomed us at the airport!! I can't remember any of their names and I couldn't pick them out of a line-up, but By George, they were there and shook my hand. Carmello was amazing for us. He already had our house on base picked out and temporary furniture placed in it so when we got here we could go to sleep. Chrissy was only awake enough to make it from the plane to the car. Then the car to the house. She was asleep on the couch before I could even go upstairs and see the place. Chris and Carmello dropped us girls and Pete off then went back to get our bags. It gets dark around 4:15pm here, which makes it hard to figure out what's going on. When they got back with our bags they took off to get some misc stuff from the store so we could have dinner. I feel asleep on the couch and slept an hour or so, I think. The first few days are a big blur to me. Trying to get on the right schedule is tough. Not like....Ohhhh mmmyyy wooorrrdddd. I'm sooo tired I can't function... tough. Even though the next day that happened to me. But I think it was because I'd sleep around 2 hours and wake up thinking I'd been asleep for 10 hours. So I'd read some of my book and then fall asleep, then wake up in two more hours. It was NUTS! Chris was the same way. Luckily we're all on a good schedule now and we're getting used to this dark before 5pm thing.
Another cool thing about living on base (or at least HERE on base) is how people will show up and bring you food! Our first night we couldn't figure out how to work the heater. We only had 2 blankets between the 4 of us and it was about 60 degrees in the house. This extremely nice lady who pulled into our neighbors house saw that we were new and asked if we needed anything. We told her it was cold and didn't know what to do. So she came inside and informed us we'd been running the AC the whole time and showed us how to heat up the house. She showed up today at lunch with White Chili and brownies for us to eat!!! It was amazing. The second day we were here I met both of our neighbors. Tandi on the right has two little boys and then Mehan on the left has one. Mehan made the most amazing Asian food I've ever eaten. She brought it over our second night here and introduced herself. I told Chris it's funny how we moved to Sicily and our first homemade meal was authentic Asian food. She also made a huge batch of cinnamon rolls from scratch today and brought them to us for a snack. Carmello's wife made us a Sicilian dish as well the second night we were here. I have no clue what it's called... but it's good as well. Basically a penne type noodle with a red sauce. Saturday night a friend I had met on Facebook brought her family and stuff to make Tacos. It was a blast. We ate until we were stuffed and then Chrissey (her name) and I shared a pitcher of Margarita's on the kitchen floor while we shared our life stories and became great friends. I felt like I've known her my whole life. Another lady I met the other day at the gym stopped by this morning and told us she was bringing dinner. She seems like another one I'll enjoy being around and spending time with. She lives right across the street, which helps as well. She made spaghetti, grilled chicken and roasted egg plant, zucchini, cherry (I think) tomatoes and garlic in the oven. She also brought us a bottle of wine called Fourplay. The food was AMAZING, the wine, not so much :( I've decided unless it taste like grape juice, I won't like it. And since wine won't ever taste like grape juice, I'll probably never drink it. I'm still suffering from eating all those tomatoes, tho. I've decided I'm just going to have to take medicine everyday to avoid getting sick from the food over here. Every meal we've been given has had either tomatoes, peppers or both in them. It's a way of life over here. Maybe I'll eat the stuff enough that my body will build up an immunity to it and I won't be allergic to it anymore!!! Hey, you can wish!! Right?!
I have so much more I could tell you, but I think I'll get off of here for now. I'll do a little more research about this blog site and figure out how to add pictures. I can't wait to get my good camera out and not only tell you about my life here but SHOW you what Sicily and Europe has to offer!!
I love and miss you all!!!
Until Next Time.... Ciao!!!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
La vinta e dura....
Life is hard. Trying to find time to blog when you don't have a good computer at home is even harder.
Lots of things has happened since I last had time to type on here.
Did you know I have to get 2 separate passports? Yeah, I do. 1 military and 1 regular. And a visa. Ya wanna know what makes this hard for me (besides the $500 we're going to be shelling out for our family for the "regular" passports), I go to court on August 16 to FINALLY have my name legally changed. I have to wait to get all of this done AFTER I get my name changed. Which gives us a crappy time crunch. Or so some says. 14 weeks to get a passport and visa is redonkulus.
Trying to get everything together for the move is very overwhelming for me. We finally got Matti's room painted. We bought rugs for the girls for their rooms in Italy and put those down. They're sharing a room right now so we can get Chrissy's room cleaned out and painted. It's hard painting over my hard work. Not that I mind painting over it, it's just painting it the Elegant Lace so that way someone else can move in there and live in my house. But at least I'm coming back, right?
It's amazing how reality starts to set in. I can't imagine leaving here. How am I going to rely only on my husband and children? I've never done that. I've never had to. I'm scared to. What if? I have so many what if's in my head.
It scares me to think of my Papa dying. That's probably one of the hardest things to cope with. I talk to him almost everyday. On his good days, he knows who I am throughout the whole conversation. On his bad days, he knows I live on Choctaw Road and Chris is in the Navy, but he doesn't know who I am. I try and see him once a week. I should try harder. The kids love being around him. I want them to get as much time with him while he can remember them as they can. I don't want them to watch him deteriorate tho. But where do you go from here? It amazed me that I talked to him a week ago and he couldn't even remember who his wife was. And then Monday when I walked into his house he said, "I thought you were out of the country!" Is he going to forget me while I'm gone? How do I keep that from happening? I've always told Freda (his wife) that I'd help take care of him. She's insistent on keeping him out of a home. And I'd be there to help her do that. Will that happen if I'm not here? I know that when I go out of town and can't talk to him for more than 3 or 4 days, he gets upset and thinks I don't care about him. It breaks. my. heart. How do I take the guilt off of my heart? He helped raise me. When others didn't believe in me, he always did. He taught me how to believe in myself. How do I leave that?
I know God has a plan for me.
Fino alla prossima volta!
Lots of things has happened since I last had time to type on here.
Did you know I have to get 2 separate passports? Yeah, I do. 1 military and 1 regular. And a visa. Ya wanna know what makes this hard for me (besides the $500 we're going to be shelling out for our family for the "regular" passports), I go to court on August 16 to FINALLY have my name legally changed. I have to wait to get all of this done AFTER I get my name changed. Which gives us a crappy time crunch. Or so some says. 14 weeks to get a passport and visa is redonkulus.
Trying to get everything together for the move is very overwhelming for me. We finally got Matti's room painted. We bought rugs for the girls for their rooms in Italy and put those down. They're sharing a room right now so we can get Chrissy's room cleaned out and painted. It's hard painting over my hard work. Not that I mind painting over it, it's just painting it the Elegant Lace so that way someone else can move in there and live in my house. But at least I'm coming back, right?
It's amazing how reality starts to set in. I can't imagine leaving here. How am I going to rely only on my husband and children? I've never done that. I've never had to. I'm scared to. What if? I have so many what if's in my head.
It scares me to think of my Papa dying. That's probably one of the hardest things to cope with. I talk to him almost everyday. On his good days, he knows who I am throughout the whole conversation. On his bad days, he knows I live on Choctaw Road and Chris is in the Navy, but he doesn't know who I am. I try and see him once a week. I should try harder. The kids love being around him. I want them to get as much time with him while he can remember them as they can. I don't want them to watch him deteriorate tho. But where do you go from here? It amazed me that I talked to him a week ago and he couldn't even remember who his wife was. And then Monday when I walked into his house he said, "I thought you were out of the country!" Is he going to forget me while I'm gone? How do I keep that from happening? I've always told Freda (his wife) that I'd help take care of him. She's insistent on keeping him out of a home. And I'd be there to help her do that. Will that happen if I'm not here? I know that when I go out of town and can't talk to him for more than 3 or 4 days, he gets upset and thinks I don't care about him. It breaks. my. heart. How do I take the guilt off of my heart? He helped raise me. When others didn't believe in me, he always did. He taught me how to believe in myself. How do I leave that?
I know God has a plan for me.
Fino alla prossima volta!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
E Cosi Inizia
And so it begins...
We received our official email. We are set to check in NLT (no later than) 14Dec12.
WOW. Who knew I'd spend a Christmas abroad. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. This is all still very overwhelming to me. Chris is jumping in head first and I'm still trying to deal with the waves of the first splash that was made when we decided to take our family on this journey.
STRESS. Did you know I'm a stress eater? Yeah, I am. This might be why I gained the 20+ pounds I've gained in the past year or so. That or my love of food. I hate being rushed to do things. I do like to work under pressure and I do much better when I have a close deadline... but having to deal with a constant, "did you do this yet?", "have you done that yet?", "what do you think about this??" OMA! Liver me alone!!! I'll get to it when I get to it. I've scheduled myself 2 doctors appointments, Matti 2 dentist appointments and then us 3 girls dentist appointments. And I still have to get the girls caught up on their vaccinations. Which really frustraites me. I didn't get them done for a reason and now I'm not going to have a choice. BOO.
In the heat of the moment (one day while deep cleaning the house) I decided to rip the carpet out of Matti's room. We need to have all the carpet replaced before we leave so why not start now?? Not sure if Chris was too happy about that or not. But he helped and it's one more thing off the list.
We sold our boat. That was another sad chapter to close. I was just getting comfortable in it. I pulled Chris wakeboarding and surfing. I even wakeboarded and tubed. Yup. Another sad chapter over.
Unfortunately I have to get off here... The computer man is here to fix the computer.
Fino alla prossima volta........
We received our official email. We are set to check in NLT (no later than) 14Dec12.
WOW. Who knew I'd spend a Christmas abroad. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. This is all still very overwhelming to me. Chris is jumping in head first and I'm still trying to deal with the waves of the first splash that was made when we decided to take our family on this journey.
STRESS. Did you know I'm a stress eater? Yeah, I am. This might be why I gained the 20+ pounds I've gained in the past year or so. That or my love of food. I hate being rushed to do things. I do like to work under pressure and I do much better when I have a close deadline... but having to deal with a constant, "did you do this yet?", "have you done that yet?", "what do you think about this??" OMA! Liver me alone!!! I'll get to it when I get to it. I've scheduled myself 2 doctors appointments, Matti 2 dentist appointments and then us 3 girls dentist appointments. And I still have to get the girls caught up on their vaccinations. Which really frustraites me. I didn't get them done for a reason and now I'm not going to have a choice. BOO.
In the heat of the moment (one day while deep cleaning the house) I decided to rip the carpet out of Matti's room. We need to have all the carpet replaced before we leave so why not start now?? Not sure if Chris was too happy about that or not. But he helped and it's one more thing off the list.
We sold our boat. That was another sad chapter to close. I was just getting comfortable in it. I pulled Chris wakeboarding and surfing. I even wakeboarded and tubed. Yup. Another sad chapter over.
Unfortunately I have to get off here... The computer man is here to fix the computer.
Fino alla prossima volta........
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Andiamo in chiaro una cosa......
Let's get one thing straight....
I have been corrected on numerous occasions about saying "I'm moving to Italy!" Even tho I'm technically moving to Italy, I need to clairfy I'm moving to SICILY. When you google it, it says "Sigonella, Sicily, Italy" but according to those who know, Sicillians do not like to be referred as Italians and vice versa. SO. Yeah. Even though I'm going to learn to speak Italian, I will be in Sicily. NOT Italy.
Ok, moving along. It has been pretty overwhelming the past week thinking about our future. We've gone from selling the house to not selling the house. Selling all our vehicles to only selling my truck and fixing up our little beater car and taking that with us. For me, the excitement of moving to the dread of what's about to happen.
I'm not the best at change. I can handle it, but prefer for it to stay the same. Thinking about being so far away from family is terrifying. It brings a lot of questions to your head. What is going to be like not being able to call my mom when I need her help? Or go over to my Papa's anytime I want to see him? Will he survive until I get back? What if he passes while I'm there, will I be able to afford to come home?? Then you switch to your kids... Will they adjust? Will Matti enjoy meeting new friends? Will Chrissy be able to go to school? What will it be like when we get back? How much will I change? And on and on and on.
I haven't found a way to shut off my brain yet. I'm not getting much sleep because I'll think of something and google it. Then the next thing you know it's 3am and you have to be up in 4 hours. It just really stinks. Time is flying and we don't even have an actual set of orders in our hand.
I think one of the hardest parts about the whole thing is understanding how Chris is feeling and him understanding my feelings. I NEED to talk about it. I NEED to express my ups and downs. He DOESN'T. Nor do I think he truly understands what I need from him. I don't think I truly understand it either. I do know, we're going to grow as a couple and a family.
Fino alla prossima volta.....
I have been corrected on numerous occasions about saying "I'm moving to Italy!" Even tho I'm technically moving to Italy, I need to clairfy I'm moving to SICILY. When you google it, it says "Sigonella, Sicily, Italy" but according to those who know, Sicillians do not like to be referred as Italians and vice versa. SO. Yeah. Even though I'm going to learn to speak Italian, I will be in Sicily. NOT Italy.
Ok, moving along. It has been pretty overwhelming the past week thinking about our future. We've gone from selling the house to not selling the house. Selling all our vehicles to only selling my truck and fixing up our little beater car and taking that with us. For me, the excitement of moving to the dread of what's about to happen.
I'm not the best at change. I can handle it, but prefer for it to stay the same. Thinking about being so far away from family is terrifying. It brings a lot of questions to your head. What is going to be like not being able to call my mom when I need her help? Or go over to my Papa's anytime I want to see him? Will he survive until I get back? What if he passes while I'm there, will I be able to afford to come home?? Then you switch to your kids... Will they adjust? Will Matti enjoy meeting new friends? Will Chrissy be able to go to school? What will it be like when we get back? How much will I change? And on and on and on.
I haven't found a way to shut off my brain yet. I'm not getting much sleep because I'll think of something and google it. Then the next thing you know it's 3am and you have to be up in 4 hours. It just really stinks. Time is flying and we don't even have an actual set of orders in our hand.
I think one of the hardest parts about the whole thing is understanding how Chris is feeling and him understanding my feelings. I NEED to talk about it. I NEED to express my ups and downs. He DOESN'T. Nor do I think he truly understands what I need from him. I don't think I truly understand it either. I do know, we're going to grow as a couple and a family.
Fino alla prossima volta.....
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Mi sto muovendo in Italia!
What's the craziest thing a small town Oklahoma girl can do? How about pack up her family and move to Sigonella, Sicily?
My name is Genipher, and this is my life. I'm from a small town in the frontier country of Oklahoma. I was born and raised in Choctaw, Oklahoma. I've lived within a 10 mile radius my whole life. I've never been more than 15 minutes away from at least someone in my family. In 5 months this will all change.
I have been married for almost 10 years. 9 years, 10 months and 10 days to be exact. My husband is a Chief in the United States Navy. He's been active duty for 14 years and been stationed at Tinker Air Force Base, in the heart of Oklahoma, his entire career. We have two beautiful blondes. Mattilyn is 8 and Christen is 4. One dog, Pete (or his full name, Peter Peter Punkin Eater Had A Wife And Couldn't Keep Her).
After a long hard process, we chose to relocate our family to China Lake, CA. This is the middle of the Mohave Desert. It was a long 4 month process of trying to figure out where to go and unfortunately China Lake was our best bet.Two days ago we received a phone call that offered us Sigonella, Sicily. And within 14 hours our fate was decided.
What is the purpose of this new blog? Well, since the farthest I've ever traveled is Anchorage, Alaska and it was for only 2 weeks, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on our honeymoon for a week, I'm not sure how to process what's fixing to happen to my life. I'm moving half way across the world. My truck is a Ford F350, Super Duty, Turbo Diesel. It has a 4 inch lift on it. From what I understand my truck is the size of their roads. My life is fixing to change in a very drastic way. I'm going to open my mind as wide as I can and embrace what God is giving me. I'm going to take Europe by storm. I'm going to stay true to my redneck ways but stay open to new ideas. I'll be sharing my story with you for the next 3 years. I'm going to let you in on the hardships of moving, the new life I'll be living and the experiences my family will get.
Prayers during this venture will be extremely appreciated.
Fino alla prossima volta!! (Gotta love Google Translate!)
My name is Genipher, and this is my life. I'm from a small town in the frontier country of Oklahoma. I was born and raised in Choctaw, Oklahoma. I've lived within a 10 mile radius my whole life. I've never been more than 15 minutes away from at least someone in my family. In 5 months this will all change.
I have been married for almost 10 years. 9 years, 10 months and 10 days to be exact. My husband is a Chief in the United States Navy. He's been active duty for 14 years and been stationed at Tinker Air Force Base, in the heart of Oklahoma, his entire career. We have two beautiful blondes. Mattilyn is 8 and Christen is 4. One dog, Pete (or his full name, Peter Peter Punkin Eater Had A Wife And Couldn't Keep Her).
After a long hard process, we chose to relocate our family to China Lake, CA. This is the middle of the Mohave Desert. It was a long 4 month process of trying to figure out where to go and unfortunately China Lake was our best bet.Two days ago we received a phone call that offered us Sigonella, Sicily. And within 14 hours our fate was decided.
What is the purpose of this new blog? Well, since the farthest I've ever traveled is Anchorage, Alaska and it was for only 2 weeks, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on our honeymoon for a week, I'm not sure how to process what's fixing to happen to my life. I'm moving half way across the world. My truck is a Ford F350, Super Duty, Turbo Diesel. It has a 4 inch lift on it. From what I understand my truck is the size of their roads. My life is fixing to change in a very drastic way. I'm going to open my mind as wide as I can and embrace what God is giving me. I'm going to take Europe by storm. I'm going to stay true to my redneck ways but stay open to new ideas. I'll be sharing my story with you for the next 3 years. I'm going to let you in on the hardships of moving, the new life I'll be living and the experiences my family will get.
Prayers during this venture will be extremely appreciated.
Fino alla prossima volta!! (Gotta love Google Translate!)
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