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!!!