Most of you know I'm a self proclaimed Meteorologist. I've been fascinated by weather since I was 6 years old and never stopped loving it. If you don't know me, you may get upset by my excitement when it comes to severe weather. I will say things like "YEEEEHAWWW" or "Git-R-Done." I don't mean this in any disrespect. It's just the way I show my feelings for something that gets my adrenaline pumping.
I've seen many tornadoes. Some up close, others far away. Some I only see the debris falling from the sky due to an insane tornado 30 miles away. Either way, tornadoes are my favorite. Not in the, you just had your house and everything you owned blown away, but in the WOW what an amazing act of nature. Something no one can completely predict.
I've always been home. I've always been able to walk outside and FEEL if a tornado was going to hit. I would even dream about it the night before. It's crazy, I know. But I did. Maybe that's why I love tornadoes so much. Any time a tornado came through, we always helped. We cut up trees, we cleared debris, we made meals, we donated clothes... we helped. I've seen it up close. I've never lost anything in a tornado, but I've had plenty of friends and family who have. I know. I understand.
11 days ago, I watched as a storm rolled in to central Oklahoma. I was doing this all late at night here in Sicily. I watched as a tornado formed over Lake Thunderbird (AKA: Dirty Bird) and raced east. I knew in my heart when the tornado hit our friends neighborhood. There was huge, multiple power flashes at one time. And I just knew it was them. I had alerted a friend before the storm hit her house via facebook, but I'm not sure she got it. I messaged another friend as soon as I saw the power flashes. I knew.
Sure enough, 2 military FAMILIES lost their houses. Yes, families. You don't hafta be bluuud to be familee. (Imagine me saying that as redneck as possible). The tornado raced towards many others that I know and love. Luckily, they were spared.
The next day, May 20, is the tornado everyone knows about. The EF-5 that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma killing innocent men, women, children and babies. Just devastating news. I stayed up until after 4:00am my time waiting to hear if one of the guys Chris worked with at TAFB found his family. His wife and kids were missing. I couldn't sleep until I knew they were found. Safe.
I can't explain the emotion I went through during those two days. As soon as the storms turned tornadic, I began to cry. I cried big, huge tears. They streamed down my face and soaked my shirt. I was constantly updating my facebook weather page and praying. I've never felt so helpless in my life. At home, we did help. As soon as the storms passed, we were there. Here, I was nothing. I was a person, half a world away, crying. And typing on Facebook.
I felt really guilty about the May 20 tornado. I still do. I'm always on here typing away about storms on stormy days. I get a lot of flack from people about my constant texts and updates about storms that people obviously know about. But for some reason, I have this tug in my heart that I just HAVE to tell them. Because WHAT IF I don't. What if I don't and they didn't know and something bad happens. That happened on May 20th. We had some people come over to our house and I shut my laptop. I turned my phone on silent. I didn't pay attention. I posted an update on my personal page from our school at home, LCA, about school closing early. I should have known when that happened, it was serious. I now know what it feels like when I don't. It's heart wrenching. The school closed 2 hours before the tornado hit Moore. They were following the Mid-Del and Tinker school closings. That's what I always hated about storms in Oklahoma during April and May. It's always when school is getting out or when you're getting off of work. I've driven around to 3 different schools getting 4 children (none were mine, btw) before school has let out because of the threat of storms. I wish I would have been home to do that for people. I wish I would have told our guests how happy I was to have them but to please excuse me, I have weather to attend too. I wish... What if.... I turned my laptop on and within 10 minutes the tornado started to form and was on the ground. The rest is history.
This is what Okie's do. We come together and fight. You're either a Sooner or a Cowboy. But you all love OKC Thunder. You drive across the state to help a family you've never met pick up their pieces. You hold the door open for others. You say "Yessir" and "Thank ya mam'." We say "ya'll." We pray before our games. Our teachers look at their children they're holding in from a tornado and tell them "I LOVE YOU." (I'm crying now, btw). We CRY. Grown men WEEP at the generosity of others. We drive BIG trucks. We wear boots with everything. Our children learn how to shoot a gun. How to be around a gun. PROTECT their families with guns. We give our only shirt we own to someone else who lost theirs. OKIE'S come back. We come to our home state and GIVE. I am BLOWN AWAY at how many people call Oklahoma HOME when they aren't from there. I've noticed when you ask people where they're from you'll get "State Name. But originally from Different State Name." The true Okie's will always say they're from Oklahoma. And if you're not originally from Oklahoma but call Oklahoma HOME, you're an Okie too. We eat watermelon with salt on it while sitting under the tree. We leave our trucks and houses unlocked. We don't knock and wait for you to answer the door, we knock alerting you that we're coming in so you can grab your shorts because more than likely, you're in your underwear watching TV. We never meet a stranger. Our kids learn to drive a "stick" at the age of 5 sitting on your lap. Everything is a "COKE" when you're thirsty. You just have to specify what flavor you want. Yes, we measure distant in time and when we go shopping we're going to "town." All those little things you read, is true. It is.
I've watch where celebrities from OK have donated, helped clean up, visited hospitals. I mean, that's so awesome. The Thunder players are posting on their facebook about helping their HOME. It's so amazing to see. I really wish I could have seen the Healing in the Heartland tribute. It sold out within minutes of going on sale. I had a lot of friends who attended and everyone else watched it on TV. Apparently it was a big tear jerker. I hope I'll get to see it soon!
This past week the most amazing feeling happened. I realized I was a
"Born and Bred Okie." And that's one of the best feelings in the
world. I watched online as everyone started to come together. I was
texting people who were racing to our friends houses to help. I watched
as everyone starting coming together. People who aren't from Oklahoma
suddenly became Okie's. And it's very true GOD blessed OKLAHOMA.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Come passa il tempo....
Where did the time go?
Really? Where did it go?
It's funny to me. Time. Everyone says "If I have time." "I don't have enough time." "Man, time stands still." Or..."Oh my gosh. Time flies. Where did the time go?"
Chris made the comment the other day in the kitchen, "Can you believe we've been here for almost 6 months? Seems like we JUST got here."
UMMMMM.... Yeah. It seems like we've been here for 6 YEARS to me. He says it's because I don't get out and do anything. I, of course, completely disagree with him. Maybe that's why time DOESN'T fly for me and it seems like we've been here for such a long time. Because I actually do a lot.
I have a pretty busy schedule when you think about it. For all those naysayers who think us SAHM or homeschool moms don't do anything, I'd like them to spend a day in my shoes. I get up in the mornings and hit the gym. It opens at 5:30 but I have to be back at home by 6:30. Now, NO, I don't do that all the time...but at one point I was doing that 5 days a week and then still running on Saturday's or Sunday's around Mariani (our neighborhood). If it wasn't for my recent health problems, I would have never quit. So my day starts at 5:30. When I get home I do my Pilates and then get ready for the day. Sometimes I'm done with Pilates in 30 minutes, sometimes 45. Just depends. Then I homeschool.
Homeschooling. What a reward. Probably one of the hardest jobs I have ever had. And I'm not sure why I allow what other people think to define my life and who I am. Homeschooling is just different. It's different than anything I expected it to be. I've watched my kids excel in their studies. And it's an AMAZING thing to see. Think back... when your child came home from school and was reading. Or they were doing multiplication tables. SOMEONE sat down and taught them that. And it's HARD. Remember potty training?? Yeah. It's like that. Your first one was a pain! Took months! The second one was a breeze! That's how homeschooling is. Not saying teaching in schools isn't like that (because imagine having a room full of potty trainees...15 of them) but when it's your own child, it's scary. LOL. Not that it isn't scary as a school teacher, but at some point, you pass the child off to their parents and the parents have to step in and take over. Which is another thing I think is hilarious in all of this. Everyone wants to rave about "socialization." "OOOOhhh... you're poor children. They won't have any friends. They won't learn how to overcome hard issues in their lives if you don't allow them to go to school!" Apparently the only way a child will learn how to correctly interact with their "peers" is to go sit in a classroom with them 8 hours a day. But ya know what, last time I checked, the parents are the ones who TAUGHT their children how to act around other human beings. And not only that...but to act around dogs. And cats. And ... oh my gosh.. bugs! Seriously. Think about it. "Socialization" is all about how someone acts, participates in their own society. Right? How to talk to other people. How you treat other people. How you handle really tough situations. So please explain to me how they are taught that in school from a teacher. Not saying a teacher doesn't contribute to it.. but from the time your child first starts interacting in this world, you're the one there doing it. What happened when your toddler told you "NO!" for the first time? Did you run them into a school building and ask a teacher what to do? No, you didn't. YOU, the parent, taught them NO, you can't say that! Or when they fought with their sister or brother. Or with a friend who has a kid kind of the same age. THE PARENTS taught them that. They should be socialized BEFORE they start school. And, BTW, taking my children out of school here hasn't hurt them in any way, shape, or form. Matter of fact, I believe it has helped them GROW as individuals. And they are being SOCIALIZED with not only kids their age (::gasp:: what a shocker, huh?? Kids their OWN AGE) but with kids younger, older, and of a completely different culture!!! Could I homeschool them forever? YES. Absolutely. I would love that. Am I going to? No. Why? Because I'm HAPPY with my school at home. I agree with the teaching methods, the way the school is ran, with the school in general. I'm happy at home. I'm NOT happy here. I wasn't happy with what was offered to my children. And since I couldn't pick a different school system, I chose the best thing. ME. So remember when you start talking bad about homeschooling, you're talking bad about my children's teacher. And I take great offense to that. Especially when you have no idea what goes on in my "classroom." Which by the way, isn't in a room with a bunch of desks with a chalkboard. Today it was outside on our patio and then inside in our "tent" under the table. And it's also up on the top of Mt. Etna because we're learning about how rocks are formed. And guess what, some rocks are formed by volcanoes. The hot MAGMA is inside the earth. When it flows out of the volcano it's called LAVA. And those big black rocks that we picked up and held in our hands that we called "lava rock" is actually BASALT. Yeah, maybe your child already knew that. And they got to hold a piece of basalt in their hands in their classroom... but my kids learned about it and was on an ACTIVE volcano when they did. To me, that's reason enough to homeschool while I'm here. So off my homeschooling rant. I know. But that's who I am. And it's a very hard job. Especially when I'm not getting the support I need here to do it. But I'm not backing down. And I've decided to put my name in the pot for the board of the homeschool group here in Sigonella. I told them I'm even willing to be named President of the Sigonella Homeschoolers. Then I'd actually have to "play nice" with people. Eeeek. That might not be such a good thing!
So I deal with that every day. 3rd grade and PreK. It's fun tho. And it's great 1 on 1 time or even 2 on 1 time with the girls. We learn a lot together. Then every Mon & Wed we all pack up and head to Matti's ballet class. That's from 4:00-5:30. Chrissy is in gymnastics from 4:30-5:30 on Tues & Thurs. And of course we have to have dinner after that. We also squeeze in grocery shopping either at the commissary or out in town. We've gone to the Italian grocery stores and we've also gone to the actual "farmers" markets. The kids love that because last week, on our way home, they got to eat the big juicy strawberries we just bought. Along with groceries, I'm doing laundry, cooking meals, cleaning the house. Ya know, the stuff everyone else does. Or most everyone else. We volunteer at the FFSC when we can. We also go to the library. We have as many play dates as possible.
Here lately we haven't gotten to do as much. Which is ultimately why I'm blogging. I'm going to have an EGD done tomorrow morning. Not that it's a big procedure or anything. But it still scares me. And this is the first time I'm doing it alone. No family around. My good friend is taking me though. And I can't thank her enough. And another good friend will watching the kids for us. Which is another blessing. My children won't do any schooling tomorrow, BUT they'll be "socializing" with other kids and visiting a butterfly farm. HOW COOL IS THAT?? (Yay for field trips!) Chris has a motorcycle course he has to take. So he can't be there. And that's one of the things that scares me the most. He knows how my body works. And most people don't understand how hard this stuff is on me until they experience it. And he won't be there to help me if it's bad. It's just scary.
(I'm crying now so I'm going to add more emotional stuff into this). I wanted to hop on a plane and head back to the states this past week. I would have if it wasn't for my EGD tomorrow. Friday is LCA's senior graduation. The seniors graduating this year are like my "babies." I became SO CLOSE to so many of them while I was there. I can't even believe they're graduating. I had wanted to fly home and surprise them all at graduation. There's a flight heading to the states tomorrow, too. I really wish I was heading to the airport instead of the hospital. It was hard not being there for all the homecomings, senior trip, junior/senior prom... but not being there for graduation is just like punch in the gut. I can't get the knot out of my throat when I think about it. I just have to let the tears fall.
We all have the same amount of time in the day. We have 24 hours. How we choose to spend that is entirely on ourselves. It's about your priorities. Not all are the same. And that's not a bad thing, at all. It's just different. I love how Facebook has changed a lot of peoples lives. Some for better, some for worse. Mine has turned "for worse" here lately. Not in the "why you talkin to her? Who is she??" kind of crap, but in the "look at what I'm missing at home" sort of way. It's hard being so far away from your family and friends and missing out on what's going on. When you're surrounded by those people, you don't think about the ones who aren't there. Sure, I post pictures or write about what's going on in our lives over here A LOT, but it's because I'm trying to help my family & friends see what we're doing. It makes me feel closer to them. It helps me stay connected. But it's different when they don't do the same. I'm not blaming them or pointing fingers AT ALL. I get it. You're at a birthday party, you status update it, but that's it. No pictures. Why? Because everyone is there. And you forget. You're busy. TIME has flown by. And because of that, I'm starting to get worse. I'm getting sad. I know what it's like to have a BFF move away. Slowly the phone calls, emails, text message start to go away. And that makes me sad. I'm learning how to "let go." But the bad thing is, I don't want to learn to let go. I still want to be there. And right now when I see the status updates or even the pictures when they are posted, I cry. I cry because I'm missing it. Because in a year I don't want the phone calls, the emails, the text messages to go away. I don't want to become so busy that I "don't have time."
Which really comes back to the beginning ... Where did the time go?
Really? Where did it go?
It's funny to me. Time. Everyone says "If I have time." "I don't have enough time." "Man, time stands still." Or..."Oh my gosh. Time flies. Where did the time go?"
Chris made the comment the other day in the kitchen, "Can you believe we've been here for almost 6 months? Seems like we JUST got here."
UMMMMM.... Yeah. It seems like we've been here for 6 YEARS to me. He says it's because I don't get out and do anything. I, of course, completely disagree with him. Maybe that's why time DOESN'T fly for me and it seems like we've been here for such a long time. Because I actually do a lot.
I have a pretty busy schedule when you think about it. For all those naysayers who think us SAHM or homeschool moms don't do anything, I'd like them to spend a day in my shoes. I get up in the mornings and hit the gym. It opens at 5:30 but I have to be back at home by 6:30. Now, NO, I don't do that all the time...but at one point I was doing that 5 days a week and then still running on Saturday's or Sunday's around Mariani (our neighborhood). If it wasn't for my recent health problems, I would have never quit. So my day starts at 5:30. When I get home I do my Pilates and then get ready for the day. Sometimes I'm done with Pilates in 30 minutes, sometimes 45. Just depends. Then I homeschool.
Homeschooling. What a reward. Probably one of the hardest jobs I have ever had. And I'm not sure why I allow what other people think to define my life and who I am. Homeschooling is just different. It's different than anything I expected it to be. I've watched my kids excel in their studies. And it's an AMAZING thing to see. Think back... when your child came home from school and was reading. Or they were doing multiplication tables. SOMEONE sat down and taught them that. And it's HARD. Remember potty training?? Yeah. It's like that. Your first one was a pain! Took months! The second one was a breeze! That's how homeschooling is. Not saying teaching in schools isn't like that (because imagine having a room full of potty trainees...15 of them) but when it's your own child, it's scary. LOL. Not that it isn't scary as a school teacher, but at some point, you pass the child off to their parents and the parents have to step in and take over. Which is another thing I think is hilarious in all of this. Everyone wants to rave about "socialization." "OOOOhhh... you're poor children. They won't have any friends. They won't learn how to overcome hard issues in their lives if you don't allow them to go to school!" Apparently the only way a child will learn how to correctly interact with their "peers" is to go sit in a classroom with them 8 hours a day. But ya know what, last time I checked, the parents are the ones who TAUGHT their children how to act around other human beings. And not only that...but to act around dogs. And cats. And ... oh my gosh.. bugs! Seriously. Think about it. "Socialization" is all about how someone acts, participates in their own society. Right? How to talk to other people. How you treat other people. How you handle really tough situations. So please explain to me how they are taught that in school from a teacher. Not saying a teacher doesn't contribute to it.. but from the time your child first starts interacting in this world, you're the one there doing it. What happened when your toddler told you "NO!" for the first time? Did you run them into a school building and ask a teacher what to do? No, you didn't. YOU, the parent, taught them NO, you can't say that! Or when they fought with their sister or brother. Or with a friend who has a kid kind of the same age. THE PARENTS taught them that. They should be socialized BEFORE they start school. And, BTW, taking my children out of school here hasn't hurt them in any way, shape, or form. Matter of fact, I believe it has helped them GROW as individuals. And they are being SOCIALIZED with not only kids their age (::gasp:: what a shocker, huh?? Kids their OWN AGE) but with kids younger, older, and of a completely different culture!!! Could I homeschool them forever? YES. Absolutely. I would love that. Am I going to? No. Why? Because I'm HAPPY with my school at home. I agree with the teaching methods, the way the school is ran, with the school in general. I'm happy at home. I'm NOT happy here. I wasn't happy with what was offered to my children. And since I couldn't pick a different school system, I chose the best thing. ME. So remember when you start talking bad about homeschooling, you're talking bad about my children's teacher. And I take great offense to that. Especially when you have no idea what goes on in my "classroom." Which by the way, isn't in a room with a bunch of desks with a chalkboard. Today it was outside on our patio and then inside in our "tent" under the table. And it's also up on the top of Mt. Etna because we're learning about how rocks are formed. And guess what, some rocks are formed by volcanoes. The hot MAGMA is inside the earth. When it flows out of the volcano it's called LAVA. And those big black rocks that we picked up and held in our hands that we called "lava rock" is actually BASALT. Yeah, maybe your child already knew that. And they got to hold a piece of basalt in their hands in their classroom... but my kids learned about it and was on an ACTIVE volcano when they did. To me, that's reason enough to homeschool while I'm here. So off my homeschooling rant. I know. But that's who I am. And it's a very hard job. Especially when I'm not getting the support I need here to do it. But I'm not backing down. And I've decided to put my name in the pot for the board of the homeschool group here in Sigonella. I told them I'm even willing to be named President of the Sigonella Homeschoolers. Then I'd actually have to "play nice" with people. Eeeek. That might not be such a good thing!
So I deal with that every day. 3rd grade and PreK. It's fun tho. And it's great 1 on 1 time or even 2 on 1 time with the girls. We learn a lot together. Then every Mon & Wed we all pack up and head to Matti's ballet class. That's from 4:00-5:30. Chrissy is in gymnastics from 4:30-5:30 on Tues & Thurs. And of course we have to have dinner after that. We also squeeze in grocery shopping either at the commissary or out in town. We've gone to the Italian grocery stores and we've also gone to the actual "farmers" markets. The kids love that because last week, on our way home, they got to eat the big juicy strawberries we just bought. Along with groceries, I'm doing laundry, cooking meals, cleaning the house. Ya know, the stuff everyone else does. Or most everyone else. We volunteer at the FFSC when we can. We also go to the library. We have as many play dates as possible.
Here lately we haven't gotten to do as much. Which is ultimately why I'm blogging. I'm going to have an EGD done tomorrow morning. Not that it's a big procedure or anything. But it still scares me. And this is the first time I'm doing it alone. No family around. My good friend is taking me though. And I can't thank her enough. And another good friend will watching the kids for us. Which is another blessing. My children won't do any schooling tomorrow, BUT they'll be "socializing" with other kids and visiting a butterfly farm. HOW COOL IS THAT?? (Yay for field trips!) Chris has a motorcycle course he has to take. So he can't be there. And that's one of the things that scares me the most. He knows how my body works. And most people don't understand how hard this stuff is on me until they experience it. And he won't be there to help me if it's bad. It's just scary.
(I'm crying now so I'm going to add more emotional stuff into this). I wanted to hop on a plane and head back to the states this past week. I would have if it wasn't for my EGD tomorrow. Friday is LCA's senior graduation. The seniors graduating this year are like my "babies." I became SO CLOSE to so many of them while I was there. I can't even believe they're graduating. I had wanted to fly home and surprise them all at graduation. There's a flight heading to the states tomorrow, too. I really wish I was heading to the airport instead of the hospital. It was hard not being there for all the homecomings, senior trip, junior/senior prom... but not being there for graduation is just like punch in the gut. I can't get the knot out of my throat when I think about it. I just have to let the tears fall.
We all have the same amount of time in the day. We have 24 hours. How we choose to spend that is entirely on ourselves. It's about your priorities. Not all are the same. And that's not a bad thing, at all. It's just different. I love how Facebook has changed a lot of peoples lives. Some for better, some for worse. Mine has turned "for worse" here lately. Not in the "why you talkin to her? Who is she??" kind of crap, but in the "look at what I'm missing at home" sort of way. It's hard being so far away from your family and friends and missing out on what's going on. When you're surrounded by those people, you don't think about the ones who aren't there. Sure, I post pictures or write about what's going on in our lives over here A LOT, but it's because I'm trying to help my family & friends see what we're doing. It makes me feel closer to them. It helps me stay connected. But it's different when they don't do the same. I'm not blaming them or pointing fingers AT ALL. I get it. You're at a birthday party, you status update it, but that's it. No pictures. Why? Because everyone is there. And you forget. You're busy. TIME has flown by. And because of that, I'm starting to get worse. I'm getting sad. I know what it's like to have a BFF move away. Slowly the phone calls, emails, text message start to go away. And that makes me sad. I'm learning how to "let go." But the bad thing is, I don't want to learn to let go. I still want to be there. And right now when I see the status updates or even the pictures when they are posted, I cry. I cry because I'm missing it. Because in a year I don't want the phone calls, the emails, the text messages to go away. I don't want to become so busy that I "don't have time."
Which really comes back to the beginning ... Where did the time go?
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Due passi avanti .... Diciassette passi indietro.
Two steps forward.... Seventeen steps back.
Yeah. That's how I feel sometimes. It's ever so frustrating. Just when I get all my poo together and we're doing great, something so small happens and it's like the end of the world.
It took 6 weeks for Matti's self esteem to go away so I'm not sure why I think I could change it in such a short amount of time. I've seen significant progress in her since I pulled her out of school, it's just those little things she hasn't quite got back yet that seems to kill us the most.
Today, a simple math problem. As soon as the word "MATH" comes up she goes into melt down mode! What the crap?!? Seriously?! She was at the top of her class! And now just the thought of addition and subtraction sends her to tears! We worked on multiplication first (Thank you Life Christian Academy for providing this online school for us, we really do LOVE it!!) and when she saw it she just panicked! So I started asking her "Why?!?" She knows she tested low in it when they tested her at the school here. And don't get me started on that. I'm still pretty pissed that she told me "Yeah, such and such said you wanted me in 4th grade so they're testing me to see if I can." URGH! The last thing I wanted was for my daughter to know she was being tested for this stuff. And if she was going to know, I wanted to be the one to tell her and explain it to her.... Back to the original subject... I've got to find a way to get her confidence back up. Once sentence she's upset because math is "too hard" then the next sentence she thinks she's having to do baby math because she's reviewing stuff! This poor girl is all over the place. I'm actually considering talking to the doctor and getting her a counselor.
So here's the thing about me and blogging... It takes me (sometimes over 24 hours) forever to actually post these. And I'm not sure I want to always post the links. Not that I don't want you guys to read this, but do you really care that I'm blogging about a "Matti meltdown" and not some beautiful place?? We'll see. I'll just leave this in my blog and see how many of you actually do read it and then you can feedback for me!
And update, tho. Matti did great after we sat and talked a lot. She was kind of on a slippery slope this morning when it was time to start her work. But I think she really wants to do it alone but I really need to be sitting with her and reading/explaining more as we go along. Which, I don't mind. This is what I wanted to do. So maybe we're not seventeen steps back right now. We're more like seven.
Until next time.... Ciao!
Yeah. That's how I feel sometimes. It's ever so frustrating. Just when I get all my poo together and we're doing great, something so small happens and it's like the end of the world.
It took 6 weeks for Matti's self esteem to go away so I'm not sure why I think I could change it in such a short amount of time. I've seen significant progress in her since I pulled her out of school, it's just those little things she hasn't quite got back yet that seems to kill us the most.
Today, a simple math problem. As soon as the word "MATH" comes up she goes into melt down mode! What the crap?!? Seriously?! She was at the top of her class! And now just the thought of addition and subtraction sends her to tears! We worked on multiplication first (Thank you Life Christian Academy for providing this online school for us, we really do LOVE it!!) and when she saw it she just panicked! So I started asking her "Why?!?" She knows she tested low in it when they tested her at the school here. And don't get me started on that. I'm still pretty pissed that she told me "Yeah, such and such said you wanted me in 4th grade so they're testing me to see if I can." URGH! The last thing I wanted was for my daughter to know she was being tested for this stuff. And if she was going to know, I wanted to be the one to tell her and explain it to her.... Back to the original subject... I've got to find a way to get her confidence back up. Once sentence she's upset because math is "too hard" then the next sentence she thinks she's having to do baby math because she's reviewing stuff! This poor girl is all over the place. I'm actually considering talking to the doctor and getting her a counselor.
So here's the thing about me and blogging... It takes me (sometimes over 24 hours) forever to actually post these. And I'm not sure I want to always post the links. Not that I don't want you guys to read this, but do you really care that I'm blogging about a "Matti meltdown" and not some beautiful place?? We'll see. I'll just leave this in my blog and see how many of you actually do read it and then you can feedback for me!
And update, tho. Matti did great after we sat and talked a lot. She was kind of on a slippery slope this morning when it was time to start her work. But I think she really wants to do it alone but I really need to be sitting with her and reading/explaining more as we go along. Which, I don't mind. This is what I wanted to do. So maybe we're not seventeen steps back right now. We're more like seven.
Until next time.... Ciao!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Lessoned Imparato!
Lesson Learned!
Well, what a trip that was!
It all started last week when we found out everyone had a 4 day weekend. We wanted to leave on Friday but there was so much drama going on that it didn't happen. After lots and lots and lots of searching, I found Baglio Pocoroba Segesta on www.agriturismo.it. This is a pretty neat website in finding agriturismo's around us. For those of you who've never heard of this, it's basically like a bed & breakfast but much more, depending on where you go. Here it Italy it is usually a farm and the place you're staying has a story behind it as well as interactive things you can do. Ours, I have no idea except it said educational. At the time, going here sounding great. It looked pretty and was a decent price.
Getting there was probably the most interesting part. We were emailing back and forth with Giuseppe Pizzitola, the owner, about staying there. We were going through the website which was translating everything for us. Then he emailed us directions without the website. Cool. This dude speaks a little English and it won't be too bad. We book the place for 3 days, 2 nights and start packing.
Here's the thing about me and packing. I pack everything AND the kitchen sink. This trip, probably cause I was in a bad mood and being rushed all at the same time, I failed to do so. Because of this, it cost us over an hour of driving in the city Alcamo and 60 euro. I'll come back to this.
Another snafu BEFORE we left was that Chris didn't realize we were staying as long as we were. So when he found out, we had to stop and buy him new clothes. Which probably isn't a bad thing because I can't remember the last time I switched out his underwear.
Finally we're off.
"You know where we're going?" he says. "Sure," I say, "I have it right here from the website. I just copy and pasted it in your "maps" on your iPad. We're good." ....right?? I mean, I got it FROM THE WEBSITE. How hard can that be??
Along the way we stopped at a "rest area" on the highway and took some pictures of the Tirreno Sea. We're looking towards Santa Flavia, Sicily. It's soooo beautiful out there. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing such blue water.
It's pretty chilly out. This is the first time we realized the girls had no jackets, or sweatshirts, or even a long sleeved shirt for Matti. Oh well. Moving along.
We're driving along and the navigation tells us to exit left. We exit left. We drive through this cute little town called Castellammare del Golfo. Water is gorgeous. Mountains are beautiful. We're feeling really good about this! "Turn left" it says. "Follow here" it says. I really hate that I didn't take pictures of the next thing that happened. I don't think we'll ever be put in that situation again. When we went to Taormina we went through alleyways that you could barely fit a piece of paper between our car and the wall.
This time we pushed our poor little car to the limits. Do you wanna know what "Mazda Protege" means in Italian??? It means "ONE BAD MAMMA JAMMA!" This car can go ANYWHERE and this trip it went four-wheeling up the side of a friggin mountain. At first, it seemed OK. We turned left like it said. The road looked like a rocky driveway. We could see this yellowish house up at the top. "Maybe this is it??" So up we go. And we keep going. AND going. AND going. Chugging along, there's no stopping and no end in sight. As we're going we see a tiny "pull off" so Chris pulls over and stops. Unfortunately, if we want to go back down we have to go ALL the way down in reverse because it wasn't big enough to turn around. He attempted it. OK, keep going up. Please. Go. What??? Why can't we go. Oh, duh, switch it over to 4x4. Oh yeah, that's right. We're in a stinkin MAZDA PROTEGE!!!!!! So with a little love, my amazing husband four-wheeled our car up more. We finally reach the top only to find out there's actually a paved road that we could have taken. "DOH!!" Thanks map App! Appreciate that one!
After checking to make sure we didn't have any blown out tires or holes in our car, we keep following the app. The road it's taking us on now isn't much better. But at least it's not rock climbing like the other road we were on. I think the best thing I've ever heard from the navigation came next: "You've reached the farthest you can go in your car on your destination. Find a place to park and walk the rest of the way." WHAT?!?!!? ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME?!?!?! WALK?!?!?! We're literally stopped on the side of this mountain on a road that does NOT lead to our destination. At this point I just want to cry. I pull up the website and call the man. His English is OK. He tells me "ah yes, your about 25 more minutes from my house. Keep coming till you see Segesta. I see you then. Ciao, Ciao!!" .....please don't cry, please don't cry... After some deep breathing, I pull up the last email he sent which didn't make a lick of sense. I started looking for Bruca via Segesta on the map. After putting in Bruca, I realize it's the name of the town where we need to be, which is NOT what the website says. They don't use addresses over here like we do. It's different. I can't explain it. It just is. So off we go.
Finally we're heading in the right direction. His broken email makes more sense. Ok. Here we are. Crap, which way do we go now??? He said "you see my yellow sign. Follow it. That will take you to my house." I guess he didn't know there were about 7 different yellow signs, none of which say "Baglio Pocoroba Segesta." Or at least I didn't see it. I found out later Chris saw it. So we follow a yellow sign that said "Baglio Segesta." I mean, how can this be wrong. The only word missing is "Pocoroba." How many Baglio Segesta's can their be? This is what we found...
That can't be right. Please God, don't let this be right.... I didn't take any pictures of it, but the cows that were right beside the house were covered in muck from all the rain and clay. The house looked very very old (most of them are) and it definitely was NOT the beautiful yellow that was recently renovated, like it said on the website. But hey, what do I know? The website directions had us rock-climbing in our car and hiking 10 miles to our final destination. So I pull out my phone and call Giuseppe again. He decides he's going to get in his "crappy white Land Rover" (his words, not mine) and come find us. We head back down to the autostrada and find him. I guess he's never seen what a crappy white Mazda Protege is, cause his definitely wasn't crappy. And I can tell you, I was extremely excited to see him and that he didn't come from the scary little house we thought was his. Luckily what I prayed was his house when we were scanning the area was, in fact, his house. Not only that, it was on the other side of the mountain from where started. Hahahaha. That would have been a very long and dangerous hike.
This really was a nice quite place. I can't wait to go back when everything is growing and the pool is open.
So,
Lesson number 1: Don't pack when you're pissy. You'll forget stuff and that'll cost you in the end.
Lesson number 2: COMMUNICATE to your loved one how long you're staying to not only save you money but save you time from not having to go clothes shopping.
Lesson number 3: If it looks scary, it IS. Turn around and don't go there.
This all brings us to Lesson number 4: When traveling in the colder, winter season check for HEATER in the description. I saw AC and assumed it meant AC/Heat. Well, we all know what happens when you assume something.
Everything was great. We were greeted by the cutest dogs and a great staff. We immediately had espresso's and biscotti's. The girls started warming up to the people and started smiling. (Chrissy had been crying and throwing a fit about halfway down the 4x4 mountain and had just fallen asleep about 5 minutes before we made it to the place.) They take us into our apartment and we start to get settled. I think because everything over here is tile and concrete, everything will always be freezing. We keep the heaters on at the house FULL BLAST all the time. I have it set on 76 here and it stays chilly once the sun goes down. Chris bought me an electric blanket because he felt bad. Unfortunately, it's set for 110v and in Europe everything is 220v. Which actually is another lesson. We'll call it Lesson number 1 point 5: Everything that you own (IE: Blow dryer, curling iron, anything electronic) will not work when you travel unless you have an adapter or it's 220v. Of course, we didn't have either.
So as we're unpacking we notice they have 1 "heater" mounted up on the wall in the main room. I think it would keep the size of ... a hall closet... warm. Then they have a space heater going in the master bedroom. Mom, this space heater makes your "baby fireplace" seem like our nice big wood burning fireplace at home. I think you could put your hand on the blub and never get burned. This won't even keep a hall closet warm. Thank the good Lord Chris said before we left "Why don't we pack your big leopard blanket in case it's cold there." The girls slept fully clothed wrapped in a blanket and their blankets from home, a sheet, another blanket and a comforter on them. I'm not sure what Chris slept in. I slept in my thick tights (I bought them at the Catania market for 3 euro and the BEST 3 euros I have ever spent), long sleeved shirt and my thick sweater coat. PLUS a sheet, blanket, leopard blanket and comforter. I can't remember the nightmares I had (I had 2 last night) but I'm pretty sure it was because my body thought we were in Antarctica and wanted to die. Since I was so layered in clothes and blankets it knew it wouldn't happen so it was attempting to kill me via heart attack from scary dreams.
Before any of the "death by freezing" happened, we decided the girls couldn't go without coats and set off to find a store. We talked to Giuseppe and after many different hand signs and broken Italian on my part, and broken English on his part, we each pulled out our iPhones and resorted to the translate apps we had. He thought we wanted bathrobes for the kids. Ha! No. So he gives us directions. Very simple. Go here, turn here, there it is.
No. Not simple. At least not for me. I always thought I was GREAT at this stuff. Chris drove, I navigated. It worked out at home. Here, not so much. He was sending us to a place that "great coat for small price." Nope. Not there. Let me google it. Nope, not there either. We stopped at a place and I found 1 man who could speak a little English. Unfortunately he wasn't from around Alcamo so he had no idea where anything is. He finally told me to just start driving around Alcamo until I found a shop that sold what we needed.
When we started it was around 5:15 pm. It was now after 6pm and dark. We're driving and driving and found one place that looked like it had kids clothes. Bimbus. Yay for Bimbus!!! Bimbus is the most expensive place on the planet Earth. We spend 60 euro on 2 outfits. That's about $80. All for jackets and sweatpants. And the sweatpants are too big. And the crazy thing, they gave them to us on sale. I'm not sure why they were so expensive but the quality seems like it something you'd buy at Walmart. Seriously. $20/outfit at Walmart would have got us the same thing.
Lesson number 5: NEVER leave home without a jacket for your kids. NEVER.
When we finally got back (7:15pm) we were starving. We all changed into nice clothes and headed to the restaurant. This Agriturismo is an educational farm and only uses what they can get from themselves. They make everything from scratch. So, we started with an Antipasto (appetizer) that had 13 different things.
Here we go:
This is 4 different things. I can't remember that Italian names of them so I'll tell you what we figured out they were (via broken English and translate Apps!)
Big Square: Pizza. Just like a big fluffy cheese pizza.
Small rectangles: Chickpeas smushed up and made into little cakes and then deep fried. Loved it! It tasted almost like hashbrowns but with a really good peppery breading.
Long Skinny Thing: He said it's the stalk from an artichoke that they cut and deep fried. I don't know. But it was good too.
Ball Thing at the end of the Long Skinny Thing: That's a deep fried cauliflower. I love that. I've made those before. They taste like tater tots!
Here we have Legumes and what I thought tasted like the brown beans we make at home to go with our cornbread. The Legumes were good. The brown beans needed a much bigger bowl and some cornbread. That was the best thing I've had in a long time.
Next we have 5 different things:
Starting off at the bottom is slices of pumpkin. I have no idea how this was made but it was good. It's served cold with some other stuff, almost like it's pickled. It topped with salt and pepper.
Going up to the left, this is a mixture of onions, eggplant, bell peppers and carrots. This was almost pickled too and served cold. I've had this before at another agriturismo and really like it.
Now at the top is almost like the relish you get at a Mexican restaurant at home. Except, this is made with celery, onion, carrots and green UNpitted olives. Now this, take out the olives and add some jalapenos and I'm set. I vowed I'd try everything here at least ONCE and so far, it hasn't been bad. Until now. I remember why I don't like green olives. YuCk!!
Next is an orange marmalade. This was amazing as well. It's orange marmalade made from their oranges! Yummy!
Finally we end this one with cheese. He told me, it's cheese. And cheese with "whatchamacallit" in it. I have no idea what he said, but it was green and it was yummy as well.
Now for our last two:
On the right is a little bowl of meatballs. When you think of spaghetti, most think of "Spaghetti and Meatballs!" like on Lady and the Tramp. Well, that's not how it works here. First you get your spaghetti with tomato sauce. Once you eat that, then they bring out your meat. So ordering spaghetti and meatballs here is very hard. This was the first place we've ever had the Americanized meatball. I have no idea how it taste because Chrissy ate both of them. (The girls didn't try anything except for Chrissy eating the two meatballs). I'm going with they are really good because they ordered spaghetti and didn't like it. So we asked them to make more polpetta for the kids. Polpetta is meatball in Italian.
Finally the last of the antipasto was Trippa. It was round and chewy. Not too bad. Not sure what the sauce it was in, tho. I do know it has a tomato base, just like every other sauce made in the place. It tasted a lot like calamari. I wish I would have eaten more of it before he told me what it was. Once I knew, I couldn't mind over matter it anymore. I had already eaten a yucky green olive so my stomach wasn't doing great. Trippa is.....cow stomach.
After that, the girls went back to the room and Chris and I finished our meal. I had a pasta with a carrot, garlic and some other stuff sauce. It was their "house" sauce. I had about 3 bites. Not my thing. I couldn't put my finger on what I didn't like, but it was enough that I couldn't eat it. Chris had beefsteak that was brought out sizzling like fajitas. It was cooked in rosemary and something else. He loved it. I .... eh... could take it or leave it. It was nice a fresh tho. That was nice. We ended the meal with some amazing something that had an almond crust , ice cream like filling, and phenomenal chocolate on top. The girls showed back up just in time for us to share (dang). Luckily Matti didn't like it and Chrissy bounced back and forth between us. This is the second time I've had something like this. I WILL find out what it is and learn how to make it. It's right up there with tiramisu for me.
We went to bed after dinner and froze. Because we don't have any adapters, my phone died during the night. The cigarette lighter only works when the car is turned on, so we can only charge stuff when we're in the car driving around.
Breakfast was great, but no pictures because so far I just refuse to take my nice camera into a restaurant and take pictures. I always sneak around with my phone camera. Oh yeah, another thing... I forgot a brush. So the girls and I didn't wash our hair because we couldn't brush it out. THAT was great. Let me tell ya. We're raggity-haired Americans. After breakfast we went to the Temple of Segesta (Tempio Greco) and a small theater which is around the corner. The man taking the tickets for the temple fell in love with the "blonde hair Americano bellas" and begged to take a picture with them. He said "souvenir for your blonde bellas with Antonio. That's me, Antonio." He then took our picture for us. He was so nice as was very excited when realized we lived north of Texas! He knew New York, California and Texas. Then when we left, he kissed both of my cheeks.
The temple was pretty. The views were amazing, like always. This temple was very BIG. Everything seemed oversized. I read where some say it's like it was built for giants, not people. This temple was started sometime in the 5th century BC. Several things point to that the temple was never actually finished.
The above picture of the temple is taken from up where the theater is. It's a good mile or so up there.
Lesson number 6: When they say "we leave in 30 minutes" it's 30 minutes exactly. Because of this, we got to walk over a mile down the mountain. We paid 3 euro to take a bus up the hill. It said, leave to go down in 30 minutes. We just missed the bus :( But at least we were walking down, not up.
Each temple and theater we've gone to have their own "awe" to them. You can't compare them either. The one in Taromina was just beautiful. So was this one. I didn't take as many pictures, due to the time restraint (which didn't matter anyway) but the views were just as breathtaking. Looking out with this one made me sing "The hiiilllllsss are alllivvvveee with the sound of muuuusssiiiicccc" because of the views were just beautiful rolling green hills (or mountains, whatever.). I haven't edited any of the pictures from the trip so I'm just posting a couple. Look for an album on Facebook soon. :)
I think this is the longest thing I've ever written. If you're still here, thanks for reading to the end. We went back to the agriturismo after that. The girls started feeling bad. Luckily it was only about 5 minutes from where we were staying. We had lunch (pizza, french fries, cheese and ham for the other three, I had risotto with mushrooms, asparagus, onions and carrots. AMAZING) and then the girls got sick. Which leads me to a big one...
Lesson number 7: Don't go on a trip when you're kids still aren't 100% over the stomach stuff. We thought they'd be OK, but they weren't :(
After they each had accidents, we decided it was time to go home. I couldn't stay in the ice box of a room for a day and we couldn't risk going out sightseeing with kids who couldn't make it to the bathroom when it was the next room over. So we apologetically told Giuseppe and his mother goodbye and assured them we'd be back.
The ride home wasn't bad. Chris and Matti napped but Chrissy and I chugged along. It's a good thing we decided to come home. The girls aren't much better off than they were before. At least now we're in the comfort of our own home :)
I hope you enjoyed this. This is what you get when I blog as soon as I get home. A very long, detailed description of our journey. I know the grammar isn't right and some of the spelling is off... but hey, that's me. I hope when you read it you can hear my voice and it's like I'm there telling it.
I can tell you this, we learned a lot on this trip. The girls are having a hard time finding food they like. Lesson number 8: Pack emergency food. It's even hard finding things at some of the grocery stores when we don't really know what we're buying. You wouldn't think so, but you'd be surprised.
And the last lesson: Never be afraid to call it quits and come home. Not that you should be a quitter, but we would have been miserable staying there in not only the condition of the freezing room but from the condition of our children!!
Until next time.... Ciao!!
Well, what a trip that was!
It all started last week when we found out everyone had a 4 day weekend. We wanted to leave on Friday but there was so much drama going on that it didn't happen. After lots and lots and lots of searching, I found Baglio Pocoroba Segesta on www.agriturismo.it. This is a pretty neat website in finding agriturismo's around us. For those of you who've never heard of this, it's basically like a bed & breakfast but much more, depending on where you go. Here it Italy it is usually a farm and the place you're staying has a story behind it as well as interactive things you can do. Ours, I have no idea except it said educational. At the time, going here sounding great. It looked pretty and was a decent price.
Getting there was probably the most interesting part. We were emailing back and forth with Giuseppe Pizzitola, the owner, about staying there. We were going through the website which was translating everything for us. Then he emailed us directions without the website. Cool. This dude speaks a little English and it won't be too bad. We book the place for 3 days, 2 nights and start packing.
Here's the thing about me and packing. I pack everything AND the kitchen sink. This trip, probably cause I was in a bad mood and being rushed all at the same time, I failed to do so. Because of this, it cost us over an hour of driving in the city Alcamo and 60 euro. I'll come back to this.
Another snafu BEFORE we left was that Chris didn't realize we were staying as long as we were. So when he found out, we had to stop and buy him new clothes. Which probably isn't a bad thing because I can't remember the last time I switched out his underwear.
Finally we're off.
"You know where we're going?" he says. "Sure," I say, "I have it right here from the website. I just copy and pasted it in your "maps" on your iPad. We're good." ....right?? I mean, I got it FROM THE WEBSITE. How hard can that be??
Along the way we stopped at a "rest area" on the highway and took some pictures of the Tirreno Sea. We're looking towards Santa Flavia, Sicily. It's soooo beautiful out there. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing such blue water.
It's pretty chilly out. This is the first time we realized the girls had no jackets, or sweatshirts, or even a long sleeved shirt for Matti. Oh well. Moving along.
We're driving along and the navigation tells us to exit left. We exit left. We drive through this cute little town called Castellammare del Golfo. Water is gorgeous. Mountains are beautiful. We're feeling really good about this! "Turn left" it says. "Follow here" it says. I really hate that I didn't take pictures of the next thing that happened. I don't think we'll ever be put in that situation again. When we went to Taormina we went through alleyways that you could barely fit a piece of paper between our car and the wall.
This time we pushed our poor little car to the limits. Do you wanna know what "Mazda Protege" means in Italian??? It means "ONE BAD MAMMA JAMMA!" This car can go ANYWHERE and this trip it went four-wheeling up the side of a friggin mountain. At first, it seemed OK. We turned left like it said. The road looked like a rocky driveway. We could see this yellowish house up at the top. "Maybe this is it??" So up we go. And we keep going. AND going. AND going. Chugging along, there's no stopping and no end in sight. As we're going we see a tiny "pull off" so Chris pulls over and stops. Unfortunately, if we want to go back down we have to go ALL the way down in reverse because it wasn't big enough to turn around. He attempted it. OK, keep going up. Please. Go. What??? Why can't we go. Oh, duh, switch it over to 4x4. Oh yeah, that's right. We're in a stinkin MAZDA PROTEGE!!!!!! So with a little love, my amazing husband four-wheeled our car up more. We finally reach the top only to find out there's actually a paved road that we could have taken. "DOH!!" Thanks map App! Appreciate that one!
After checking to make sure we didn't have any blown out tires or holes in our car, we keep following the app. The road it's taking us on now isn't much better. But at least it's not rock climbing like the other road we were on. I think the best thing I've ever heard from the navigation came next: "You've reached the farthest you can go in your car on your destination. Find a place to park and walk the rest of the way." WHAT?!?!!? ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME?!?!?! WALK?!?!?! We're literally stopped on the side of this mountain on a road that does NOT lead to our destination. At this point I just want to cry. I pull up the website and call the man. His English is OK. He tells me "ah yes, your about 25 more minutes from my house. Keep coming till you see Segesta. I see you then. Ciao, Ciao!!" .....please don't cry, please don't cry... After some deep breathing, I pull up the last email he sent which didn't make a lick of sense. I started looking for Bruca via Segesta on the map. After putting in Bruca, I realize it's the name of the town where we need to be, which is NOT what the website says. They don't use addresses over here like we do. It's different. I can't explain it. It just is. So off we go.
Finally we're heading in the right direction. His broken email makes more sense. Ok. Here we are. Crap, which way do we go now??? He said "you see my yellow sign. Follow it. That will take you to my house." I guess he didn't know there were about 7 different yellow signs, none of which say "Baglio Pocoroba Segesta." Or at least I didn't see it. I found out later Chris saw it. So we follow a yellow sign that said "Baglio Segesta." I mean, how can this be wrong. The only word missing is "Pocoroba." How many Baglio Segesta's can their be? This is what we found...
That can't be right. Please God, don't let this be right.... I didn't take any pictures of it, but the cows that were right beside the house were covered in muck from all the rain and clay. The house looked very very old (most of them are) and it definitely was NOT the beautiful yellow that was recently renovated, like it said on the website. But hey, what do I know? The website directions had us rock-climbing in our car and hiking 10 miles to our final destination. So I pull out my phone and call Giuseppe again. He decides he's going to get in his "crappy white Land Rover" (his words, not mine) and come find us. We head back down to the autostrada and find him. I guess he's never seen what a crappy white Mazda Protege is, cause his definitely wasn't crappy. And I can tell you, I was extremely excited to see him and that he didn't come from the scary little house we thought was his. Luckily what I prayed was his house when we were scanning the area was, in fact, his house. Not only that, it was on the other side of the mountain from where started. Hahahaha. That would have been a very long and dangerous hike.
So,
Lesson number 1: Don't pack when you're pissy. You'll forget stuff and that'll cost you in the end.
Lesson number 2: COMMUNICATE to your loved one how long you're staying to not only save you money but save you time from not having to go clothes shopping.
Lesson number 3: If it looks scary, it IS. Turn around and don't go there.
This all brings us to Lesson number 4: When traveling in the colder, winter season check for HEATER in the description. I saw AC and assumed it meant AC/Heat. Well, we all know what happens when you assume something.
Everything was great. We were greeted by the cutest dogs and a great staff. We immediately had espresso's and biscotti's. The girls started warming up to the people and started smiling. (Chrissy had been crying and throwing a fit about halfway down the 4x4 mountain and had just fallen asleep about 5 minutes before we made it to the place.) They take us into our apartment and we start to get settled. I think because everything over here is tile and concrete, everything will always be freezing. We keep the heaters on at the house FULL BLAST all the time. I have it set on 76 here and it stays chilly once the sun goes down. Chris bought me an electric blanket because he felt bad. Unfortunately, it's set for 110v and in Europe everything is 220v. Which actually is another lesson. We'll call it Lesson number 1 point 5: Everything that you own (IE: Blow dryer, curling iron, anything electronic) will not work when you travel unless you have an adapter or it's 220v. Of course, we didn't have either.
So as we're unpacking we notice they have 1 "heater" mounted up on the wall in the main room. I think it would keep the size of ... a hall closet... warm. Then they have a space heater going in the master bedroom. Mom, this space heater makes your "baby fireplace" seem like our nice big wood burning fireplace at home. I think you could put your hand on the blub and never get burned. This won't even keep a hall closet warm. Thank the good Lord Chris said before we left "Why don't we pack your big leopard blanket in case it's cold there." The girls slept fully clothed wrapped in a blanket and their blankets from home, a sheet, another blanket and a comforter on them. I'm not sure what Chris slept in. I slept in my thick tights (I bought them at the Catania market for 3 euro and the BEST 3 euros I have ever spent), long sleeved shirt and my thick sweater coat. PLUS a sheet, blanket, leopard blanket and comforter. I can't remember the nightmares I had (I had 2 last night) but I'm pretty sure it was because my body thought we were in Antarctica and wanted to die. Since I was so layered in clothes and blankets it knew it wouldn't happen so it was attempting to kill me via heart attack from scary dreams.
Before any of the "death by freezing" happened, we decided the girls couldn't go without coats and set off to find a store. We talked to Giuseppe and after many different hand signs and broken Italian on my part, and broken English on his part, we each pulled out our iPhones and resorted to the translate apps we had. He thought we wanted bathrobes for the kids. Ha! No. So he gives us directions. Very simple. Go here, turn here, there it is.No. Not simple. At least not for me. I always thought I was GREAT at this stuff. Chris drove, I navigated. It worked out at home. Here, not so much. He was sending us to a place that "great coat for small price." Nope. Not there. Let me google it. Nope, not there either. We stopped at a place and I found 1 man who could speak a little English. Unfortunately he wasn't from around Alcamo so he had no idea where anything is. He finally told me to just start driving around Alcamo until I found a shop that sold what we needed.
When we started it was around 5:15 pm. It was now after 6pm and dark. We're driving and driving and found one place that looked like it had kids clothes. Bimbus. Yay for Bimbus!!! Bimbus is the most expensive place on the planet Earth. We spend 60 euro on 2 outfits. That's about $80. All for jackets and sweatpants. And the sweatpants are too big. And the crazy thing, they gave them to us on sale. I'm not sure why they were so expensive but the quality seems like it something you'd buy at Walmart. Seriously. $20/outfit at Walmart would have got us the same thing.
Lesson number 5: NEVER leave home without a jacket for your kids. NEVER.
When we finally got back (7:15pm) we were starving. We all changed into nice clothes and headed to the restaurant. This Agriturismo is an educational farm and only uses what they can get from themselves. They make everything from scratch. So, we started with an Antipasto (appetizer) that had 13 different things.
Here we go:
Big Square: Pizza. Just like a big fluffy cheese pizza.
Small rectangles: Chickpeas smushed up and made into little cakes and then deep fried. Loved it! It tasted almost like hashbrowns but with a really good peppery breading.
Long Skinny Thing: He said it's the stalk from an artichoke that they cut and deep fried. I don't know. But it was good too.
Ball Thing at the end of the Long Skinny Thing: That's a deep fried cauliflower. I love that. I've made those before. They taste like tater tots!
Starting off at the bottom is slices of pumpkin. I have no idea how this was made but it was good. It's served cold with some other stuff, almost like it's pickled. It topped with salt and pepper.
Going up to the left, this is a mixture of onions, eggplant, bell peppers and carrots. This was almost pickled too and served cold. I've had this before at another agriturismo and really like it.
Now at the top is almost like the relish you get at a Mexican restaurant at home. Except, this is made with celery, onion, carrots and green UNpitted olives. Now this, take out the olives and add some jalapenos and I'm set. I vowed I'd try everything here at least ONCE and so far, it hasn't been bad. Until now. I remember why I don't like green olives. YuCk!!
Next is an orange marmalade. This was amazing as well. It's orange marmalade made from their oranges! Yummy!
Finally we end this one with cheese. He told me, it's cheese. And cheese with "whatchamacallit" in it. I have no idea what he said, but it was green and it was yummy as well.
Now for our last two:
Finally the last of the antipasto was Trippa. It was round and chewy. Not too bad. Not sure what the sauce it was in, tho. I do know it has a tomato base, just like every other sauce made in the place. It tasted a lot like calamari. I wish I would have eaten more of it before he told me what it was. Once I knew, I couldn't mind over matter it anymore. I had already eaten a yucky green olive so my stomach wasn't doing great. Trippa is.....cow stomach.
After that, the girls went back to the room and Chris and I finished our meal. I had a pasta with a carrot, garlic and some other stuff sauce. It was their "house" sauce. I had about 3 bites. Not my thing. I couldn't put my finger on what I didn't like, but it was enough that I couldn't eat it. Chris had beefsteak that was brought out sizzling like fajitas. It was cooked in rosemary and something else. He loved it. I .... eh... could take it or leave it. It was nice a fresh tho. That was nice. We ended the meal with some amazing something that had an almond crust , ice cream like filling, and phenomenal chocolate on top. The girls showed back up just in time for us to share (dang). Luckily Matti didn't like it and Chrissy bounced back and forth between us. This is the second time I've had something like this. I WILL find out what it is and learn how to make it. It's right up there with tiramisu for me.
We went to bed after dinner and froze. Because we don't have any adapters, my phone died during the night. The cigarette lighter only works when the car is turned on, so we can only charge stuff when we're in the car driving around.
Breakfast was great, but no pictures because so far I just refuse to take my nice camera into a restaurant and take pictures. I always sneak around with my phone camera. Oh yeah, another thing... I forgot a brush. So the girls and I didn't wash our hair because we couldn't brush it out. THAT was great. Let me tell ya. We're raggity-haired Americans. After breakfast we went to the Temple of Segesta (Tempio Greco) and a small theater which is around the corner. The man taking the tickets for the temple fell in love with the "blonde hair Americano bellas" and begged to take a picture with them. He said "souvenir for your blonde bellas with Antonio. That's me, Antonio." He then took our picture for us. He was so nice as was very excited when realized we lived north of Texas! He knew New York, California and Texas. Then when we left, he kissed both of my cheeks.
The temple was pretty. The views were amazing, like always. This temple was very BIG. Everything seemed oversized. I read where some say it's like it was built for giants, not people. This temple was started sometime in the 5th century BC. Several things point to that the temple was never actually finished.
The above picture of the temple is taken from up where the theater is. It's a good mile or so up there.
Lesson number 6: When they say "we leave in 30 minutes" it's 30 minutes exactly. Because of this, we got to walk over a mile down the mountain. We paid 3 euro to take a bus up the hill. It said, leave to go down in 30 minutes. We just missed the bus :( But at least we were walking down, not up.
Each temple and theater we've gone to have their own "awe" to them. You can't compare them either. The one in Taromina was just beautiful. So was this one. I didn't take as many pictures, due to the time restraint (which didn't matter anyway) but the views were just as breathtaking. Looking out with this one made me sing "The hiiilllllsss are alllivvvveee with the sound of muuuusssiiiicccc" because of the views were just beautiful rolling green hills (or mountains, whatever.). I haven't edited any of the pictures from the trip so I'm just posting a couple. Look for an album on Facebook soon. :)
I think this is the longest thing I've ever written. If you're still here, thanks for reading to the end. We went back to the agriturismo after that. The girls started feeling bad. Luckily it was only about 5 minutes from where we were staying. We had lunch (pizza, french fries, cheese and ham for the other three, I had risotto with mushrooms, asparagus, onions and carrots. AMAZING) and then the girls got sick. Which leads me to a big one...
Lesson number 7: Don't go on a trip when you're kids still aren't 100% over the stomach stuff. We thought they'd be OK, but they weren't :(
After they each had accidents, we decided it was time to go home. I couldn't stay in the ice box of a room for a day and we couldn't risk going out sightseeing with kids who couldn't make it to the bathroom when it was the next room over. So we apologetically told Giuseppe and his mother goodbye and assured them we'd be back.
The ride home wasn't bad. Chris and Matti napped but Chrissy and I chugged along. It's a good thing we decided to come home. The girls aren't much better off than they were before. At least now we're in the comfort of our own home :)
I hope you enjoyed this. This is what you get when I blog as soon as I get home. A very long, detailed description of our journey. I know the grammar isn't right and some of the spelling is off... but hey, that's me. I hope when you read it you can hear my voice and it's like I'm there telling it.
I can tell you this, we learned a lot on this trip. The girls are having a hard time finding food they like. Lesson number 8: Pack emergency food. It's even hard finding things at some of the grocery stores when we don't really know what we're buying. You wouldn't think so, but you'd be surprised.
And the last lesson: Never be afraid to call it quits and come home. Not that you should be a quitter, but we would have been miserable staying there in not only the condition of the freezing room but from the condition of our children!!
Until next time.... Ciao!!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Qual è il mio istinto mi dice?
What's my gut telling me?
I've made a decision!!
Now this decision is something that I prayed about for a very long time. It's a decision I've asked many others to pray about for me and my family. And while I don't have EVERYONE on board with this decision, I have the only one who matters and that's GOD!
I don't feel like I have to justify my decision to everyone. I know I'll get a lot of people who will be disappointed in this and other who will be through the roof with excitement. But I want everyone to know, I don't take this decision lightly and I feel blessed that God showed me the way, through my faith!! And before you decide to judge me on this, do a couple of things: 1. Research. Research this topic. 2. Put yourself in my shoes. Not with YOUR personality, but with mine. 3. Consider all the FACTS (from researching), consider the FACTS in with my personality and then listen to my story. You don't have to agree with or support me in this decision. I'm OK with that. But just know, Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Do you ever wonder what your "gut" feeling is? I never really understood it until I got over here. We all know my trials with Chrissy so she doesn't have as much to do with decision as Matti does. When we first got here I was dumbfounded in how Matti was growing up before my eyes. She was riding her bike without training wheels within a WEEK of moving in. She was borderline 9 years old. We've been trying for 3 years to get her to attempt it more than once. Within a month in a half she was staying the night with a friend, and she's never stayed with anyone other than family! (And yes, Korbyn is her "cousin" no matter how you explain she isn't). She attempted one time to stay the night with her BFF Avery, what is it Kelly?? BFF's for 4 years now??, and we got the phone call to come pick her up around 11pm. So those little milestone were HUGE!! And I'm beyond proud of her for that.
But the other changes I've seen in Matti aren't so pretty. I've always vowed to be an extremely involved mother. Matti and I talk about EVERYTHING. No, this is not being overbearing, because I back off when she asks me to. I step aside when I know she has to learn it the hard way. But what I refuse to do is watch my child's self esteem plummet to the ground and let everyone step all over it. I'm going to stick up for my child and be her voice until she can get trust in herself and believe in herself to stand UP for herself. I'm going to be there to support her and give her the pros and cons to everything and allow her to make the decision. Which is what I've done.
Did you know Matti won't wear dresses anymore? That hurts me. Not because she's not girly anymore or is out of that "stage" of her life. Her reason is "I'm sick of the boys hitting on me momma. If I don't wear a dress or don't do my hair, they'll leave me alone." Did you know that even when she's not going to school and not around those little boys, she doesn't want me to do her hair or dress her up?? Yes, I'm still talking about Matti. I used to spend HOURS at home playing beauty shop with her. Hair, makeup, pretty clothes. She DOES NOT CARE anymore. That hurts my heart. My baby is losing herself.
Did you know Matti was at the top of her class since she started school? We, yes I said WE, strive to be the best (or our best) in every single subject. The only issue I had with Matti and hating school was due to a teacher she had, and I can't blame her. When I was in that classroom, I had issues with her teacher. Parent teacher conferences were amazing. She is an amazing little girl. When we got back from her first parent teacher conference here and asked her what she thought the teacher said, she burst into tears and cried "That I'm a horrible student!" Over-dramatic-Matti, you say? Sure. But I'm NOT OK with her thinking about herself that way.
This and many other things, which I don't want to discuss due to offending ones who may read this, have contributed to the way I started thinking. Then, I gave it to God. I GAVE IT TO GOD. Do you want to see what GOD can do? Read this:
One of my bestest of bestest friends here, homeschools. She had issues with her son in school and made the decision to homeschool. Matti goes to ballet twice a week. All the kids in her ballet class are homeschooled. Chrissy goes to gymnastics twice a week (two different days than ballet) and we see homeschool families during that time as well. God put someone else in my path (she happens to be on the board of the homeschool group here) while I was there. I went on a "girls night out" and met ANOTHER homeschool mom. And during all this time, I'm praying. "God, show me the way. Show me how to support Matti at school. Show me how to bring peace to my child. God, give me a sign of your plans." I pray this every night. I pray this falling asleep. I pray this every morning and every afternoon when I have to deal with my sobbing child about school. "God give me the strength to help Matti through this hard time. God give her strength." I pray this over and over and over everyday.
I was struggling with my decision to homeschool the girls. Should I? Shouldn't I? "God, show me the way."
Then I read this:
"Just a little testimony....Lexi is sick today and I took her to the doc this morning. On our way home decided to grab some lunch. Went back and forth on where to eat and after a small debate decided on whataburger. We then debated on going thru the drive thru and going in and decided to go in. Walked in, ordered, and got our food to realize one of our burgers was wrong. They let us keep the burger and made me a new one. Brought me a sack to take the wrong burger home. While eating a what we assumed to be a homeless man walked in and sat at the table beside us. Lexi was reading and didn't pay much attention to him but he kept catching my eye. I'm sitting there asking God if I should give this guy my extra burger scared to bc idk if he is truly homeless or what. Right before we leave Lexi turns around and sees the man and says do you think we should give him that burger? I was actually nervous to give it to him but hearing Lexi say that I knew God was talking to me. So we gave the man our extra burger and he was so grateful! Pastor Craig said a couple of weeks ago that God talks to us thru situations, other people, and the Holy Spirit....I got to see it first hand thru 2 of those and it's amazing how God works!!"
So maybe, just maybe all of this stuff isn't really a coincidence. Maybe, just maybe God put these people in my path for a reason. Maybe, just maybe while I'm praying for strength to believe in my decision of homeschooling God shows me something that happened in my sisters life (half a world away) and tells me, "That "gut" feeling you have isn't your gut, in fact, it's the HOLY SPIRIT. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6."
And THAT, my dear friends, is my testimony and the beginning of another new chapter in my life.
I've made a decision!!
Now this decision is something that I prayed about for a very long time. It's a decision I've asked many others to pray about for me and my family. And while I don't have EVERYONE on board with this decision, I have the only one who matters and that's GOD!
I don't feel like I have to justify my decision to everyone. I know I'll get a lot of people who will be disappointed in this and other who will be through the roof with excitement. But I want everyone to know, I don't take this decision lightly and I feel blessed that God showed me the way, through my faith!! And before you decide to judge me on this, do a couple of things: 1. Research. Research this topic. 2. Put yourself in my shoes. Not with YOUR personality, but with mine. 3. Consider all the FACTS (from researching), consider the FACTS in with my personality and then listen to my story. You don't have to agree with or support me in this decision. I'm OK with that. But just know, Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Do you ever wonder what your "gut" feeling is? I never really understood it until I got over here. We all know my trials with Chrissy so she doesn't have as much to do with decision as Matti does. When we first got here I was dumbfounded in how Matti was growing up before my eyes. She was riding her bike without training wheels within a WEEK of moving in. She was borderline 9 years old. We've been trying for 3 years to get her to attempt it more than once. Within a month in a half she was staying the night with a friend, and she's never stayed with anyone other than family! (And yes, Korbyn is her "cousin" no matter how you explain she isn't). She attempted one time to stay the night with her BFF Avery, what is it Kelly?? BFF's for 4 years now??, and we got the phone call to come pick her up around 11pm. So those little milestone were HUGE!! And I'm beyond proud of her for that.
But the other changes I've seen in Matti aren't so pretty. I've always vowed to be an extremely involved mother. Matti and I talk about EVERYTHING. No, this is not being overbearing, because I back off when she asks me to. I step aside when I know she has to learn it the hard way. But what I refuse to do is watch my child's self esteem plummet to the ground and let everyone step all over it. I'm going to stick up for my child and be her voice until she can get trust in herself and believe in herself to stand UP for herself. I'm going to be there to support her and give her the pros and cons to everything and allow her to make the decision. Which is what I've done.
Did you know Matti won't wear dresses anymore? That hurts me. Not because she's not girly anymore or is out of that "stage" of her life. Her reason is "I'm sick of the boys hitting on me momma. If I don't wear a dress or don't do my hair, they'll leave me alone." Did you know that even when she's not going to school and not around those little boys, she doesn't want me to do her hair or dress her up?? Yes, I'm still talking about Matti. I used to spend HOURS at home playing beauty shop with her. Hair, makeup, pretty clothes. She DOES NOT CARE anymore. That hurts my heart. My baby is losing herself.
Did you know Matti was at the top of her class since she started school? We, yes I said WE, strive to be the best (or our best) in every single subject. The only issue I had with Matti and hating school was due to a teacher she had, and I can't blame her. When I was in that classroom, I had issues with her teacher. Parent teacher conferences were amazing. She is an amazing little girl. When we got back from her first parent teacher conference here and asked her what she thought the teacher said, she burst into tears and cried "That I'm a horrible student!" Over-dramatic-Matti, you say? Sure. But I'm NOT OK with her thinking about herself that way.
This and many other things, which I don't want to discuss due to offending ones who may read this, have contributed to the way I started thinking. Then, I gave it to God. I GAVE IT TO GOD. Do you want to see what GOD can do? Read this:
One of my bestest of bestest friends here, homeschools. She had issues with her son in school and made the decision to homeschool. Matti goes to ballet twice a week. All the kids in her ballet class are homeschooled. Chrissy goes to gymnastics twice a week (two different days than ballet) and we see homeschool families during that time as well. God put someone else in my path (she happens to be on the board of the homeschool group here) while I was there. I went on a "girls night out" and met ANOTHER homeschool mom. And during all this time, I'm praying. "God, show me the way. Show me how to support Matti at school. Show me how to bring peace to my child. God, give me a sign of your plans." I pray this every night. I pray this falling asleep. I pray this every morning and every afternoon when I have to deal with my sobbing child about school. "God give me the strength to help Matti through this hard time. God give her strength." I pray this over and over and over everyday.
I was struggling with my decision to homeschool the girls. Should I? Shouldn't I? "God, show me the way."
Then I read this:
"Just a little testimony....Lexi is sick today and I took her to the doc this morning. On our way home decided to grab some lunch. Went back and forth on where to eat and after a small debate decided on whataburger. We then debated on going thru the drive thru and going in and decided to go in. Walked in, ordered, and got our food to realize one of our burgers was wrong. They let us keep the burger and made me a new one. Brought me a sack to take the wrong burger home. While eating a what we assumed to be a homeless man walked in and sat at the table beside us. Lexi was reading and didn't pay much attention to him but he kept catching my eye. I'm sitting there asking God if I should give this guy my extra burger scared to bc idk if he is truly homeless or what. Right before we leave Lexi turns around and sees the man and says do you think we should give him that burger? I was actually nervous to give it to him but hearing Lexi say that I knew God was talking to me. So we gave the man our extra burger and he was so grateful! Pastor Craig said a couple of weeks ago that God talks to us thru situations, other people, and the Holy Spirit....I got to see it first hand thru 2 of those and it's amazing how God works!!"
So maybe, just maybe all of this stuff isn't really a coincidence. Maybe, just maybe God put these people in my path for a reason. Maybe, just maybe while I'm praying for strength to believe in my decision of homeschooling God shows me something that happened in my sisters life (half a world away) and tells me, "That "gut" feeling you have isn't your gut, in fact, it's the HOLY SPIRIT. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6."
And THAT, my dear friends, is my testimony and the beginning of another new chapter in my life.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Eeeek! Ha preso il mio bambino!
Eeeek! He took my baby!!
Yes. That little Sicilian man walked over to Chrissy, grabbed her hand, and took her...................... back to the kitchen.
From the beginning.
This was back in December and it was the first time I've ever really interacted with the Italians. December 18th, my mom and Jim arrived. It was so nice to finally see familiar faces. And yes, it had only been about 2 weeks.
Luckily the base had an indoc trip planned to Motta Sant'Anastasia. Indoc: this is a 2 week class we all go through when transferring. It explains all the stuff you need to know plus they teach you about the local culture and then take you out to experience it. Motta Sant'Anastasia is known as the "Little America" here because a lot of people who are stationed at Sigonella live in Motta. Everywhere you go, you see castles. On the 19th, "indoc" had a trip planned to Motta to visit Castello di Motta Sant'Anastasia, and olive oil factory and then a local dairy farm. The castle was interesting but I can't find all the pictures I took there... So I can explain all of this stuff but I don't think you'll really enjoy it like you'll enjoy our trip to the farm.
Driving out to the farm took FOREVER. We had gone to the castle and the olive oil plant as well. Talk about cool. We saw how they make olive oil and even got to taste and buy fresh, made within the past 24 hours, olive oil. That's one of my favorite things about Italy. I love olive oil. They love olive oil. We love olive oil together. Anyway, the drive was long. We kept going up, and up, and up. Farther and farther. I think most of us were trying to fight to stay awake. Poor Chris having to drive the whole time...
So we get to this sheep farm. The sheep here are different than the sheep I'm use to. These sheep are for milk and meat. Not wool. They are scraggly and ugly. Not pretty and fluffy like you'd think. They herd them like we herd cattle back home. One or two men, up to a hundred sheep, couple of goats, couple of dogs. All in the middle of the road. Sometimes it can be frustrating because if you hit and kill one, your fines are OUTRAGEOUS! You actually have to pay for the genes of the animal if it's a female. If it's a male, you pay for the price they would get out in the market if they slaughtered and sold it. And you better believe if you're having to pay for it, you take that sheep home. Dead or alive. Not that you want to actually kill one, but they get in the middle of the road and you have to wait. They surround your car.
So there we are at this little farm. It's also a restaurant. We meet the owner of the farm (who doesn't speak English) and he invites us back to this hidden room. In the hidden room, they make Ricotta.
Let me tell you about the smell of fresh sheeps milk being heated up and cooked to make cheese. It's gross. And the air is thick. You feel like you're breathing milky-air. Which really sucks when you hate milk like I do. So getting my gagging under control, I walk over to where they are making this cheese.
You have to add the enzymes from the stomach of a baby sheep who's never eaten grass, only milk. This is something different than the ricotta I've been told how to make. You can look up a recipe online and learn to make this with whole milk and buttermilk. It's completely different. They cook this milk a certain way, they add certain ingredients and then they recook it. It's a very private thing here in Sicily because everything is precise. If you mess up, you ruin the whole batch. We were very fortunate to see this process happen because of that.
After we watched this process, they took us into the restaurant and showed us how to make the sweet ricotta cheese they use to fill cannoli's. This is the most creamy, delicious, amazingness I have every eaten. It's so much better than the ricotta at home. (Every time you read ricotta, you should envision me rolling my R's like a true Italian. I say ricotta just to roll my R's.)
While the Cannoli making is going on, the girls are sitting down at the lunch table. They aren't in the best of moods because we've been going all day and they are starving. Before I knew it, this Sicilian man walked over to Chrissy, said a bunch of stuff she didn't understand, reached out and took her hand and off they went!! Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. HOLD THE PHONE. What are you doing with my baby?!?! He walks by me, puts his hand in the air saying "Noh!" "Stay!" .... 'Cuse me?? You're taking my baby and tell me to "Noh, stay!" ??? Have you lost your ever-lovin mind??? So I suck in my breath and stopped. Yeah, I did. I stopped. I let this man walk away with my baby!! He took her back into the kitchen. Cannoli making is no longer in my interest. I'm now curious as to what they are doing with my baby Mew Mew, Mew Mew Mew Chrissy Cat. The mans wife is an absolute dolls and comes and pats my arm to let me know she's OK. Chris looks into the kitchen and sees that they have all been taken by this beautiful little blonde haired American girl and they are feeding her! Cutting her fresh bread and giving her fresh cheese. Eventually she comes back out and skips over to her sister and sits back down at the table. Ha! Seriously! They love the kids over here. My babies have these people over here wrapped around their little fingers. It's so amazing to see. And as soon as the girls start speaking the little bit of Italian they know, it gets that much worse!!
I don't really have time to proofread this. I hope there's not too many mistakes. I understand I'm not the best writer in the world. Especially with grammar and such. I just try to write from my heart. So if my mistakes bother you, I apologize. Here's a couple of pictures I took from the farm. :)
Until next time..... Ciao!
Yes. That little Sicilian man walked over to Chrissy, grabbed her hand, and took her...................... back to the kitchen.
From the beginning.
This was back in December and it was the first time I've ever really interacted with the Italians. December 18th, my mom and Jim arrived. It was so nice to finally see familiar faces. And yes, it had only been about 2 weeks.
Luckily the base had an indoc trip planned to Motta Sant'Anastasia. Indoc: this is a 2 week class we all go through when transferring. It explains all the stuff you need to know plus they teach you about the local culture and then take you out to experience it. Motta Sant'Anastasia is known as the "Little America" here because a lot of people who are stationed at Sigonella live in Motta. Everywhere you go, you see castles. On the 19th, "indoc" had a trip planned to Motta to visit Castello di Motta Sant'Anastasia, and olive oil factory and then a local dairy farm. The castle was interesting but I can't find all the pictures I took there... So I can explain all of this stuff but I don't think you'll really enjoy it like you'll enjoy our trip to the farm.
Driving out to the farm took FOREVER. We had gone to the castle and the olive oil plant as well. Talk about cool. We saw how they make olive oil and even got to taste and buy fresh, made within the past 24 hours, olive oil. That's one of my favorite things about Italy. I love olive oil. They love olive oil. We love olive oil together. Anyway, the drive was long. We kept going up, and up, and up. Farther and farther. I think most of us were trying to fight to stay awake. Poor Chris having to drive the whole time... So we get to this sheep farm. The sheep here are different than the sheep I'm use to. These sheep are for milk and meat. Not wool. They are scraggly and ugly. Not pretty and fluffy like you'd think. They herd them like we herd cattle back home. One or two men, up to a hundred sheep, couple of goats, couple of dogs. All in the middle of the road. Sometimes it can be frustrating because if you hit and kill one, your fines are OUTRAGEOUS! You actually have to pay for the genes of the animal if it's a female. If it's a male, you pay for the price they would get out in the market if they slaughtered and sold it. And you better believe if you're having to pay for it, you take that sheep home. Dead or alive. Not that you want to actually kill one, but they get in the middle of the road and you have to wait. They surround your car.
So there we are at this little farm. It's also a restaurant. We meet the owner of the farm (who doesn't speak English) and he invites us back to this hidden room. In the hidden room, they make Ricotta.
Let me tell you about the smell of fresh sheeps milk being heated up and cooked to make cheese. It's gross. And the air is thick. You feel like you're breathing milky-air. Which really sucks when you hate milk like I do. So getting my gagging under control, I walk over to where they are making this cheese.
You have to add the enzymes from the stomach of a baby sheep who's never eaten grass, only milk. This is something different than the ricotta I've been told how to make. You can look up a recipe online and learn to make this with whole milk and buttermilk. It's completely different. They cook this milk a certain way, they add certain ingredients and then they recook it. It's a very private thing here in Sicily because everything is precise. If you mess up, you ruin the whole batch. We were very fortunate to see this process happen because of that.
After we watched this process, they took us into the restaurant and showed us how to make the sweet ricotta cheese they use to fill cannoli's. This is the most creamy, delicious, amazingness I have every eaten. It's so much better than the ricotta at home. (Every time you read ricotta, you should envision me rolling my R's like a true Italian. I say ricotta just to roll my R's.)
I don't really have time to proofread this. I hope there's not too many mistakes. I understand I'm not the best writer in the world. Especially with grammar and such. I just try to write from my heart. So if my mistakes bother you, I apologize. Here's a couple of pictures I took from the farm. :)
Until next time..... Ciao!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Come si fa a farlo?
How do you do it?
How do you muster up the courage to pack up and move across the world? Honestly, I just don't know. It just kinda happened.
I talked to my Papa for the first time tonight since we left Oklahoma. He knew who I was at the beginning of the conversation and then again at the end. He lagged just a little in the middle.
It's so hard. As much as I'm loving being over here and seeing the world, I miss my family. I never moved away because I didn't WANT to move away. I liked being around my family. It's hard to think about not seeing them for another 3 years.
My cousin told me the other day that my dad was going back to Texas to visit and take a family picture with his siblings. It really got me to thinking. He's been living apart from them more than half of his life. I can't even tell you how many times he's seen his brother in the past 5 years. Heck, even 10 years. I don't know if that's OK with him, but being away from my siblings for that long and not seeing them is NOT OK with me. Right now, anyway. But I don't want it to ever be OK. Honestly. I don't want my kids growing up being that far away from family. Yes, I'm enjoying this experience and they are too.. but still. And what's so bad about that?
I had soooo many people telling me how "great traveling the world is going to be for you and your kids." You have "no idea how great being away from your family and this bubble is going to be for you." Question... Why is it so bad that I was in that bubble? At least then I didn't feel this heartbreaking, can't breathe because it hurts so bad pain. I get it, I do. I've been given this opportunity. And I'm grateful. But the price I'm paying right now... wow.
This must be one of those "God gives you more than you can handle to make you turn to Him" things. Because right now, I can't.
I'm not publishing this right away. Well, I am, but I'm not sharing it on my page like I normally do. It amazes me the people who will pop up and give their two cents on stuff like this. About me and the "real" Navy. Like I haven't been apart of the Navy the past 11 years I've been with Chris. Just because my experiences aren't the same as theirs. I guess I never realized it was a competition. I get some people have had it worse and some have had it better. I'm just here to live my life and get my own experiences without judgment. I did have one friend who told me to "buck up" and I wasn't upset with her for it. But she also told me, that's all you can do. It sucks. It's hard. It's not pretty at all. But in the end, that's all that's left. You either buck up and deal or you let it consume you. She put that perfect to me. And she meant it from the bottom of her heart. I have no doubt in my mind that she never once judged me for being scared, upset, pissed, happy, sad, this way or that way about this transition. She was there for me, as a Navy Wife who has lived her life this way and moved with her family, and as a true friend. And boy do I wish she was here right now to let me cry on her shoulder.....
How do you muster up the courage to pack up and move across the world? Honestly, I just don't know. It just kinda happened.
I talked to my Papa for the first time tonight since we left Oklahoma. He knew who I was at the beginning of the conversation and then again at the end. He lagged just a little in the middle.
It's so hard. As much as I'm loving being over here and seeing the world, I miss my family. I never moved away because I didn't WANT to move away. I liked being around my family. It's hard to think about not seeing them for another 3 years.
My cousin told me the other day that my dad was going back to Texas to visit and take a family picture with his siblings. It really got me to thinking. He's been living apart from them more than half of his life. I can't even tell you how many times he's seen his brother in the past 5 years. Heck, even 10 years. I don't know if that's OK with him, but being away from my siblings for that long and not seeing them is NOT OK with me. Right now, anyway. But I don't want it to ever be OK. Honestly. I don't want my kids growing up being that far away from family. Yes, I'm enjoying this experience and they are too.. but still. And what's so bad about that?
I had soooo many people telling me how "great traveling the world is going to be for you and your kids." You have "no idea how great being away from your family and this bubble is going to be for you." Question... Why is it so bad that I was in that bubble? At least then I didn't feel this heartbreaking, can't breathe because it hurts so bad pain. I get it, I do. I've been given this opportunity. And I'm grateful. But the price I'm paying right now... wow.
This must be one of those "God gives you more than you can handle to make you turn to Him" things. Because right now, I can't.
I'm not publishing this right away. Well, I am, but I'm not sharing it on my page like I normally do. It amazes me the people who will pop up and give their two cents on stuff like this. About me and the "real" Navy. Like I haven't been apart of the Navy the past 11 years I've been with Chris. Just because my experiences aren't the same as theirs. I guess I never realized it was a competition. I get some people have had it worse and some have had it better. I'm just here to live my life and get my own experiences without judgment. I did have one friend who told me to "buck up" and I wasn't upset with her for it. But she also told me, that's all you can do. It sucks. It's hard. It's not pretty at all. But in the end, that's all that's left. You either buck up and deal or you let it consume you. She put that perfect to me. And she meant it from the bottom of her heart. I have no doubt in my mind that she never once judged me for being scared, upset, pissed, happy, sad, this way or that way about this transition. She was there for me, as a Navy Wife who has lived her life this way and moved with her family, and as a true friend. And boy do I wish she was here right now to let me cry on her shoulder.....
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