Quick December Update

Merry Christmas! Things here are good. I will update more this next week after I've gotten the house back in order and pictures all together...but here are a couple short videos of the baby in the meantime. Watch closely! Hope you all have a happy and healthy new year, and we'll be writing more soon!

...life is good...

Can't believe it's the middle of November already! Time has been flying by for us lately. The family is doing great.

Michael is working dispatch for a little while so that he can expand his training and learn more and different jobs. I'm also very proud to announce that, by request of his chief, Michael will be taking an EMT course to become certified, which would carry over to the U.S. outside of the military as well. It's a very tough one month course that starts the middle of January and goes into February. He has been working days since he went to dispatch, which has also been absolutely wonderful for all of us, as we get to spend a lot more time together.

I have been feeling better than I have in a long time. I finally have some energy back and, as long as I stay away from smells like poop and cigarettes, I don't get sick anymore! I still babysit part time and just take care of Caleb. My college classes will be starting in February...I'm only taking 1-2 classes at a time so it won't be too overwhelming at first. I'm 22 weeks pregnant Monday and definitely showing now.

Caleb is doing fantastic in school. We have been getting nothing but good reports from his teachers about how well he works with the other kids and is excelling for his age. We recently found out about some sports programs that are available to kids his age. Unfortunately it was a little late to get him into the soccer program, but t-ball is starting in April, and they are trying to see if they can set up a basketball program soon.

Good news...we finally have a kitchen table! It's wonderful to be able to sit down together as a family to eat dinner, and it's a damn nice table if I do say so myself. We also ran across a couple dressers that were being given away for free. They're extremely nice, heavy duty dark wood dressers...so for the first time in 2 years we don't have to live out of boxes and suitcases anymore! We also picked up a spare twin size bed the other day, and a good size dresser came with that as well. It's not as heavy duty as ours, but it has a lot of space. I'm making it my project to paint and fix up, and we're going to use it for the baby's room.

Halloween was a blast. Unfortunately, the company we had ordered Caleb's costume from never got it out to us (long story), so we ended up getting him an FBI kit at the NEX. It turned out great though because he plays with it all the time, his favorite thing is the baton to beat up bad guys! That morning Caleb and I got up and went to the breast cancer awareness 5K run/family walk. There was a huge turnout, bigger than anyone expected, so it was really exciting. Caleb had a good time walking with me because he said we were like a parade! They had a lot of tents set up and a big blown up jumping thing for kids, so he had a lot of fun jumping in that too. That evening we all went out trick-or-treating and it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of balconies decorated, kids and adults were running around in costumes, and people were giving out handfuls of candy. A couple times while we were walking, a random adult dressed up in a costume would run up to Caleb and throw a handful of candy into his bag!

Today we spent the day in Pompeii. It is absolutely beautiful there! We spent a good part of the day there, and we probably only saw about 1/4 of it. It's enough to just look around and take in the views and the structures...but if you look closely, there are little carvings and statues and paintings everywhere. We plan on taking at least 1-2 more full day trips there so we can actually see it all. After we were finished walking around the ruins, we walked to a little restaurant just outside of it and had some FANTASTIC Italian pizza. We sat outside at some cute tables underneath a big tent/canopy, and the weather was absolutely perfect the entire day. The paths and walkways in Pompeii are all uneven rocks and big stones, so parts of it were like a hike. If you're not careful you can trip and fall with every step, but we had a great time and couldn't have asked for a better day.

Here are some videos I've taken in the past month or two, and I'm also sending out a link to snapfish for our Halloween/Fall 2009 and Pompeii pictures. We hope you enjoy!

Beginning of September Update

Sorry we haven't updated much lately, life has kept us very busy! I don't have any new pictures or videos to share right now, but I will get some to post soon. Now that I'm pregnant, we're eligible for a 3-bedroom on base...so we spent this past labor day weekend moving ourselves into our new place. We couldn't be happier with the apartment! There is a ton more room in the living room, lots more cupboard space in the kitchen, two bathrooms, a separate laundry room, and obviously an extra bedroom for the baby. The balcony off of the living room is a little smaller than the old place, but it's still perfect for us, and we also have a small balcony off of our bedroom (that also links up to the baby's room). We have a couple more things to get, and then I'll make a video to show you all what it looks like here. We have also gotten extremely lucky when it comes to appliances! We have a brand new washer, new microwave, brand new fridge and dishwasher, the showers look almost new with no mildew whatsoever (much different from the old place), and we now have a big extra freezer that we got for free! Some people moved out downstairs and left it, so Michael went and talked to the people down there and they let us have it. A freezer that size goes for around 300euro here, so we are VERY fortunate!

Michael is doing great. He finished one of his online classes, is still taking another, and a new one will start this next month I believe. He has been doing great in school, works hard every night (can't wait until he works days again!), and spends lots of time with us. In the next few months he should hopefully be able to start talking to his detailer to start negotiating his next set of orders. I pray to God he doesn't have to do a year unaccompanied tour, but unfortunately it's a good possibility. Things change every day, and they're always making new rules and switching people around, so who knows what will happen by then.

I am doing pretty good as well. Overall, I'm feeling a lot better than I have been the past couple months, but I have my good days and my bad days. I'm still babysitting a couple days a week, one baby in the mornings and one in the evenings. Besides that I just spend my days with Caleb and do lots of reading and research about natural births. I'm really pushing to have a home birth, but no-one out here has dealt with that before and is having a hard time giving me answers right away, so it's taking time to work things out. There are a few different possibilities at this point, and thankfully I have a couple people who are helping me out now with finding answers, so cross your fingers!

Caleb got accepted to school!!! We are SO excited for him! He is supposed to start September 15th, and it's Monday through Friday from 7:55am-1:30pm. It is going to be a wonderful experience for him, and he is really happy as well because he loves school. If he hadn't gotten accepted we would've continued taking him to the "drop-off" program, but this will be much better for him because he will actually learn things, instead of just going to play for a couple hours. This will also be a great opportunity for him to meet more kids his own age, since all of the kids in his class are 4, turning 5.

We went out to dinner at our first real Italian restaurant this past Saturday night, and it was fantastic! We got there around 7:30pm and opened the restaurant...since most Italian restaurants don't open until 8-9pm. They started us out with a taste of the house wine and little pieces of some sort of sandwich with vegetables on it, and then a basket of some sort of really good crusty herb bread with pieces of meat in it (which was all free). Caleb wanted pizza, so I ordered him pizza for 6euro, thinking it would just be a big slice of pizza, but instead he got an 8 piece pizza all to himself! Michael and I got appetizers of the most fantastic mozzarella cheese I've ever tasted, surrounded by paper thin slices of ham. For dinner, Michael had a lobster and pasta dish, and I had pasta and scampi topped with tomatoes. It was delicious! Throughout dinner they also gave us more free bread, but this time it was a plate with some sort of a breadstick tasting bread that was cut like slices of pizza. Afterwards, we all had a little gelato. Some people say that there are better restaurants and food than this one, but this was our first real Italian restaurant, and we thought it was a great time and great food!

Our Family is Growing

So I'm sure everyone has heard the news by now...but for those of you who may not have, we are having a baby! I'm just over 7 weeks pregnant now. It was July 22nd, Michael's first day to work nights, so he and Caleb were still sleeping when I walked to the hospital at 6:30am to get a test done. When i walked in the lady says, "um...I'm not sure if we can do this test today, your pregnancy test came back positive." I nearly passed out! We have been trying to have a baby, but because of personal reasons, we never would have thought I'd get pregnant anytime soon. They took me into the room and I was far enough along to see the baby on the ultrasound, and printed a picture to bring home to Michael and Caleb. I woke Caleb up first, showed him the picture, and explained that we were having a baby and he was a big brother. Of course it will take some time for him to fully understand what's going on, but he knows that "our baby" (as he calls it) is in my tummy, and he's very excited! He took the picture and woke up Michael...who didn't quite understand the picture until I explained to him what it was! We are all very happy and excited. Sometimes Caleb will randomly lift up my shirt and put his hand on my belly. I asked him once, "are you saying hi to the baby?" He said, "I'm just keeping an eye on it." He's a riot, he will be a great big brother.

Let's see...what else has been going on? We went back to Carney Park to go camping for the weekend of our anniversary, but ended up only staying there one night because none of us got any sleep (thanks to noisy people) and I have had pretty bad morning sickness...or more like all-day sickness. We still had a fantastic time and got lots of swimming in. We bought Caleb a lifejacket to help him learn, and by the time we left the pool we had him swimming all over by himself with no help, and he was even going down a small water slide, landing completely under water, without anyone there to catch him. He had an absolute blast. This past weekend there was a big picnic for the base. There was music, lots of stuff for kids to do, raffles, demonstrations (for example, they did a working police dog demonstration where they had the dog go after someone), and they had lots of tents set up with information about various organizations. There was also a short parade, it was really neat. The Italian polizia, caribineri, our military police, bike patrol, the Italian motorcycles, and our firetrucks were all in it. It was really neat seeing all of the different police vehicles that are used, and the weird sounds some of them make!

Michael is doing great. Working nights has taken a little bit more out of him, because he's not used to staying up all night and sleeping all day, but it's only 3 months and they switch back thankfully! He's taking a couple classes online as well, working on that degree. He has been absolutely wonderful...I have had horrible morning sickness and have spent most of the last week sleeping, being sick, and trying to get comfortable on the couch. He has taken over a lot of my chores around the house and has really helped out a lot, I don't know what I would've done without him! Besides being sick, I'm doing good as well. I've taken a little break from my ISP classes to rest, but hopefully in the next couple weeks I can get working on those again. Caleb is happy and healthy! He has been going to a drop-off program at school twice a week for a few hours, and he loves it to death. The teachers say he's been doing good in school and playing very well with the other kids. We are excited for school to actually start in September because it will give him a little more of a "learning" experience, instead of just playtime for a few hours here and there.

Here are a few random videos we've taken over the past couple weeks, and I'm also sending out a link for snapfish for a few pictures we have as well. Sorry I'm not in many of them, but feeling how I've been feeling lately, I've been the one hiding behind the camera! I hope everyone is happy and healthy...we miss you all! Lots of love.

Hiking Trip

Yesterday we drove to Carney Park and went hiking up the volcano. There are trails everywhere, it was awesome. Technically the trails aren't part of Carney Park or the military, but you can access them from there. So we had to park inside Carney Park and then walk out the gate, down the road a little, to find a trail leading in. We spent a few hours climbing and didn't even hit half the trails, and that's only on one side of the volcano. If we had taken a trail on the other side of the road there are a lot more trails on that side as well. A lot of the trails were really nice, they're pretty big and open so it wasn't too hard to get through. There were a few spots here and there where we had to help Caleb and Sucre out to find their footing, or lift them up if we had to climb a little, but it was such a great experience. Caleb had an absolute blast, as did Michael and I (and Sucre actually did too!). As we hiked higher up the volcano some of the trails got smaller and more overgrown. It would've been better if we had worn pants, because there ended up being a lot of prickers, but it was so hot there's no way we would've been able to hike in them. This weekend we're going camping for a couple days, so we'll go hike again and explore some of the other trails. I sent out an e-mail to everyone with the pictures we took on snapfish, they don't do the view justice, but hope you enjoy anyway!

What?! It's the middle of July?!

The past couple months seem to have flown by. Michael and I were looking at pictures of Caleb from a couple years ago, and we were in disbelief at how much he's changed and grown up. We've had a lot of adventures the past couple years, from taking an amazing trip to Chicago a couple weeks after we met, to living out here in Italy, and all the bouncing around in between. It's been interesting. :-)

We got Caleb a kite, and as you can tell from the video, he has had a blast with it. Daddy was trying to teach him tricks with it, and he was doing very well. It's a Transformers kite with Bumblebee on it. Caleb was interested in Transformers before, but after watching the movie with us one night he is in love with them. He was glued to the TV, pointing and yelling every time a fight scene came about. Caleb grew out of his bike. We were looking at a couple bikes, trying to decide which we wanted to get, when we came across a scooter at Auchan. Caleb had ridden a scooter down in Texas with a little boy he met at the playground, and he really liked it. We gave him a choice between a bike and a scooter and he wanted the scooter, so we bought it. We're still going to get him a bike, but the scooter is good for now until we do. It's great because it's a jr scooter, so he has to learn to balance is and steer it, which he's getting the hang of pretty quickly. He rode it all the way down to the store with me to get some groceries, and then rode it all the way back. It's definately some good exercise! Uncle Nikolas and Uncle Daniel sent Caleb a double barrel shotgun. It's been his new favorite toy lately. We use it to teach him about gun safety too, and it's neat because when you pop it open to take out the shells, they'll fly back out at you just like a real gun, so you have to do it the right way. He's been shooting deer, chickens, bad guys, and of course anything in the house that the darts will stick to.

Michael has been busy juggling work, school, and family time. He's doing great though. They should be switching to nights in the next week or two. It kinda sucks because he'll have to sleep during the day a lot, and Caleb will be starting school eventually so he won't see him too much during work days, but at least he gets time off every 2-3 days. Also it's good for Michael because he prefers to work at night when it's cooler, and there's different work to do at night than during the day. It's only for 3 months, and then he switches back to days again. I'm doing pretty well. I was sick with a fever the past 7 days, but it's all over and I'm feeling a lot better now. I will be babysitting a 3 year old little girl for the month of August from 6:30-5pm, Monday through Friday. I will also be babysitting our friend's baby from the end of August to middle of October. That will only be 2 days one week, 1 the next, and then alternating back and forth. It's only a few hours in the evenings while our friend is at school. I may also be babysitting an 8 month old baby boy from September until June of 2010. They are coming over tomorrow morning to meet me, and then we'll decide for sure if it's going to work. That would only be 3 days a week, from 8:45am-12:15pm or so. It may sound confusing, but it's really not. It works out so that I'll never babysit more than one child at any given time (not including Caleb obviously). There are a lot of jobs like this around the base, so I'm continuously looking to see what's available. I'm also taking ISP's (Independent Study Programs) online to get certificates that I'll later transfer over to college and get another associate's degree. Getting the certificates themselves don't cost money, but they don't really mean much until you transfer them over to something, which does cost money. Michael is taking the same classes and going for another associate's degree as well.

We miss all of you. We're still waiting to see pictures of everyone as well, so get your butt moving! Lots of love from the McGuire family.

Just a couple more quick videos

Well he's not running in circles Sofia, but I took these videos of Caleb today! The way he uses his hands and tells stories cracks me up.

We've become foster parents...

...for dogs. A few weeks back, we ran into a situation that landed us with a stray rottweiler mix. It was obvious she was someone's dog and had been abandoned, which unfortunately is a HUGE problem here in Naples. So we ended up taking her in, cleaning her up, and began the search for a new home for her. We could tell by her underside that she had had puppies not long ago, she was house trained, leash trained, and crate trained. We named her Mya, she took to all of us immediately, and treated Sucre like her own pup. We had her for a couple weeks but unfortunately there was a little slip up and to make a long story short, she's back out on the streets somewhere. We hoped to see her again and I've looked around to try to find her, but we haven't seen her since. It was a very sad situation, and thankfully she was at least cleaned up and well fed, but there wasn't much more we could do for her once she left. That brings us up to last night. A guy in Michael's section came to us asking a huge favor. He had two dogs that he had adopted out while back. The new guy didn't take care of the dogs, and finally said he didn't want them anymore. Michael's co-worker and his wife already have two labs, and I don't think 4 dogs are allowed in the on base housing. So last night he went to pick up the dogs, they took in one of the dogs, and asked us if we could foster the other one while he finds homes for them. This dog's name is EJ and he's an American Bulldog. He's about 10 months old, looks like a mean, solid piece of meat, but is such a lazy little baby! He's very quiet and well behaved, and he absolutely loves Sucre, which is good because Sucre is getting a lot of social interaction with other dogs now. Speaking of Sucre, he has a tiny little slip up once in a while, but he's pretty much fully potty trained now at almost 3 months old. He also sits, stays, shakes, and lays down on command. His biting has gone down a lot, but his teeth still bother him and he's still a playful little puppy so he does still nip when he gets excited and wants to play. We keep lots of toys and bones around, so thankfully we've never had a problem with him trying to chew our furniture. Michael, Caleb, and I are all doing great. The school goes through applications and does call-backs the end of August/beginning of September, so hopefully Caleb's teacher will be giving us a call! Being E4 status, we are highest priority among the ranks, but now it comes down to us and all the other E4's trying to get in. Caleb is excited about school, he talks about it all the time and really wants to go. We've been working on spelling words and he's picking up on some simple words now. He can usually spell his name, and he knows what little words say, for example "stop." Nothing else is really new right now. Michael works, I spend my days with Caleb and the dogs, we've been trying lots of new foods, working out a lot, and just enjoying the weather! I have a few videos and pictures. They're nothing exciting, just us and the dogs in our every day life, but it's an update. Oh and one more thing, it's official, Jenna is coming out to visit us in December! She's flying out of Boston the 17th, we'll pick her up in Rome on the 18th, and she'll be here until the 30th. We are so excited! We also have Vonage now, so we have a stateside phone number. I will send out an e-mail with the number.

Quick Update

I mean it this time, this will be quick! Not much has been going on. It's been insanely hot (which I love, but no-one else does haha) The sun feels like it's burning your skin when you walk outside, it's so bright and sunny. We got a decent patio set finally. This is the first time Michael, Caleb and I have eaten at our OWN kitchen table since we lived in Albion about two years ago. Speaking of eating, I made a three bean chili tonight for the first time tonight and it came out FANTASTIC. I used kidney beans, pinto beans, and black beans...chopped up some green pepper, white onion, fresh garlic, and fresh tomato...obviously a few other little tweaks I can't tell you about :-) Caleb loved it so much he was actually picking out the beans to eat them! Well nothing else is new right now, but we'll keep you all updated.

Gaeta

Saturday we went up to Gaeta for the day. The scenery was incredible. We originally planned on going to the beaches up there because they're cleaner and nicer than in Naples, but the day turned out differently. Because of traffic and driving up there for the first time not really knowing where exactly any good beaches were, it took us about 2 hours. We didn't mind so much because we got to see some pretty stunning sites, between the rolling mountains on one side, and the Mediterranean on the other. After we got there we were told that it's not a good time to go to the beaches because they haven't been cleaned yet, so there would be broken glass and garbage, so instead of going to a beach we decided to walk around and explore the city. I tried to take pictures of everything, but there's not one picture that comes close to seeing it in person. It was so amazing it felt like it wasn't real. We would just stand there and stare out into the water and looking for the little villages scattered atop the mountains. It was almost too perfect. The water was sparkling too much, the sky was too blue, the sun was too hot, the mountains were too clear, the flowers were too colorful, but we can never get enough gelato! We walked through all of the buildings and up and down side roads through some of the most beautiful structures I've ever seen. You had to look closely because you never knew when you might find a hidden staircase, or walk up some steps and look through the bars of a door and see a church inside with beautiful statues and pictures. There were winding staircases and random doorways everywhere, wrapping up and down buildings throughout the whole area. We spent a few hours just walking around taking pictures, then headed back to a gelato shop to get a little treat, and then headed home. We found out today about a free beach up there that's plenty clean enough to go to now, so we'll definately be driving back to Gaeta soon. There's not really much more I can say about our day yesterday, it was just a lot of walking around and gawking at the scenery. But we do have some more great news from the "Caleb trying new foods" front! Today he ate corn on the cob for the first time! We grilled it along with talapia (which he LOVES), and cooked up some gnocchi. Check off another vegetable off the list! He wanted me to take a picture of him eating the corn, which is posted here on the blog, but the rest of the pictures from Gaeta are on snapfish and I'll be sending everybody the link, so let me know if you haven't gotten them.

Life is a bowl full of cherries

Yesterday I made strawberry varenyky for the first time all by myself. For those of you who don't know what that is, it would be like perogies with a sweet strawberry filling. I used fresh strawberries I had from the vendor right outside the base, and after I cooked them I topped them with fresh cut up strawberries and a little sugar. They came out really good, everyone liked them a lot. Caleb wanted me to take a picture of him eating them, which are the only real pictures I have right now, so I'll post them on here instead of snapfish. We also have more good news. We stopped at the vendor this morning to buy a watermelon and some more strawberries, and the man gave Caleb a few cherries before we drove away. He has fantastic cherries, we've bought his cherries before, but Caleb has never tried them. On the way home, Caleb gave a cherry to Michael, gave one to me, and then ate one himself! He loved it! Caleb likes cherries! Then at dinner tonight I put some salsa inside his taco and he ate that too. It's so nuts. He has his good days and his bad, just like any other kid, but more and more he's starting to eat anything you put in front of him, even fruits and vegetables. We're so proud of him. Today we went to the pool on base. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't crowded to the point where we couldn't swim a little and enjoy ourselves. Caleb had a BLAST, and it was definately refreshing as it's been blazing hot. It's a really big pool with different areas sectioned off for people. Only thing is that on our way out I actually stopped to read a sign and we realized you're supposed to buy a pass when you come in. Oops. Tomorrow we're going to the beach. We've heard the beaches up in Gaeta are really nice, so we borrowed a GPS and we're going to head up there in the morning. We'll make sure to take lots of pictures!

YESSSS!!!

Caleb is eating broccoli!!! We needed a quick dinner tonight so I baked up these Chinese vegetable wraps, cooked up some broccoli with a little cheese on top (to try to make it more appetizing for Caleb so he would maybe try it) and rice with a seaweed seasoning on top. He ate everything! We couldn't believe it! He actually said he LIKED the broccoli! Like I said before, by the time we leave Italy we'll have that kid eating everything! :-)

Downtown

Type in "Naples, Italy" in google images and take a look at some of the pictures. That's what it looked like today. These were some of the most beautiful sites we've seen so far, and we only went to downtown Naples again. This time we were alone, and we walked a LOT farther, until we ended up leaving all of the traffic and hub-bub of downtown life. We reached the water and were about ready to jump in. Unfortunately Italians have a trash problem (they like to leave it everywhere) so we saw a few piles floating through the rocks, but as long as you didn't look right at the shoreline, it was absolutely stunning. The pictures I took don't even do it justice. There's no way to capture how beautiful it is without seeing it yourself. While we were walking through downtown to get to the water, there was some sort of parade or protest going on, we're not sure what it was. There was a huge group of policeman leading the way, and men and women waving signs and flags walked by singing songs together. It was awesome. The battery on the camera ran out while I was filming the first video, but then while we were standing there they started singing "Yellow Submarine" by the beatles...but in Italian of course, so I switched batteries and caught a little bit of the song. As we left the busy part of downtown and made our way to the water, there were a lot of flowers, and a nice large stone sidewalk with little vendors, statues, and trees everywhere, and it seemed every couple minutes we'd walk by a couple making out. Apparently love was in the air today. We also saw a lot of sunbathers out on the rocks, as well as two different weddings. I couldn't imagine getting married in one of those churches or castles, and then having my pictures taken up on a ledge against the water, holding onto a pole kissing. It was breathtaking just watching them. We got gelato on our walk back to the bus stop. It was PHENOMENAL!!! Caleb got chocolate, Michael got some sort of oreo looking stuff, and I got a scoop of caffè with a scoop of menta on top. YUM YUM YUM! By the way, for those of you that looked at the last link of photos I posted on snapfish, the reason we had so many pictures of sushi was because I made it myself for the first time. It turned out wonderful and we'll definately be eating it more often! We hope you all enjoy the pictures and videos.

Here is the link to snapfish with the photos we took today. http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=912407007/a=37864239_37864239/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Link to Snapfish Photos

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=903781007/a=37864239_37864239/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Just Another Day

So not much is new right now. We've gotten pretty much everything we need for the apartment (except for a new bed for Michael and I, which will come in the next couple months) and we're all settled in. Due to a week of very stormy weather, we haven't gotten to go out and explore like we had planned this past weekend. Tomorrow (Thursday) we will either be going on a Safari or going downtown again, so some nicer pictures of the area will be coming soon. So here's an update. Caleb likes strawberries! This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but considering he never used to like any fruits or vegetables, this is a big deal. Now he's eating an apple almost every day, beans, bananas, strawberries, and he ate stuffed peppers for the first time a couple nights ago (minus the pepper on the outside). We've also gotten into the habit of grilling salmon and talapia (or shrimp) once every week or so, and Caleb has tried it all. He liked the salmon, he has eaten a piece of shrimp here or there, and he ate the talapia like someone was about to take it away from him. By the time we leave here we'll have him eating, or he'll have at least tried, everything! We are all doing wonderful and are really enjoying ourselves. Michael has had a couple days of excitement at work recently, but thankfully (for safety reasons) it was all false alarms. Caleb and I spend most of our days going to the park, or for bike rides, taking Sucre for walks, and just playing games and enjoying ourselves. There are a lot of kids around so usually there's someone else on the playground he can play with, as well as the people we've already made friends with. Sucre has almost doubled in size since we got him a couple weeks ago. He has his next vet appointment on the 8th, where he'll be getting his first set of shots and a set of tags. We haven't had too much trouble not having him tagged, but there is one certain guy in security that likes to stop by whenever he sees me out with Sucre and always asks about his tags. The other day we went to IKEA and Leroy Merlin with some friends of ours. That was quite the adventure! Not one person spoke english (which wasn't too much of a problem for me because I've caught on quite quickly to the Italians), but I've never been in a store so big that they had arrows on the floors directing you on which way to walk. We figured this out when we were the only ones walking the wrong way and kept running into everyone. Here in Italy there are fireworks every night. Sometimes we can see them, but most nights you just hear them in the distance like thunder. There are always strikes going on and every other day is a holiday here in Italy. And when they have a holiday, they shut everything down. One of the other bases here was completely shut down one day because the Italians didn't want to work. You couldn't even get onto the base. They love life, and they love to have fun that's for sure! The weather here has been hot and sunny almost every day since we've been here up until the past week. When it rains here it pours. It's been almost like a mini-hurricane every day, and it's been cooler, more like in the 70's instead of the 90's. From the looks of it though, it's gone back to normal. We have a few more pictures and videos, but not much else has been going on lately. We're just going about our every day lives right now, finishing up whatever paperwork, errands, and settling in we had left to do. We've also tried our fair share of good Italian wine, for those of you who are interested! There's wine tasting at the NEX almost every day, but you have to watch out, because at Italian wine tasting you are guaranteed to leave with a buzz. Instead of a taste, they give you about half a glass to drink, and they'll continue to shove wine at you until you just walk away. We can't wait for everyone to come visit us! We miss everyone and love you all very much. Next blog I'll have more interesting things to write about!

Check out Photos on Snapfish

I've decided I'll only be posting videos on my blog. When I post pictures I'll continue to put them on snapfish and just post the link here on my blog. This is the link for the first album: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=711648007/a=37864239_37864239/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Quick Update

Here's a quick update with a few pictures and videos. The pictures aren't the greatest yet, we're still slowly putting the apartment together, and hopefully we can get our household shipment sometime this week to finish it off! Our shipment was in Naples as of May 15th, so we'll be calling them to set up a time to get it over here. Caleb's birthday friday was a blast. We had Shane, Aubree and their new baby Alexis over that afternoon. We did a few things in the morning, then decorated the apartment and just hung out and played. Caleb loved all of his gifts and took advantage of the sweets I baked! I made him a triple chocolate fudge cake (upon his and Michael's request haha), rice crispy treats, and peanut butter cookies. We had baked beans, mac and cheese, and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. After dinner we all went for a walk and it was a beautiful night. As much as Caleb loves his new toys, it'll be great when our household shipment gets delivered so he can have ALL of his stuff back! The video of him playing his new drum set is the first time he sat down the play. Pay close attention not only to what he's playing, but also how he's playing it. He actually had a beat going, and at the end it sounds like he does a finish. It was awesome. So let me try to explain a little about the pictures. If you read my last post I've already described what the apartment looks like, so these pictures just go along with that. Like I said it's not the greatest, but when we get all of our stuff and are able to "officially" settle in (meaning we don't have borrowed furniture stashed everywhere) then I'll get some updated pictures up. The blue couches, any of the light brown tables/chairs, and the beds are loaner furniture that will be going back the day they come drop off our household shipment. The dark brown couches and coffee table are our own furniture we just purchased. Caleb's new bed is in the process of getting put together, Michael and I still need to look at beds, and we'll be getting a nice area rug in a couple weeks as well as a couple other little things. Now most of you are probably looking at these pictures/videos, and the last thing you're thinking about is the furniture. Yes, we have another dog. Surprise! Definately wasn't planned, but we're glad we have him. His name is Sucre (pronounced su-kray), he's just about a month old, and I couldn't tell you what breed he is. From what we and the vet can figure out, it looks like he might have some german shepherd and maybe some chow and a little husky. We'll never know what he is, but he's the softest little ball of fur and he took to all of us really well. So this is what happened. Michael's working the other day, and they get a call from a lady who said there's been a cardboard box with some puppies in it abandoned outside in the sun for quite some time now, by one of the buildings on base. So they went to investigate and found three weak, malnourished, sickly puppies that were covered in their own pee and poop for who knows how long. When Michael went to pick up the box is completely fell apart in his hands it was so bad. Now they tried to call the vet on base but there's nothing this vet can do when it comes to abandoned dogs. Any dog on base gets micro-chipped by the vet and has to be reported, so unless someone were to take in an abandoned dog, they're shit out of luck. They were told to make another phone call but then also found out that they are allowed to take in strays, which is when they called me. No-one had really looked too closely or done anything with the puppies yet, so when the guys told me about them I said I'd get them all cleaned up and hang onto them until they were done with work, and then we could work on getting them adopted out. So Michael and his co-worker drove over with the box of puppies and I took them upstairs to get started while Caleb was napping. I've never seen a dog in this bad of shape before, let alone three, except for on those animal cop shows on tv. I cannot believe anyone could do something like that to those little puppies, they didn't look good at all and were barely moving. We could tell they were too young to be away from mom already. Michael had pointed one of the puppies out when he gave me the box and mentioned about us maybe taking him (which is Sucre), so I took that puppy out first and put him in the bathtub to get started. I've never seen a tick before besides on the discovery channel. Let's just say I had to call Michael and his buddy to come back and pick the puppies up because it was just way too much for me to do by myself, with no tools, on the bathroom floor, with a child in the house (thankfully Caleb was sleeping through all of this). It was when I had started giving the puppy a bath and checking him for fleas that I realized that he had ticks. A whole lot of ticks. So Michael and his buddy came back and I told them what happened. After we talked for a minute we decided that Michael and I would keep the one puppy Michael had pointed out and claim him so that we could take him to the vet. His buddy said that he would take one of the other puppies he had had his eye on and would keep it as his own. It wasn't until after Michael got home that I found out one of their co-workers volunteered to claim the last puppy so he could take it to the vet and get help, and he said that he would take care of it until someone decides to adopt it. This was great news because if they had made that other phone call when the first found the puppies, they wouldn't be alive. So I called the vet when I got back upstairs and told them about Sucre. They said the first appointment they had available was in about a month, so unfortunately there wasn't much they could help with right now and we'd have to wait until then. So I put him in the bathtub to try to clean him up before I was going to tackle the fleas and ticks myself. When I lifted up his ear to wash it, there was a tick about the size of a grape, surrounded by about 7 or 8 more ticks. I won't get into anymore details, but that was just the beginning. I called the vet and told them everything I found and by the time I was done they told me to come right over. I wrapped Sucre in a towel, grabbed Caleb, and we walked to the vet. They knew where the puppy came from, they remembered getting a phone call that morning about the puppies, so they were all very helpful in taking care of him and everyone wanted to meet him and pet him even though he was covered in all sorts of bugs and crap. They checked him over and said he was only maybe a month old and shouldn't have been away from mom yet, they checked his temperature and they weighed him (he was 3lbs 4ounces). The veterinary assistant began pulling out ticks and even the vet himself came in a few times to check on the puppy and see how things were going. After they finished they gave him wormer, we set up our next appointment, they played with him for a little while, then they gave us a big can of dog food to help get us started and sent us home. Basically to make a long story short, everything has worked out great, and Sucre is making a full recovery. Thankfully, he slowly started to eat the wet dog food and is now eating dry puppy chow as well. He had worms so bad that when he pooped it looked like he was pooping white noodles, there wasn't even any poop to it, but the medicine they gave him took care of everything and he's functioning normal now. By the time everything was done, I added up the ticks the vet had pulled out, as well as a few I had taken out myself, and it came out to over 30 ticks. The only other issue we had with Sucre is that he had fleas, but because he was so young and especially weak, the vet said not to use any flea treatments until the next appointment June 13th. They couldn't do anything to help except for try to pick off fleas when they saw them. That's a long time to wait and have a puppy running around with fleas, so I did some research and found a few all-natural home remedies to get rid of fleas. I picked three and tried them, and we're happy to announce that they're working. It's not an overnight fix, I have to keep working at it, but every day is getting better and better. So now when Rocky finally gets out here with us he'll have a brother. That's our story, or a short version of it. We hope you all enjoy the pictures and videos.

Our Apartment

For those of you that don't know, we officially arrived in Italy around 5:30pm on May 6th, 2009. The first thing we did was go to our new apartment to drop off our luggage and take a look around. This is the best place we've lived in so far. We are on the third floor of a building of about 12 apartments. When you walk through the front door there's a closet straight ahead, a very roomy living room is off to the left, and a small bathroom is on the right. This bathroom has a stand up shower, a toilet, a sink, and a washer and dryer with some shelves for storage around the top. The living room has french doors that open up to one end of our big balcony outside, as well as another door on the other wall leading out to the other side. The balcony stretches the whole length of the apartment. When you walk into the apartment there is a hallway leading down the apartment with the rest of the rooms. The kitchen is connected to the living room with a good sized bar window and shelf, and also has a door leading out to the balcony. There are cupboards everywhere and a sort of mini-closet with some enclosed shelves that provide enough room to keep all of our food there. In the hallway across from the kitchen is another closet with more shelves, and next to that is a walk-in pantry with even more shelving. Next to the pantry is the bigger bedroom, which comes with a huge closet against one wall as well as a walk in storage area. Across the hall is the 2nd bedroom. This bedroom has a closet against one wall and another door leading out to the balcony. In between the two bedrooms, at the end of the hall, is the 2nd bathroom. This bathroom has a full tub, sink, toilet, and a baday. This is my favorite bathroom because there is a big window in the shower and the shelf is big enough to put all of our shower things on it. All of the flooring in the apartment is tile, the walls are white, and it is very bright and open. All of the doors leading to the balcony are glass and there are windows in all of the rooms, so we rarely need to use the lights. The only problem we ran into with the apartment is that the stove is in Celcius, but we figured it out easily and don't need to think twice about it anymore. The direction our apartment faces is good for a few reasons. For one, we are on the inside of the group of buildings (away from the road) so for the most part it's very peaceful outside. This also makes it nice because we are friends with a couple in the building next door and if we're out on the balcony we're close enough to say hello to each other and maybe yell something here or there, but far enough away that we have our own privacy. The balcony is perfect because first thing in the morning it's in the shade. As the day goes on, the sun slowly starts to move over the balcony and warms everything up, but it never really gets far enough to cover the entire balcony and come into the house, which is nice because it gets very sunny and hot at times, but we're able to choose whether we want to sit in the sun or keep cool in the shade. The entire balcony is covered on top by the roof, but it also comes equipped with two seperate covers that roll out even further to block the sun and also give us more privacy if we wanted (which we haven't needed to use yet). There are little playgrounds everywhere on the base, including right below our balcony, but there is a nicer playground just a short walk down the road. Friday, May 15th, we are picking up our furniture and camera, so stay tuned for pictures.

Our Adventure to Italy

So we got to Buffalo and went to the counter to check in our luggage and get our plane tickets. The man told me that I was supposed to bring the tickets with me and that it's not showing that he can get them electronically. Thank God dad was there because when I felt my face flush I could see another sequel to "Carrie" about to take place. Thankfully we got the situation figured out, all I had to do was call Washington and give them a couple numbers off of our passports/visas, and we left Buffalo on time. Caleb was bouncing in his seat with excitement as the plane got ready for take-off. As we picked up speed (and sound) he went to cover his ears and looked at me a little worried. I laughed and waved my hands in the air and yelled, "Yeaaa!!! Here we go!" He calmed right down, started to smile again, and his face was glued to the window the rest of take-off and throughout the entire flight. It wasn't long before we landed in Chicago. Unfortunately it wasn't until we walked inside the airport and I walked up to the counter for help that I realized my ears were completely plugged. That's what I get for being sick as a dog. I managed to get through the conversation without losing Caleb, which was a big feat for having about 50% of my hearing and battling against all of the planes, buses, and fun things luring Caleb's attention away. We had plenty of time to find the shuttle, ride to the other side of the airport, and find our terminal. Caleb made friends with an older couple along the way. The wait felt a little longer in Chicago, not sure if that was because my meds wore off or Caleb was starting to get very overtired and refused to use the toilet because I couldn't find one that wasn't automatic. When we boarded the plane everyone went nuts over how cute Caleb was and they stole him away into the cockpit to hang out with the pilots. We finally got settled into our seats and just as the cabin door closes, Caleb looks at me with a scared look on his face and says, "Mommy, I have to go potty!" When we finally got into the air I took him into the bathroom, where he took one look at the toilet and started screaming and crying. After a couple minutes I realized there was no way I could make him sit on the toilet without making the entire plane think I was murdering him in the bathroom, so I gave up and we went back to sit down. Virginia was not fun. This was my first time checking luggage so I was trying to figure out where to wait to pick up my 120 lbs additional pounds of crap when I realized my very overtired son was doing the potty dance with that scared look on his face again. I grabbed him and ran into the bathroom while he screamed all the way because he didn't want to go. Gotta love automatic toilets. We fought in the stall for maybe 2 minutes while I tried everything I could possibly think of to get him on the toilet when he suddenly grabbed himself and peed all over. Not only did it go all over his underwear, pants, socks and down onto his shoes, but it also managed to somehow shoot up onto his shirt and sweatshirt as well. Our luggage was sitting all over the bathroom, the rest of our luggage was waiting to get picked up and we didn't have much time left to find a bus/taxi to get over to the other airport. I stripped off his clothes and tossed them in the garbage, threw papertowel over the puddle of pee that was starting to grow outside of the stall, cleaned him up the best I could and threw on his pj's. Then we ran out, notified someone of the accident, grabbed the rest of our luggage, jumped in a taxi and rode to the other airport on base. The wait for our amc flight was a bit of a blur, but from what I can remember it wasn't too bad and Caleb was starting to get very sleepy. Our plane was huge and they gave each child on the flight a little zip-up baggy with crayons and little activity books. This time when we took off Caleb rubbed his ears a little so I figured they must have popped. Leave it to Caleb. He looks at me, smiling from ear to ear, and says, "Mommy, my ear burped!" The flight was very relaxing for the most part. Caleb slept almost the entire time. About 4-5 hours into the flight, the pilot announced that we were starting our descent into Portugal. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. Pictures don't even compare. When we started to come down all we could see was blue water stretching everywhere. Gradually we could start to make out mountains, and then came down overtop of a coastline that was so breathtaking, I was scared that I'd wake up from my dream any minute. I woke Caleb up and dressed him, and then a big Portugeuse man came on board and herded us all off of the plane and onto buses, which drove us through some fences and into a building with not many chairs, but lots of hand sanitizer. Caleb and I hung out with a woman and her 3-month old baby girl for the 2 hours we waited. I decided that I love Portugal when I walked into the bathroom and the toilet had a handle. Not long after Caleb did his business, they herded us back onto the buses, drove us to the planes, and we took off for Naples. Caleb napped for a couple more hours until they announced that we were starting our descent into Naples, Italy. We were still so high up that all we could see were the clouds below us, but off in the distance I could see one lonely mountain sticking up through the clouds. As the plane dipped down and bounced on the runway I almost squealed like a baby, but Caleb did enough of that for the both of us. We grabbed our bags and almost scrambled to get off the plane and followed the crowd to customs. We were only in line for a minute when a familiar face stepped out from around the corner. "Daddy!!!!" Caleb screamed loud enough to make every head turn in the room. The poor kid was about ready to take off through the ropes and run to his daddy but I had to hold him back until our turn came and they checked our passports and visas. The Italian men were trying to talk to him and be friendly but Caleb's eyes were glued on Michael. When we walked through the metal detector we ran into Michael's arms and offically crossed over into Naples, Italy and our new life together.