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.