A different kind of 'sick'

The kids are sick, still. Like 'ear infections, inhaler is necessary, motrin every six hours' sick. It's getting better but Sissy has the worst of it now.

They are doing well considering that they've been passing this crud back and forth to each other for almost 3 weeks now. Each day is different. Who feels 'blah' or who feels better, if they wake up all night and sleep all day or sleep all night and wake at 5:22am. It's been a rough week to say the least! I feel bad for the kids but thankful that neither B nor I seem to be any worse for the wear, other than tired.

I however, I am homesick.

We've lived in Italy for almost six months now and I have done extremely well. I never went through a ''Oh My God what did we just agree to'' phase. I have never broke down and cried and wished we were home. I miss my family and friends sure, but not a ''i cannot go on living here'' sort of way. In all honesty it's the ''little'' stuff I miss {not including family}. The tiny day to day things that  And while I do miss my family, with Skype and Facebook, it's much easier to stay in touch. Plus that buffer year in Texas made it a little bit more manageable. It's been a while since I could jump in the car and see 4 different extended family members in less than one hour...that hasn't changed. Rather than driving for 15 hours, I'd be flying for 14.

I'll list everything I miss...

• I miss the convenience of the ''Drive Thru''. At banks, fast food restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacies...when you have four kids in the car it's a pretty much guarantee that one will be asleep. And I hate having to make that one up to go inside for something trivial. 
• Fountain drinks and ice cubes. If you get a soda here you get a can or a bottle. No fountain tap and no ice cubes. Usually no straw either.
• Big two lane roads. A few weeks ago I side-swiped my van on a guardrail, deliberately. When the other option is getting side swiped by a tractor with a plow and you're on a very narrow, curvy overpass/bridge...the guardrail looked like the better choice. 
• A wide variety of food. I love Italian food don't get me wrong but every.single.day that or the food on post is our only choice. {I didn't eat Burger King or Taco Bell stateside, so I'm not about to fall in love now}. I miss choosing between Mexican food or Chinese. Taco Cabana or Five Guys. I would seriously pay an un-Godly amount of money for a ''real'' cheeseburger right about now. 
• Pick up the phone and calling anyone I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. Now I'm dealing with a SEVEN hour time difference...whether I have good news or bad news, I have to wait. 
• Putting the kids to bed and then heading to Kohl's/Target/Ross/Walmart/Starbucks/ a million other places because everything was open ''late''. All the stores here close early...like 8pm. Makes for a loooong evening. I miss the convenience of running to a store at 11pm when I ''had'' to have something. No such luck now!

 Italy is great and sometime I'll have to make a list of everything I love but today, I just wish I could drive through a Starbucks!