It's about that time...

In one week, the packers will be here which means two things: I am in serious "purge/de-clutter/trash all the junk" mode and "make a list for everything" mode.

Last night, Ron and I tackled the lovely Government loaned wardrobes and purged our closets of anything we haven't worn in 6mos-1year. The result was 3 boxes of clothes for donation! My wardrobe has always been pretty sparse...life as a stay at home mom doesn't require much but geez it's crazy to see the wardrobe so empty! But it feels good to have gone through it all!

Today the kids went through all the shelves/bins in their room and we came up with another box for donation of just toys. A BIG box of toys. And I was super proud of them, they didn't choose all the baby toys and happy meal toys (well those were donated too) but they donated "real" toys. Thomas the tank Engine, Lightning McQueen, an outdoor ride-on, Slinky Dog and Lotso Bear...even stuffed animals (which for my little hoarders is saying something). Add to this that I never once told them what to give; just that there were kids here who had no toys and mentioned that since they get new toys every Birthday, Christmas and anytime their Nanaw sends a package, maybe they could find some toys that they don't play with any more. There wasn't a single hesitation. I felt so warm and fuzzy as that box filled up!!

Add that toy box to the other five boxes (linens, shoes, miscellaneous items, baby stuff, kids clothes) and I'm really thankful that the Red Cross comes to your home to pick up donations!

This weekend we will go through and pick out what will go in our luggage, Monday they will come and pick up the wardrobes, Tuesday and Wednesday they pack the house and Thursday they load the truck. By Next Monday we'll do the walk thru and turn in the keys, then ship the van. Crazy to think we only have 21 days left in Italy!

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Asiago, Italy

A few Saturday's ago, we drove about an hour north to the town of Asiago. You probably recognize the name as this is where Asiago cheese originates from. (Sidenote: The Asiago cheese bagel from Panera is to.die.for...though I have no clue if it's authentic cheese). It is the cutest little town nestled in the foothills of the Dolomites. It has a very Barvarian feel to it, you can hear cowbells ringing and while it was 80 degrees in Vicenza, it was 55 in Asiago. Hence some of the kids wearing jackets. Also, blogger is being a total pain in my ass and won't upload over 1/2 of my photos so hopefully I'll have an ''Asiago part 2" shortly. 

First thing we did was park, then go into this adorable Panifico aka, bakery. 

 The town ''centro'' is adorable. Asiago played a role in World War I and much of the city was demolished and then rebuilt. This square is such an area.

 We made our way down one road, away from the center and found a park with the tallest trees I think my kids had ever seen. There was a memorial for a few Italian soldiers from the war as well as a small chapel with a crypt inside. As all signs were in Italian, I'm not exactly sure whose remains are there but was a very nice memorial.

We spent quite a bit of time in downtown Asiago, ate lunch at the cutest pizzeria and then made our way to the WWI memorial. We used the GPS on my phone to get there and boy was that thing nuts! It had us drive down a WALKING PATH in the middle of a field on a path much to narrow for our van and we actually had to drive around a bench at one point. It was ridiculous but there was no way to back up once we had turned on; it was a blind corner and wasn't worth the risk. We followed the ''map'' and ended up coming out in pedestrian crosswalk :/

 The views from the walk to the memorial were very pretty (a storm was moving in).

 The memorial itself is massive. While I think you can normally go up to the Arc, the day we were there the stairs were blocked off. But you enter through the doors into a small museum set up then it's just halls and halls of names of soldiers from WWI. They had a map of the different paths that the Austrians' and Italian's took through the Alps and Dolomites during the invasion, it was very neat to see but hard to imagine.

 After the memorial, we went to the Cheese Shop/Factory. I don't know if it's blogger or my internet but I can't seem to upload the other photos right now. More next time!

Throwback Thursday:

October 2010, 5 Generations, Grandma's meet Maggie for the first time!

Throwback Thursday:

Happy 4th of July! 2009

Getting things in order

I know, I've been slacka-lackin on the blog recently but given that we have 35 days until we depart Italy, there is a LOT to do and very little time to do it in. Sadly blogging gets pushed aside. Instead my time is spent de-cluttering and sorting, cleaning and donating, selling items and trashing items in each room of the house. It's getting records from dentists and from the school, getting the dogs up to date on their shots and getting their pet passports. Time has been spent looking at flights, rental cars, Realtors and lenders, houses and researching school districts. All of the above of course is in addition to the four children who are home all day. I'm not complaining, I know it will be worth it when we reach the other side but it is not leaving much for free time. I will catch up soon; we are trying to see places before we leave. Last Saturday we went to Asiago, Italy and tomorrow we are going to drive up the coast and through Slovenia and Croatia. Checking things off the list one at a time before we leave!

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