It's been two weeks...

Since we touched down on US soil and I have to say, it's great to be back. We arrived August 8th/9th and luckily didn't suffer any jet-lag. Okay, let me rephrase that: The kids and I didn't suffer any jet-lag. B however slept WAY too much on the long flight over and his internal clock was all sorts of backward. We departed Italy at 10:55am on Thursday morning, landed in San Antonio TX at 8:30pm Thursday night (or what felt like 3am to us). However, I hadn't slept the night before we left so I was up a good solid 24 hours by the time we landed in Texas. The kids napped on the plane, but no longer than 2 hours (long enough for me to watch 'Pitch Perfect' uninterrupted). B however was in a seat all by himself as they couldn't get us grouped together (we were seats A-F on the plane but that left him sitting by a stranger rather than in a set of seats with one of us) and was able to nap much much more than I.

And I'm not gonna lie, I was ticked off. I was doing everything for the kids because a) I am their mom and always the first choice when they need water/potty/break up a fight and b) I was in arm's reach for 3 kids at a time. Every time I looked over and saw B peacefully sleeping I hoped that the person behind him would kick his seat-back. 

But little did I know, this worked out in my favor. Once we got off that last plane and settled into the hotel, I was O-U-T. He however, was restless. And for the first 3 nights we spent in Houston, the kids and I went to bed between 9-10pm and slept soundly all night. B was up at 2am taking Rascal and Lucca outside because they were all awake.

So, the kids and I did fine off the bat. We left San Antonio for Houston, got settled into the hotel here. Now when we landed in Italy, were in the hotel for 7 weeks so we know hotel-living. The room we have here is a suite; a kitchen, living room, one bedroom with 2 queen beds and a bathroom and another bedroom with a king bed and bathroom. It's nice but it's small. And as eager as we may get to leave, we have to wait 6-8 weeks for our household goods to arrive regardless of whether we buy a home or rent. So we unpacked, established some rules (like where toys go) and settled in.

Ron was adjusted by the fourth day which was great because he started work that day too. While he was at work, I was setting up meeting with our Realtor to look at homes. (We did leg work before ever arriving in Texas and knew which school districts we would consider, which towns and we had already been in contact with a mortgage banker and had a pre-qualification letter to buy our first home. Our Realtor already knew our budget and our must-haves so he literally just needed to start showing us homes). It took two days and 12 houses but we found ''the one'' for us and submitted an offer on the 13th. There was a day of negotiations (the biggest issue was the closing date...they wanted to wait until October 8th which just isn't an option for us) and we wanted a standard 30 days. We ended up negotiating to a date of Sept 20th. We set up a date/time for the inspection for that Friday and hunkered down to wait.

It's important to note, we weren't alone. Wednesday afternoon, Nanaw and Papa came to Texas! There was no way my mom was going to missing seeing us now that we were stateside. So we kept very busy. Children's museum, Kemah Boardwalk, Galveston Beach, we did it all and we did it Thursday- Saturday. (Pics to come, I don't have my computer yet obviously). So while we knew the inspection was done, we knew what the report was going to say for the most part...we just stopped and enjoyed the weekend.

Well apparently this made the sellers antsy. They are in contract to buy another home and it's contingent on theirs selling. So when the inspection was through and they received a copy/summary from their agent but didn't hear from us, they started to get concerned that we weren't happy. (We totally were but we just hadn't had time...Ron was back at work and we had planned to get in touch with our agent after he got off work Monday night to discuss what was next). Their agent called ours THREE times on Monday. They were offering to correct things before we could say anything. So we talked with our agent and came up with an amendment...lowering the asking price for a few repairs as well as them fixing two things prior to us moving in). We sent it off and Tuesday morning got word that they agreed. No countering, no negotiating, they gave us just what we wanted. Our agent drew up papers, we signed. Then our lender sent over the final locked in mortgage rate and break down and we signed. We're getting the house!

In addition to all the new house excitement, on Wednesday I got Ryan and Logan enrolled for school. They have their meet and greet tomorrow where they will meet their teachers and see the school. Classes start Monday! So we scrambled and got their school supplies together and they are ready.

So in two weeks we adjusted to jet lag, moved into a hotel, spent 3.5 days with my parents, went sight-seeing, put an offer on a house, enrolled our kids for school, got back to school hair-cuts, and signed the final papers to buy our first home. And we did it all with one vehicle as we still haven't found a beater car for B to use to commute to and from work. But considering all we did get done, It's been a pretty productive two weeks!

Home Sweet Home?

When I posted about moving back to the states, I wrote about settling down, buying a house and putting down roots. Back in June, we got in contact with a realtor. By the end of July we were pre-approved by a mortgage lender and had started looking at homes online. We were fortunate enough to have a few friends and acquaintances who were familiar with the area and could help make recommendations. We knew towns and specific school districts and schools that we wanted to be zoned into.

However, the area we are looking in is in high demand. Several of the houses we bookmarked and "favorited" were already sold by the time we arrived in Texas. So we met with our realtor ASAP. We got here Friday and saw houses on Monday.

As it turns out, online listings can be deceiving! Shocker I know. But when you have a "favorite" online and it still available when you arrive, its exciting. Then you see it in person and it turns out to be filthy, has stained carpets, broken counter tops and power lines running in the backyard...it's a disappointment (all one house!). Or is on a busy street. Or the neighborhood is all people over the age of 70. It's a let down. As a first time buyer I expected a "House Hunters" experience. Three houses and BAM! dream home. So not real life.

That first night we saw four homes, all busts (for the above reasons). Tuesday Ron went to work, the kids and I went with the realtor and saw seven more homes! We really liked one, but more of the neighborhood that the particular house. Tuesday evening I showed Ron the house and neighborhood and we agreed he would want to see the inside. We saw a handful of homes for sale and wanted info on those too. When I went to email the realtor, I saw an unread email from him. He found a listing that fit EVERY requirement/wish on our list in that neighborhood. We were really excited after seeing the area and I set up a time to see the house Wednesday morning.

So on Wednesday morning, the kids and I set off once more to view a house and I loved it. They loved it! Damn near everything about it. And I mean everything. (Only complaint is the wallpaper in the master bath). So I was thrilled to call Ron and say "you NEED to see the inside of this house". 

Ron saw it after work and long story a little shorter, we submitted an offer. On the 12th house we walked through, we found "the one". After a bit of negotiating, they accepted our counter offer and we had a deal! If all goes as planned we will close on September 20th.

Today we had the home inspection and that went pretty well. A couple minor issues (corrosion on a pipe from the water heater means the pipe needs replaced & previous termite damage around the door) were found and our agent is working those out with the sellers agent. This could seriously...SERIOUSLY...be our "Home Sweet Home". While I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason (and I know this will work out the way it is suppose to) but man do I hope we get this house!

Life after Europe

We didn't live in Italy for too long (20 months) but due to my kids' ages (they were 5, 4, just turned 3, and 14 months old when we arrived in Vicenza) apparently they didn't remember as much about life in the US as I thought they would. We've been In Texas for about 36 hours now and here are some of their discoveries/joys:

-Just moments arriving in our hotel room, Connor starts hollering "Mom come here! Mom come here! This hotel is awesome! The bathroom has the coolest thing ever" so he literally take my hand, leads me to his bathroom and exclaims "our hotel has a clubhouse!"....while showing me the CLOSET.

Yep. Just a closet. But we moved to Italy 2 weeks after he turned 3, and our house in Italy didn't have a single closet anywhere. So to him, this door led to a secret room.

-Our flight from Italy took us to San Antonio where we stayed one night, and then drove to Houston. We stopped on our way and picked up Sonic for lunch. All the kids got wacky packs and I asked "Do you want French fries or tater tots?" All the boys immediately (excitedly) responded "tater tots". Except Maggie who said "what's that?" And I realized she had never had a tater tot. She had also never had the pellet ice, which fascinated her.

-Logan went to the bathroom and then came out to tell me that he was able to flush all by himself. "It didn't have two buttons mom, it has a thing hiding on the side and I could reach it!"

-We get to Houston, we're driving near downtown when Maggie wakes from her nap. I tell her that we are almost there and she is staring out the window. She says "what's that?" and I turn to see what she's pointing at...it was the overpasses. I had to explain that there were cars up there, which she then said "I not see them". She was fascinated by the skyscrapers downtown as well. It took a lot of explaining that they were tall building with offices and that the little squares were windows.

Other things were:

-the size of Target and the toy department (7 aisles of toys, not 2 like our PX had). Maggie went CRAZY when she saw all the LaLaLoopsies and the boys had the same reaction to the 2 aisles of just superhero stuff.

-Arby's at the airport...how did they make the fries like that and had they ever had them before? (it was Ryan and the answer was yes).

-There are yellow school buses just like in my book (Connor).

We have been stateside for less than 2 full days and they love it!

What we did today....

And then almost 11 hours later...

After that it was a hop skip from Hotlanta to good ol' Texas. We're here!

It's the final countdown..

Just 3 full days left in Italy. It seems very surreal and explains the lack of posting. The house was completely packed up, we did the walk through with the landlord and B settled the accounts with the utilities. We're shipping the van tomorrow, B is selling the Mini Cooper tomorrow and the dogs get their USDA paperwork clearing them for for travel tomorrow. Busy Monday! Tuesday and Wednesday Ron will be busy at work while I forward the mail, get our medical records, organize the luggage and finish up packing. After the trip here and all that luggage we downsized considerably. 3 suitcases, 2 duffel bags, 2 carry ons and the kids each have their backpacks. Add in the two dogs and we should be busy and have our hands full yet not completely crazy.

As excited as I am to go "home" I am going to miss the amazing people I've met here, the mountains, the days trips and the wine for sure.

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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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BIG BIG News for our family!

Back in January I posted about the hard time we were having in Italy, medically. The kids have had asthma flare-ups and problems every single month (at least one child/month has been to the clinic for wheezing/coughing).  So since January, Ron has off and on applied for jobs that would get us back to the mid-west or Texas. Texas isn't very close to family but all of the kids did great medically in San Antonio so it was still on our list. We knew it this economy it might not happen, worst comes to worst and we would have to return to San Antonio in December 2014 and he would go back to work at his old office. Not ideal but not horrible either.

In March, he applied for a position at the Space Center in Houston. This position is a pay grade higher than the one in San Antonio and his current position here. It's also not the same job, but rather in a related field. So when April arrived and along with it was a call for a phone interview, we were excited but didn't get our hopes up. In May when we hadn't heard anything back we assumed he wasn't selected. So imagine our surprise when he got the phone call in June saying that he was their selected candidate and if he wanted the position, it was his!

Even though we went back and forth the entire month of May as to whether this was really something we wanted to do: cut our time here short and move to a city we have never even visited, we realized that in the long term this was best for our family.

See, Ron and I had made a decision years ago...I want to be a stay at home mom (and he loves that) but supporting a family of six on one income isn't always easy. I agreed to move as often as needed if it meant accepting a job he was interested in and that paid more...while our kids were young. Once they were old enough to really make friends I wanted to settle down. So we've moved (a lot in the last 7 years) but he's had great opportunities (overseas assignments are rare as a civilian in his field) and now we're ready to put down roots. This job at the Space Center is one he can see himself in for awhile, he loves that he'll be working for NASA and the pay is good.

Even though it cuts our time in Europe short we think it's for the greater good. If we pass on this opportunity and stay in Italy until December 2014 that means returning to San Antonio, to a job that Ron chose to leave to come here. It's less money than what the job in Houston pays as well and as much as people say 'It's not about the money' when you have one income supporting an entire family, it is sometimes about the money. I don't have a college degree (I withdrew from college classes at the beginning of my junior year when I found out I was pregnant with Ryan. A decision that I do not regret. I love being able to stay home and raise my kids! I was majoring in 'early childhood education' and I kinda do that everyday now so it's worth it to me) so it's not like he could take the lesser paying job and I could go to work; I could get a job but it would be minimum wage and not worth the daycare expense.

So yes, we're giving up on some amazing travel opportunities. Yes, Italy has been amazing for educating the kids about how other people live, the history of other countries and the differences. It's awesome that my 2 year old can tell the difference between the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower and knows she has been to both. But let's be honest my kids are 7 years old down to 2 years old...even if we stay another 18 months, they aren't going to remember much about our time here.

And while I didn't get to do everything I had hoped to, I am leaving without regrets. I have matured so much over the last few years. Twenty-one year old Shannon would have never in a million years even considered MOVING overseas. And I did that. And I realize that while I didn't do everything on my list, I did a lot in 18 months while toting along 4 kiddos. This was a list I made back in November 2011:

1. I want to see all the touristy Italian icons: leaning tower of Pisa, the Colosseum in Rome, Venice, the vineyards, Tuscany, Cinque de Terre, I want to see the works of Van Gogh and Di Vinci.
2. Travel to Spain, Germany, France, London, Ireland, Croatia and Greece.
3. Learn how to make authentic Italian foods. Top of the list is lasagna, homemade sauce and real Alfredo...you know, not from a Classico jar.
4. Become mostly fluent in Italian {after 5 years of Spanish in High School, I'm hoping I'll ''get'' it}
5. Learn about, sample and drink the wine!
6. Take the boys to a real soccer futbol game
7. Become friends with as many locals/neighbors as possible; help give Americans a good name :)
8. Ride on a Vespa! Preferably on a cobblestone road
9. Become more open-minded about my food, try new things and encourage the kids to as well.
10. Remember that we will get homesick. I will wonder if we did the right thing. And remember that this opportunity won't last forever, make the most of it and leave with little regrets. 

and what was done...

1. I want to see all the touristy Italian icons: leaning tower of Pisa, the Colosseum in Rome, Venice, the vineyards, Tuscany, Cinque de Terre, I want to see the works of Van Gogh and Di Vinci.
2. Travel to Spain, Germany, France, London, Ireland, Croatia and Greece. Also went to Austria and Slovenia.
3. Learn how to make authentic Italian foods. Top of the list is lasagna, homemade sauce and real Alfredo...you know, not from a Classico jar. *Alfredo doesn't even exist in Italy, ha! And while I haven't learned how to make, I buy the sauces and already made lasagna from the italian grocery...and it is delicious*
4. Become mostly fluent in Italian {after 5 years of Spanish in High School, I'm hoping I'll ''get'' it} *anyone stationed here will ''get'' this one...high expectations! but I definitely know more now than I did 18 months ago*
5. Learn about, sample and drink the wine!
6. Take the boys to a real soccer futbol game
7. Become friends with as many locals/neighbors as possible; help give Americans a good name :) *We don't really have Italian neighbors but I have made friends with Italians, including the owner of the farm that our milk machine is located*
8. Ride on a Vespa! Preferably on a cobblestone road
9. Become more open-minded about my food, try new things and encourage the kids to as well.
10. Remember that we will get homesick. I will wonder if we did the right thing. And remember that this opportunity won't last forever, make the most of it and leave with little regrets. 

In the long run, this is best. I know that. We will be moving in August...yeah, you read that right. We have less than 45 days left but we do plan to make the most of it. We are planning on going to Slovenia and Croatia over the next 4 day weekend. If it doesn't happen, I won't be upset but if it does that would be wonderful!

Whats really wonderful though, in the grand scheme of things: We'll be able to buy a house and settle down, finally! We'll establish roots and give our children a ''hometown''. And we won't be living in Houston, we'll be in a suburb to the south that has an exemplary rated school district. Europe is amazing but this feels like it's going to be pretty amazing too!

I'm blogging...from a computer...woohoo!

Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone, iPad and our old Dell laptop but it is wonderful to be blogging from a ''real'' computer. One that has all the letters on the keyboard (unlike the laptop that is missing 'c' and 't'). But the bigger part of being able to blog from our computer means, OUR STUFF MADE IT TO ITALY!!

*insert bigger WOOHOO!*

After 2 months and 1 week, we finally have our household goods. I've never been so excited and so thankful to see our crap. Real cups, soft couches and our bed is finally off the floor. (We bought a king sized mattress when we moved in to the house but had to wait for our goods to get here in order to have the bed frame). The kids have their beds in their own rooms and are sleeping much better already. Peanut is sleeping all night without waking, then waking up dry and going potty all by himself. It's a wonderful thing! Bubba and Pooks do still share a room but now their beds are bunked and they love that. Peanut has his own room (for the first time ever) complete with a 'transportation' theme and a new rug from Ikea. I think he really likes having his own space as he's often playing quietly alone after we tuck him in....and I usually just let him because really, who is he disturbing?

And of course, Sissy has her own room. The pink dresser finally looks at home! She has her changing table set up and we actual use it. Her crib is assembled and the mattress is set on the lowest setting. And this weekend, she's going to start actually sleeping in there.

This co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding mama is about to kick her out of our bed and into her room. I love co-sleeping and I love nursing but waking FOUR plus times a night because your 16.5 month old is trying to feed on you, is tiring. She doesn't care if I'm even awake! She is pulling on my shirt, crying and smacking...yes smacking me, trying to get to the boobs. She does not need to eat that often; heck she didn't eat that often when she was a NEWBORN. It's a total comfort thing and it's exhausting. Now that we're here she has her own room, with her own crib right down the hall. I still plan on nursing her before bed and when she wakes in the morning...but I do not intend to continue to be an all you can eat milk buffet, all night, for much longer. As in, this weekend we'll be trying the whole ''cry it out'' method...which I haven't used since bubba was a baby.

Why wait til the weekend? Well we're about 80% unpacked right now and I haven't found all the things for her room yet. I can't find her crib sheets which are kind of a priority. As well as the cutesy stuff I bought right before we moved. I figure I'll just pack up the bumpers and bed set that I made (ironic...the only kid I sew a bedset for and she's the only kid who never slept in/on it) and put up her toddler bedding. We're going with a woodland creature theme (think owls, mushrooms...kinda vintage). I managed to get the toddler bedding as well as the wall decals on clearance right before we moved. Then at Ikea a few weeks ago I found a shaggy green rug. The only thing I haven't found is a power cord for her lantern; I want a 200v one with the European plugs, so I'll have to look around and see what I can find.

My goal is to knock out the rest of the boxes and finish getting everything but the master done on Thursday, then the master bedroom on Friday. As of now the kids' beds and toys are unpacked but not their clothes/dressers. The bathrooms are unpacked but COMPLETELY unorganized so I gotta straighten up. On the bright side the living room, play room and kitchen are completely done which were the biggies. We've decided to use the upstairs room as the office/guest room. It's big enough that B has this computer set up on the one side, I'll set up my sewing machine on the other side and their is still plenty of room for the queen guest bed. I'm not setting up my craft area right away however because then priorities will get pushed aside for Pinterest crafts. The downstairs bedroom will be used for storage. Not my favorite idea but we don't really have a choice.

I love Italy but I don't know how Italians live without closets. If you think you read that wrong, I'll retype it: Italian homes do not have closets. As in, this house has none. In Texas we had a walk in master closet, a bathroom closet, a hall closet, a walk in pantry, a walk in closet in the boys' room and a good sized closet in the little kids room. Now we have none. None. Not so much as a medicine cabinet. We have 7 wardrobes (one per person plus one extra) but B is using the extra for his work clothes as they aren't very big and if it were to try to cram everything into his one wardrobe, everything would be super wrinkled. So what do we do with towels? Extra bedding? Toliet paper, paper towels and things like extra kleenex, dog food and the like? Well our solution is to put shelving in the downstairs bedroom and use it as a basement/pantry/overstock room. Realistically while it is a very pretty room, it's not all that practical. A) It's the only room downstairs. B) The radiator is currently not working so it is FREEZING. C) It has one outlet. Not one outlet cover with two outlets but just one outlet. 4 inches from the door.

So while our original intentions were to use it  for a guest room, I don't think that's gonna happen. Honestly I'm just thankful that we have that room to use because if we didn't, then we'd have to use the garage which means that both of our vehicles would be outside. (As of now, B's car fits in the garage with all the stuff from our last garage...with room to spare). My van probably wouldn't fit through the door, let alone with other boxes and toys.

So yeah, I'm a bit 'backblogged' but I'm trying to catch up! This week the weather has been absolutely amazing, temps in the 60's and so clear we can see the villages up in the mountains! We're this weekend to go to Soave (about 45 mins away) and take the kids to see the castle and (depending on their behavior and how much time we have) to Verona, the village where Romeo and Juliet takes place. Ciao!

Part 2, getting settled!

**warning, I have started and stopped and restarted writing this post going on 4 days now. If it seems choppy, just know that it is! Sorry!**


So we have now been in Italy for two weeks. It's actually flying by already! We have spent these two weeks living in a hotel...it's on the Army post and while you may think "Geez, 14 days in a hotel?" there are others who have been here anywhere from one week to three months! How long you live in the hotel is dependent on how quickly you find a house. Initally, you can't go look at houses right away. It's a ton of briefings, getting ID cards, etc before the actual housing process begins. For us, it was delayed even more due to the holiday(s). So we're getting pretty cozy in the hotel.

It's a 'suite' I suppose; there is a living area, a kitchen area, a bedroom and a bathroom. Rascal is allowed and we are actually in the pet-friendly wing so there are other furry friends around too. Sleeping arrangements are quite comfortable despite the lack of space...Bubba and Pooks are on the pull out couch and Peanut is on the roll away bed, all situated in the living room. B and I are sharing the queen and Sissy is in the mini crib (who am I kidding...she's in our bed. Her blanket and stuffed monkey are in the mini-crib). Rascal sleeps in his crate and it's working out quite well. The most annoying part is the clutter/toys everywhere. It's not that the kids are messy, it's just there is no where for it all to go.

Well as luck would have it, this week B had his housing briefing. Then Tuesday I had to go with and we looked at houses on a website. It  has a pretty specific search and we could narrow down our must haves (pet friendly, extra bedroom) to our would like to have (close to post, not an apartment). We picked two houses that we ''liked'' (honestly I didn't like either but we HAD to choose two. Each day, sometimes several times throughout the day, the pickings change because as one family chooses a property to see, it becomes unavailable for others to view. Once they decide yes or no, it can be released and others can view it as an option).

So Wednesday we went and looked at the two that we weren't thrilled about and needless to say, we were underwhelmed. They were nice but each had an issue (the first had no grass. A yard of gravel and pavers...no grass. We have 4 kids and a dog, we need grass. Even just a tiny bit....the second was on the side of a cliff. Seriously the drop off was intense and the one laned dirt road leading to it was terrifying, I don't think the swaggerwagon could even make it up!). We returned to the office feeling defeated. While there, I hopped on the computer and started a new search to see if there were any new listings. There was one! And it seemed perfect. Four bedroom, 2 bath...it was about 5 miles away which might be too far for B to bike to work like we had hoped but otherwise it was perfect. And it was a house, not a duplex or apartment. We went and saw it later that evening.

It truly was beautiful on the outside and more space than I ever dreamed having on the inside. Seriously it was listed as 4 bedrooms but there is one downstairs off the entryway and another off of the kitchen that were considered ''entry'' and ''study''....in actuality they are just extra bedrooms. It's got everything on the required list (even has a fireplace and HUGE terrace...seriously it's like the biggest terrace you have ever seen. No joke, the terrace is bigger than the living room in our last house. The whole time we were looking at the house, the boys were running the terrace). It also has a private gate and driveway, there is even a little camera on the phone so when someone buzzes at the gate, we can scope them out before letting them in.

The two ''cons'' would be it's distance from post and how dated the tile is on the inside. The distance is do-able we had just hoped to find something closer so B could bike to work. It's not that he can't now, it's just these Italian back roads are narrow, winding and Italians drive crazy. I mean petal to the metal, making two lanes when there is barely room for one. They don't yield to pedestrians, or look twice for motorcycles. It is nuts. (and to think, I have to get a drivers license while here...eek!)

And the tile? Well, Italians love tile...and I don't mind it. Our last house was nothing but tile and I grew to love it. But this house was built in 1975 and it is full of bad 70's tile and it's everywhere. The backsplash in the kitchen is tile but it's not the same tile that's on the floor. And the kitchen tile doesn't match the hall tile, which doesn't match the living room tile, which doesn't match the bedrooms, etc. And it's not a solid color either but a gaudy print over and over and over. I have no clue how I'll decorate! B says ''Rugs...lot's of rugs". And the bathroom tile...geez, just wait til you see pics!

So as you might have guessed, we went with house number three. While it was a no-brainer to B and to our friends whom went with us, it took me longer to come around. I've always lived in a 'cozy' house. Nothing big, just enough for what you need. This house is not cozy. I had pictured a small Italian house that was cozy. This is nice, but big. There are 2 stories...the bottom floor is the entry, the laundry room, the spare room, a small cellar and then you go upstairs to a landing. Off of the landing is several doorways. One is to another spare room, one to the kitchen, one to the living room (complete with fireplace and wet bar), one is the hallway to the bedrooms. Once in that hall, there is a bedroom door, then a bathroom, then 2 more bedrooms, then on the other side another bathroom and the master bedroom which is so big we could EASILY upgrade to a king sized bed. Hell, we could probably fit the king and the queen bed in there together. (I kid but it would fit). So it's a lot of house and I'm not used to that. (Though I am extremely excited that one room will be my craft room/ an office!! WOOHOO, kid free zone!! Once I really talked it out, looked at the pics, thought about the cute cafe down the street, the school close by...I quickly decided that I didn't want to let it go.

We won't move right away. We'll probably be in the hotel for another month. We have a meeting on the 11th with housing for pre-negotiations, then we'll have a lease signing, then we'll get a move in date. Since our household goods probably won't be here til mid February, there really isn't a rush. (The army provides loaner furniture but I'm not wildly excited about that).

The journey to Italy....

We left Texas bright and early Monday morning (try leaving for an airport at 4am with 4 kids, I dare you!). It was 1 dog in a soft sided carrier, 2 adults, 4 kids, 4 carry-on bags + a laptop bag + 2 diaper bags (one full of diapers and pullups, wipes and bibs, one full of things to entertain Sissy as well as my wallet, ipad and kindle), 4 carseats (which we checked) and NINE pieces of luggage. Needless to say, navigating the airports 5 days before Christmas was a challenge but luckily all of that allowed us to skip the extremely slow and long security lines...suddenly we were ushered off to the side and though it took us forever to get everything in bins and on the belt, we were through the line in less than five minutes.

We ate breakfast at McDonalds, sipped on my last Starbucks drink for a long while (caramel brulee latte, hope it still exists when we return!) and pre-boarded after a small wait due to arriving early. We loaded the plane and it was off without a hitch. The kids LOVED it and settled in quickly. Sissy nursed during take-off and fell asleep. She ended up napping for a little over half of a hour, then woke and played on my lap, then B's before falling back asleep. Peanut watched some shows on my iPad and was asleep within the first hour and a half and slept up until the pilot announced decent into New York. Bubba fell asleep at some point (not sure when, he was sitting by B) and Pookie only slept for maybe half an hour. He had little dark circles under his eyes when we arrived at JFK!

JFK wasn't even stressful, boring and long but it went okay. We arrived in one terminal, had to take a shuttle to the international terminal which in itself isn't a problem. But the pet relief area was in the terminal we landed in. However to get to it, you had to leave the airport and reenter, of course going through security. That was not going to happen as the lines were RIDICULOUSLY long. So Rascal had to hold it until after our shuttle ride to the new terminal. Then B took just him out (no kids, no bags) and re-entered through the international security (which was much shorter so early in the day). Then we waited. From noon until our flight left at 6pm. This was the most challenging part of the trip. After eating lunch there wasn't much to do but walk the dinky terminal. I would have loved to hit up a Starbucks, see the shops, etc but I wasn't going to go through security again so we stayed. Played games, drew pictures, ate and ate some more. Finally it was time to pre-board. The kids were doing well, Pooks was exhausted. Once we boarded, he fell asleep before we even took off! He remained asleep until breakfast was served (7 hours later). The other kids also fell asleep quickly. At some point after the dinner service (tortellini in a creamy sauce, side salad, roll, cheese chunk, and blonde brownie)  I slept as well though not very good. I couldn't get comfortable at all, the people diagonal from me were awake and talking loudly, in Italian. I was surprised (though I'm not sure why, lol) our flight was fully packed and the majority were Italian nationals not touristy Americans like I had expected. Everyone was nice and it was good flight. Minimal turbulence and we ended up landing a full hour ahead of schedule. Surprisingly even only getting maybe 4 hours of interrupted sleep, I still felt semi rested.

The worst part of the flight, hands down was the arrival process once we were in Venice. The kids were still tired and didn't want to carry push their carry-on or wear their little backpacks so B and I had to do that in addition to all the other carryons and the dog. I was wearing Sissy, he was wearing Peanut, then we were strapped down with everything else. We had to ride this escalator down from our gate and it was a challege. The pilots and crew were with us and offered to help which sounds amazing but then somehow we ended up at the bottom of the escaltor readjusting all of our stuff and realized we were missing Peanut's carry-on. No time to worry about that at the moment, we had to show our passports and proceed to get our other luggage which was freakishly fast coming down to baggage claim. B was trying to quickly grab all of our luggage, I was trying to keep the kids back, get the dog to stop barking, keep an eye on our carry-ons and try to calm Peanut down who was upset about his lost bag. B needed a cart to carry luggage and they only accepted Euro, which we didn't have. So B continued to grab carseat and shove them off to the side when suddenly the empty carousel we were standing by, suddenly started moving and we had to move all of it again. While he used a machine to get Euro change while watching the kids, I walked around to find the US military liaison. No luck. Apparently the liaison is outside of security. I returned to B, helped him load up all nine bags on three carts, and (with people staring) pushed everything out into the main part of the airport. B looked around for his sponsor but didn't see her. Not a huge surprise since our flight was over an hour early! We finally spotted a sign that was a ''Welcome" sign for our installation with an arrow to the liaison booth. We drag everyone and everything over to discover that the booth is empty.

At this point we were tired, thirsty, in a place where we couldn't speak to dang near anyone and the kids who had been wonderful were starting to lose it. They were sick of sitting, sick of being patient and sick of airports. B went and bought a bottle of Limone! Gatorade, it was 3 euros for one 1/2L bottle...apparently Gatorade is a hot commodity over here! Then B let Rascal out to go potty, then look for his sponsor again. I wrangled up the kids, the luggage and parked it near a bench. Boy were we a sight, lol. I ransacked all our our bags coming up with a bag of animal crackers. It bought me some time but not much. As I'm standing there completely frazzled, the liaison approached me. Apparently we screamed ''desperate Americans!". He called B's sponsor (who was on her way) and then allowed me to call my parents and let them know we made it safely. While the liaison and B were talking, I went over to the the ''lost luggage" station to see if they had Peanut's lost carry-on....they did! With his carry-on in hand, I went back to the booth to find that our sponsor had shown up too!  The guys quickly loaded up the luggage, installed the car seats and we were on our way to our new home!

Part 2, our arrival to post and our first outing, will be written shortly!

It's a small, small world...

So, we're getting even closer to our big move to Italy. By the 16th of next month (in just 30 days) this house will be packed up, our belonging on their way to Italy. We will do our final walk through on the 16th. Bubba will finish his last day of school on the 16th. Hard to believe that in 30 days we'll be done with the stuff I am currently stressing out about.

We get to Italy just a few days before Christmas. In fact, I am just hoping that the jet-lag wears off by then. I know it kinda stinks that the kids won't get a ''normal'' Christmas.We'll be in a new country, in a hotel, tired and everything will still feel a bit off. But I'm doing all the preparations that I can to assure that Santa will be visiting us at the hotel. (Hey, blame the airlines they are allowing us a crazy amount of baggage since we are on military orders). I've decided to take one suitcase and use it to safely transport our gifts to Italy. I really can't trust to mail them ahead of time, mail isn't always reliable. I can't send them with our household goods because it will take, quite possibly months for those to get there. So, in baggage it is. And if the airline loses the bag, heaven help them because I will lose it.

So Christmas, obviously it's more than just gifts. For us, it's all about family. I mean hello, last year we opened presents via Skype so my parents could be there too.

So for me, that was the hardest part about having Christmas is Italy. Will it be gorgeous? I'm sure. They have an amazing Christmas festival and market. But I know me and I know I'll get homesick. So imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago I discover that I have a 2nd (3rd??) cousin on my dad's side that....are you ready for this? Lives in Italy. Not just Italy, but the same town we're moving to! Her husband is stationed at the same base that B will be working out. And lucky for us, she is not some 60 year old cousin but she's also in her twenties. With a daughter who is just two months older than Sissy. How freaking cool is that??

How did I find out? My dad was at our family reunion at the end of September when he was talking to family about us moving to Italy when come to find out, my dad's cousins daughter lives there too. He explained everything to me, even mentioned that he knew we had met as kids (though I don't remember...there were always a ton of kids at the reunions). So naturally I did what anybody does nowadays, I messaged her on Facebook. Nothing like a ''I know this sounds odd but I guess we're related'' email, right? Well come to find out the news spreads fast because she knew exactly what I was talking about. So we've ''friended'' each other and talked a bit here and there. This weekend we were talking and she invited us over for Christmas dinner. How truly amazing is that?? It really is a very small world in the grand scheme of things! And in the midst of all this chaos of moving, it's nice to know that I do know someone over there already!

I really really have to give Facebook credit; while we may bitch about the constant changes and joke about being addicted, it truly is a blessing. I've been able to connect with a cousin I didn't even know I had, I joined a private Facebook group for spouses on post who are just amazing. They answer any question, offer to help in any way possible. They give you the ''inside'' story on how long it'll take your stuff to arrive, good areas to live, the bus schedule, the activities going on around post. Which doctors are good, which ones to avoid. What hours the PX and commissary are open..it's just truly amazing the support that they give each other. I think that is one of the things I am looking the most forward too; because there aren't a ton of Americans over there, the ones that are really go above and beyond to help each other out. Everyone has been there. Every knows what in-processing is like, how hard it is to wait months for your car and belongings to arrive. What it's like to live in a hotel for weeks. To be overwhelmed with culture shock. And how lonely it can feel. I love the fact that even though I'm still stateside, I'm already making friends. It makes all the stress and anxiety over moving, worth it in the end.

Meet Gotti:

Yesterday, B went out front to grab the newspaper and this little guy came right up to him. He had been in our yard, walked straight up to B and wanted petted. He was very clean, no collar but just the friendliest dog. I had B put him in the backyard so he wouldn't get ran over. In the meantime we gave him food and water and he was very thristy/hungry. (He drank two bowls of water immediately!) While he was eating, I printed up two posters saying ''found dog'' with our phone number and placed them at the entrance of our subdivision. We live in a gated community with only 2 ways in...so the odds were pretty good he was from the neighborhood. I drove around asking people who were out walking, if they were looking for a dog. No one was.

I came home and the dogs were getting along. Rascal was immediately protective any time the new dog got near him, I or the kids (who were watching from the window). Didn't attack the new dog or anything, just growled. The new dog, would back up and just look at Rascal like ''Okay, I get it." Ron and I looked the dog over. We're pretty sure he's a Boston Terrier, he was neutered, clean. Short nails, no sign of fleas or matting. We introduced the kids to him and he did great. So after a while outside, we let him in. He stayed off the furniture, he knew commands like ''sit'' and when I said "I'm gonna take a picture, say cheese'' he actually smiled!

 By afternoon we still hadn't heard anything. I called the animal shelter but they weren't open. During nap-time, Rascal is put in his crate so he won't bark and wake the kids. I dug out an old crate from the garage and placed the new dog in it. He laid right down and didn't bark or make a peep. The dogs were kenneled for about two hours and both were good.

By this time, I made a listing on craigslist. I put our subdivision, that we had found a dog who weighed approximately 20-30lbs and to respond to the ad to identify. Three emails later and still no one was missing him. (though I feel horrible for the 3 people who may have gotten their hopes up). I took him on a walk and while many people stopped to admire, no one recognized him. I let him lead, saying ''lets go home'' but he never did. We came home and he settled right in, sleeping on the pile of dirty laundry.

So we decided to just keep him overnight and Monday morning I would take him to see if he was microchipped. Fast forward to his morning and I was there right at 8am. They scanned him and he has a chip! They logged into the chip company and reported him as found. His name is Gotti, he is a 24lb boston terrier. He had not been reported as missing. So I left my number, they called the owner and left a message saying the pet was found, with my contact info.

I opted not to leave him at the shelter. Firstoff, it's a kill shelter so if he isn't claimed or adopted within x amount of days, it's lights out. Secondly, he was happy and adjusted with us, so it seemed less stressful to just let him stay...for now. 

However, based on where tag registration says he lives the animal shelter thinks that either the people moved and now live in my subdivision (which if they did, why didn't they call me?) or  he may have been dropped off and abandoned in our neighborhood. His address is about five miles away, with two interstates and many big roads in between. Since he was clean and uninjured, it's unlikely that he ran away and made it that far. Since I walked around, drove around and then walked around yesterday and NO ONE recognized him and he didn't walk home, that seems a bit unlikely as well. Legally, if the owner doesn't contact me within five days, we can keep him.

So, now we're thinking...do we want to keep him? I mean we never planned on getting another dog after parting with Tito. But he is trained..he's not a puppy but not that old either. He has super short hair and doesn't seem to shed much. Animal control guessed around 3-5yrs old. Would we be crazy to keep him? Fours kids, two dogs and Italy?? Yeah...that seems kinda nuts. For now, we're keeping him because the alternative is the shelter. But I talked to Papa Barry and he might be interested in adopting him. He's been looking for a dog and since this one is already trained, doesn't barely bark, stays off the furniture and needs a home...it seems like a good fit. I have a crate for him, he walks on a leash well, he hasn't been digging in the yard or anything. The only issue is obviously Papa lives 12 hours from us. So we're gonna see if the owners claim him or not. If they don't Papa might come down for Thanksgiving and take him back to Kansas. We'll have to see how it all pans out. If Papa decides that he doesn't want him, we might just keep him.

Yeah, we'll have to pay the vet for shots and yeah, we'll have to pay for the plane ticket to Italy. It's not the greatest plan but the kids are smitten with him, as of now Rascal is ''tolerating'' him. I mean, they are curled up napping together but they aren't killing each other either. Gotti is good with the kids and the noise and the running and it seems kinda odd that a perfectly trained dog shows up on our doorstep who is good with kids and named Gotti...I mean, that's pretty Italian! Maybe it's a sign!? We'll see...but between you and me, I hope Papa can take him :). (B is totally wanting to keep him...how strange is that!?)

**UPDATED**3:31pm
We were able to return Gotti to his family. Apparently the side gate was left open and they didn't know it. He was very excited when his owner picked him up so as much as we liked him, I'm glad he is home.

In 40 days...

We will be in Italy.

In an attempt to prepare myself mentally, I've been reading blogs of military wives (usually) who are stationed in Italy and Europe in general. Some are single, some have kids but they are all fascinating. I love to look through their blog archives and see how their feelings were when they first arrived in Italy, how they changed while there, what obstacles they've overcome, what they like, dislike, what they miss. I've even read a couple where they were in Italy and they're time was up and now they are back in the states missing Italy. It's funny when they come home for a visit and they have to go to Target, Chick-fil-a, Starbucks...oh how I know I will miss those! I've read several articles on flying with children, tips for the airport and airlines. I called Delta to confirm that Rascal was on our flight and to have them make a note that we were traveling with minors. The agent was SO nice. She regrouped our seats and now we are all sitting together (you would have thought they would have done this when we booked them, but no). On both flights we will be 3 across in 2 rows; perfect so B and I will each sit in one row with two kids. Previously we were 2 seats in 3 rows...like I'm letting two of my kids sit all alone with strangers?! I think not.

As for what else we still need to do? Not much. We have our official date of travel, we booked the movers for the week before, reserved our hotel for that week while they are packing. {We'll have two sets of packers; one for our overseas stuff and one for the things that will stay here [fridge, washer, dryer, childhood keepsakes, a ton of our outside toys]}. Next week I am paying the tags and taxes on the van so that it can be shipped (it has to have valid tags and registration but ours expire at the end of Nov). B has reserved a rental minivan from Enterprise for us to use after we turn in the van and until we leave. We have our passports, visas, Rascals paper work is finished. We need to gather up our items for unaccompanied baggage as they come in 12 days to pick that up. It'll be some bedding, towels, pots and pans, some kids toys, extra clothes, pack n play,etc....ideally it is suppose to arrive shortly after us so that we have some stuff while we wait for all of our belongings to arrive. B's sponsor requested the school registration packet so that I can begin to get bubba enrolled in school. While it isn't ideal to move so close to Christmas, it will be nice that he'll start right after winter break with the other kids.

I still need to sort some of our stuff. I know I'm not taking our baby things since we're done having babies. Gotta get rid of the bouncer, the big highchair, all 4 years worth of maternity clothes...it's not a huge deal if I never get it done; they'll pack it and I'll sell it or donate it once in Italy. There is a thrift store on post so I will get rid of it eventually....I would just like to be more on top of things!

We also had a big talk with the boys about going through their toys. We talked about how Christmas is coming and how not all kids will get new toys for Christmas, so it would be really nice of them to go through and pick some of their nice toys that they don't play with anymore, to donate. Also we have A LOT of toys and that's why Mommy is always having to tell them to clean up...they want to play with a certain toy but have to move 15 others to get to it. I explained that if we got rid of those, I wouldn't be bugging them near as much to clean up all the time. Pooks starts picking up happy meal toys and saying they can have those. Which is a great start but we have a playroom full of toys, 2 toy boxes in the big boys room full of toys, some in Peanut/Sissy's room and some in the garage. It's just too much. So I will give them a few more days to go through things, then I'll do a final sweep. I know what they like and what they play with once in a blue moon...it'll be freeing to get rid of some clutter.

And it's not just the kids. Besides clothes, I really want to sort through my kitchen stuff. I have so many pans, food storage containers, a bread machine, an extra microwave and a toaster that we don't use....many of which wont even work overseas without a converter. I've been told that a lot of those are easy to find so if I do want one again, I'll be able to get it there.

So naturally instead of actually starting on sorting, I've been instead compiling a list of things I want to do while overseas....this is just the beginning!

1. I want to see all the touristy Italian icons: leaning tower of Pisa, the Colosseum in Rome, Venice, the vineyards, Tuscany, Cinque de Terre, I want to see the works of Van Gogh and Di Vinci.
2. Travel to Spain, Germany, France, London, Ireland, Croatia and Greece. For starters.
3. Learn how to make authentic Italian foods. Top of the list is lasagna, homemade sauce and real Alfredo...you know, not from a Classico jar.
4. Become mostly fluent in Italian {after 5 years of Spanish in High School, I'm hoping I'll ''get'' it}
5. Learn about, sample and drink the wine!
6. Take the boys to a real soccer futbol game
7. Become friends with as many locals/neighbors as possible; help give Americans a good name :)
8. Ride on a Vespa! Preferably on a cobblestone road
9. Become more open-minded about my food, try new things and encourage the kids to as well.
10. Remember that we will get homesick. I will wonder if we did the right thing. And remember that this opportunity won't last forever, make the most of it and leave with little regrets. 

If you can't live in the place you love, then love the place you live.

the logistics of moving across the globe

Today was a hectic day. First day back to ''normal'' after our vacation. We were gone from the 13th to the 31st...while I loved almost every.single.minute of our trip, I'm glad to be home. I'm not glad for the laundry, the housework, the sorting, packing, purging and clutter. It's starting to sink in though that this won't be home for much longer.  The strange thing is, I can't even accurately pinpoint how this makes me feel! It's all so surreal. We're moving to Italy. We've been in Texas almost an entire year and that hasn't even fully sunk in yet and now we're just moving across the world. It's insane.

Like Bubba exclaimed to Nanaw a few days ago...''We're movin' to Italy....It's not even IN america!"

I am excited, don't get me wrong. But it's very hard {for me especially} to put so much faith into the unknown. I mean, this is completely unknown. Each day I read a little more, get a little more comfortable. Plan a bit more...but pretty soon there won't be anything else left to schedule or plan, we'll just be waiting to GO. It's exciting and yet terrifying.

We have our flight booked. I can't remember if I mentioned that or not. It's booked one week to the day, before B starts his new job. It was a very easy process in terms of actually getting a flight. We went to SATO gave them 2 copies of B's orders, they asked us what day we'd like to fly out. When we got home, B had a confirmation email with our flight, scheduled for the day we had requested. We were fortunate enough to get a flight with just one stop from here to Venice so hopefully that will help with the kids sticking to routine. It's almost a 9 hour flight; leaving early evening stateside and landing at 9am there. I just hope and pray that they sleep on the flight! As soon as we received that confirmation email with our flight number on it, I was able to call the airline and secure Rascal a spot in-cabin with us. It's a fee of $200 but my sanity {and his safety} is worth that. I don't want him to end up a horror story, getting left out on the tarmac in 20 degree weather.

We are getting him a thundershirt this weekend, hopefully he'll react well to it and it will help keep him calm in the airport. I'm not worried about him on the plane, I know he'll settle down and sleep easily. I'm extremely worried about how he'll do in the airport, around all the people and the hustle and bustle. The long layover...I'm overthinking it, I know but the anxiety is there nonetheless.

We got our passports back, as well as our Visas. Luckily there was no set back getting those! Now we have to schedule the movers/packers (cross your fingers but that should be done tomorrow) and send the van over. Ideally you want to send your vehicle over as soon as possible as it can take six weeks (or longer) to arrive. We're hoping to send ours out within the next 2 weeks...that would be almost a full month before we even arrive, to lessen the time we would have to go without in Italy. With four kids, I'm nervous not having a vehicle but from what I've read the buses are easy to learn and most of the other Americans have already gone through what we'll be going through, and are happy to help with rides and such. The only reason we're waiting two weeks is because of course, our van's tags & taxes expire this month. We have to go pay that lovely fee before we can send it anywhere. I also have to get a letter of approval from our lien holder (as we have a loan on the van) stating we can take it overseas and we have to switch to USAA. Which I sorta hate as I've had State Farm insurance since I first got a drivers license but they do not insure internationally. Bummer!

It's been 2 months since B accepted the job and in that time we've:

-Applied for and received our passports. (almost six weeks)
-Applied for and received our visas. (almost three weeks)
-Received our official orders, booked our flight and our hotel stay upon arrival in Italy
-Received our APO address.
-Had a tearful and heartfelt goodbye with our families back in Kansas (so hard, but so lucky to have been able to spend so much time with them)
-Did necessary and preventative maintenance on our van (it's cheaper here than there!)

In the next six weeks I need to:
-Sell and donate unnecessary toys and baby items. Get rid of all maternity clothes and baby clothes.
-Sort, purge and pitch all this clutter in kids rooms, kitchen and pantry. 
-Start to separate belongings into the ''take/pack to Italy with us/leave in storage here/let movers pack'' piles.
- Use up the food in the freezer so not to have it go to waste later.
-Have a birthday celebration for Peanut (can't believe he's turning THREE!)
-Have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, dig out our 'Elf on a Shelf' who will be flying in our suitcases, begin mailing gifts to our APO so they are there for Santa. It's really important to me that we keep things as 'normal' as possible for the kids during this transition. Especially since it is happening smack in the middle of the holidays, our household goods won't be there in time for Christmas and we're still very much believers in Santa. I want them to embrace this and remember it fondly, not hate it because it took away something they look forward to for so long. 

So yeah, we'll be busy! 

We have a report date for Italy...

B applied for the job back in July, in August he had a phone interview. First week of  September he was offered the job. Now at the very end of September he was finally given a report date. Whew! It's quite the process.

While he was given an exact date, I will share that it is mid December! Before Christmas but after Thanksgiving, so I'm grateful for that.

Let me just say that this whole process is confusing, overwhelming and long but I know it will be worth it. Just to give you an idea of what's happened thus far:

Very first thing we did was apply for Passports. This should have been simple but I didn't have my birth certificate, my parents still did. So they sent that to me. We gathered up everyone's birth certificates, citizenship papers, social security cards and oh wait, B's is missing. We tore this house apart and could not find his SS card. Awesome. So he had to go to the social security office and request a new one. We finally had all of the required paperwork. We chose to take the photos ourselves, have them printed, and then we had to go on post to turn those in. All four kids had to be with us and we took the oath. (Not the kids, we just signed for them.) That was the second week of September.

After the passport fiasco, I started researching what we need to do to get Rascal to Italy with us. Trust me, for a 10lbs dog, it gets complicated. First all pets coming into Italy must be up to date on their rabies shot (which he is) and be microchipped (which he is not) and have had an annual exam no sooner than 21 days before entering the county but no longer than one year. He also has to have a health certificate deeming him healthy and free of any diseases, he has to have an airline approved pet carrier that he can stand up in, turn around in AND that can fit under the seat in front of us.

So I set to work. Started researching carriers, which ones are best for in-cabin and least likely to get refused at the ticket counter/by the flight attendant. Not an easy task because each airline has strict requirements but they vary, as does the carrier sizes. Some are $20 some are $120. I know we'll be using it internationally, for at least one round trip flight but I also know that I'm going to be paying a huge amount at the vet. I want something durable but not over $50 if I can work it. Meanwhile, I get him in to get him micro-chipped at the animal shelter (just $10!). While there, I was looking around and they had used kennels and carriers available for donation. Imagine my surprise when one of the carriers was the EXACT same thing I had been looking at the day before online (http://www.petco.com/product/8232/Sherpa-Roll-Ups.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch). Only the animal shelter was asking just $10! So I was able to get him microchipped, then get his airline approved bag for a total of $20. The next day, I took him to the regular vet and had his annual exam, vaccines, a new rabies shot (they must be vaccinated for rabies AFTER being microchipped), a heart worm check and talked to him about flying with a pet. Total spent on all of the above mentioned things for Rascal to be ready to fly: almost $200. Plus the airline will be charging us $125 for him to ride in-cabin. Whew! So now that is done.

Rascal with Tito (who is no longer with us but apparently I have no photos of just Rascal)

Moving forward...

Wait. We can't.

We cannot book flights, schedule movers, send the van, nothing without official PCS orders. Well just this week, the lovely Italian office calls B and says ''Hey I need the kids' birth certificates to cut your orders with the kids on the orders''. Well that's just great because we sent ALL of our birth certificates with the passport stuff to the state department. While I have copies of the older boys', I didn't think to make copies of the younger kids'. Okay, not a big deal, we now have to wait to get our passports back (should be done mid to late October), once we get those we can apply for our Visas and get our PCS orders. Once we have our orders we can do the above mentioned things like book flights (which because we're flying in cabin with a dog, we're suppose to do as early as humanly possible) and schedule the movers. Once we have the movers scheduled, I can call our landlord here and give her the mandatory 30 days required notice that we are not renewing our lease. Once I do that, then I will finally really feel like we are moving.

The passport office called today, there are four steps left until our passports will be done and ready to pick up. I'm not sure how many steps there were to begin with but at least we're processing! 

So that's where we're at, a full month in from accepting the job. I'm not sure if it's more or less complicated due to us being DoD Civilians who are PCSing or if it would be the same ups and downs if we were Active Duty.

So you think we're crazy for moving to Italy?

First off, if you missed this news you can read about it: here

But if you did read that we're moving, then rest assured that we're not crazy. It does seem insane. I'm very much a ''small town'' girl. I lived in Kansas my entire life, up until 10 months ago when we moved to this desert  South Texas. If you would have told me 1 year ago we'd be moving to Italy, I'd say that you're dead wrong. It's so completely out of character, for me, that it is hard to believe. So what changed?

Well, quite a bit. First off, living in Texas has been a mixed blessing. It is 13+hours from our family and was a hard adjustment. It's hot. The culture is different, so many Mexican and Spanish influences. The food is different, the grocery stores are different (good-bye Dillons/Hy-Vee/Ray's Apple Market, hello HEB, HEB, HEB and oh yeah,  HEBplus) the speed limits are different (seriously only 65mph at night?!). A lot changed moving here. Little things like our entire house being tile and bigger things like it not raining for over 90+ days (it will drive you mad!), driving on the highway with warning signs up that say "EXTREME WILDFIRE DANGER", learning about the stages of water restrictions and learning that your son doesn't get recess this week due to excessive heat warnings & poor air quality. Definitely a change up from our indecisive, but tolerable, Kansas weather.

But despite all the new but not so great things, we've learned a lot. Yes, it's hard being away from friends and family, but we're doing fine. (Yes, I realize we have been fortunate enough to have a lot of visitors!). Sure we don't have Mr. Goodcents, but how else would we have learned that our kids LOVE mexican food. Borracho beans, flautas, quesdillas and breakfast tacos.

Most importantly though, we've learned to adapt. We've learned to try new things, to do things we normally wouldn't. To explore and see what's around us. In some ways, I feel like Texas was the baby step to bigger things, like moving to Italy. If one year ago, right after giving birth to Sissy, B had said ''Hey, I got a job in Italy" I would have refused to go. It would have been a ''Either turn it down or have fun going by yourself" situation. I was VERY comfortable in Kansas but our finances were not. We needed to move, to let B ''move up the ladder'' so to speak, to be able to pay off debt, save up money and get out of a 2 bedroom house with our four kids. So, we did it. With an 8 week old baby, we up and moved 750 miles away where we knew almost no one.

The silver lining was, we actually don't mind living here. B is getting paid more, cost of living is less. We have more house (almost 500sq feet more) for only a bit more rent. We made friends, got to know our neighbors (something we never did back home). We are much more comfortable here financial than we were in Kansas. Are we debt free? No. Are we no longer paying just the bare minimum? Yes. And that is a big step when you have some credit card debt, student loans (but no degree) and a car note. We were also able to do fun things like get a Sea World pass, explore a whole new area, take our kids to the gulf or ''ocean'' as they call it. We bought a new washer & dryer (our old set was on it's last leg but we made it work for over a year, running everything for 2 dry cycles and sometimes washing one load of clothes twice to get the detergent stains out) and got Peanut a big bed...something we wouldn't have even had room for in our old house.

So if we're so comfortable here, why move? Well, in short, because we can. Because an opportunity like Italy, comes up once in a lifetime if you're lucky. We didn't think we'd really like Texas, we thought it would be hard on the kids and us. We thought we'd be here a year and move right back to Kansas. But we adjusted. So yes, Italy will be hard. It will be an even bigger adjustment. But I really do feel like having this year in Texas to act as a buffer between ''home'' and Italy, has helped tremendously.

Please know that we're not going into this blind. We've asked questions every step of the way. We've researched and read up on our new area. We've chatted with other people who have been there, we've read blogs, books, websites and watched youtube videos. We have applied for passports, started sorting our belongings into ''trash/donate/sell/take with us/store here". We've gotten Rascal micro-chipped, vaccinated and his health certificate started. We've been stalking the military housing website looking at rentals, discussing the the benefits of living in different areas, what we are hoping to find, what is essential (some yard space) versus what isn't (a garage/carport, 2 full baths[like we have now]).  We've looked into the school system, the bus routes...we're really doing all that we can stateside to prepare ourselves and the kids for this move.

If you're interested, here are a couple blogs from other Americans who are currently living in Italy. Two of them are military as well, one is in Rome.

 PCS Italy-- super informative. Peggy, the author, is also from kansas, married to a civilian and she has two kids.

New Girl on Post-- Melissa is a 20 something girl from Oklahoma that has spent a few years in Oklahoma, one by herself while her husband was deployed. She loves to travel and has the pictures and tips to prove it!

An American in Rome- a California girl who dropped everything and moved to Rome for graduate school. Good pictures, funny and informative.

Can you guess what we did this week?

 

 

If you're suddenly wondering if our entire family was arrested, the answer is no. Rest assured those aren't mugshots, they're our passport photos. It took almost an hour but we finally managed to get ''neutral expressions, chin up, no blurry" photos of each kiddo. Whew! "Apply for passport" Check that off the ever growing list...

HUGE changes are coming to our family....

If you've noticed the lack of posting around here lately, just know that it's not you, it's me. Obviously we keep pretty busy just in our day to day life but there is *something* going on here that is MASSIVE. I mean news of EPIC proportions. Like, when you finally read what it is you're all going to go...."What?! Seriously?....Are they nuts?" But hopefully in a good way.

I will say, no we are NOT pregnant. We are NOT trying to get pregnant nor adopt. Our four little munchkins are just the right amount for us.

I will go ahead and share our news right now but just know that I don't know all the details yet. Here is what I DO know....

1. B has been applying for other jobs in his field due to the fact that his office is severely understaffed, he is completely overworked and his boss is less than stellar. (seriously when we moved here there were 20 people in his office, now he is one of six. everyone hates it).

2. Most of his applications were right here in Texas, in our same town with the exception of two.

3. The exceptions were: one was in Oklahoma and one was overseas.

4. The overseas one was a total long shot as while completely qualified, he knows no one over there. But the opportunity was there and after many evening discussions between he and I, he applied for it. We knew that in him applying for it, there was no backing out. It's not often that a civilian position in his field opens up and we knew we weren't going to waste anyone's time by backing out/changing our minds.

The Oklahoma one was mostly due to the fact that we both like the Midwest, it's closer to family and it gets him out of this job that he dislikes so much. Again, he knew no one in the office so it was somewhat a long shot.

5. So weeks past and he has one phone interview, it was casual and short but they said ''okay, you'll hear from us shortly''.

6. Two weeks go by and we hear nada. B is getting discouraged, another co-worker takes a different job and now his office is down to five.

7. On Monday he received the official email saying the job was his if he chose to accept.

8. He called me, we were thrilled (yet nervous about moving, again) and he emailed back that he accepts.

So we're moving! Again, lol. That's pretty big news in itself, I mean we only just moved to Texas 10 months ago. But it's more where we're moving that's the big news.

It's overseas......a flight of 10 hours.

It's in Europe.....and it's not Germany.

I'll tell you now but please say nothing on Facebook until B announces it...

Are you ready!?

We're moving to:

Italy!!!!

Is that not huge news!? I mean it's no pregnancy announcement but still, big changes! Right now we're in the midst of paperwork and security clearances then we'll be getting passports and visas and working out packing dates and AAAAAAAAGH, SO much stuff has to happen. We don't have a date yet but it will all most definitely be before the end of the year.

source

Not only is a huge opportunity for B, I mean it will look wonderful on his resume but we feel it's an amazing opportunity for our family as well. It's a chance of a lifetime. With four kids, we would never have the ability to just take a trip to Italy. It's unrealistic to even think so {unless we were to win the lotto, ha!}. So we really feel like we've been given a gift. And to pass at the chance of living there? Geez, that's something that if we passed on, we'd regret forever. And we won't be living there forever. We will be there at least one year but no more than three. (As a civilian, B could stay up to five years but we know that we will not ask for any extensions in our stay; doing so will no longer assure him a position stateside. Three year "tour" means they will give him a position of equal pay here when we return).

So yes, it will be chaotic. And yes we will all at some point get extremely homesick I'm sure. Yes we may be nuts. But is that reason enough to pass it up? No, not at all. I cannot wait for the food, the culture, the history, the wine, the beaches...I mean, it's ITALY. And if it makes this whole thing seem a bit less crazy, B will be working on a US Military base. The boys will go to school on base, we can shop at the commissary and PX there. Medical care will be on base. I can use the daycare and gym on base. We will get Italian drivers licenses and live off base (no choice, there is no on base housing) but there is an American community as well.

So what do the boys think? Well they are really excited too. We watched a show on Netflix all about Italy, we've shown them pictures and where it's at on the map. They know that it's far, far, far away. They know that instead of being in the car for 13 hours, we'll be in a plane for 13 hours. They know that things will be different and that the people there will talk different. We've talked about how there won't be Wal-Mart, Target, Chick-Fil-A but there will still be IKEA, and there will be a lot of pizza restaurants. How they'll get to eat food like spaghetti, chicken alfredo and pizza when we go out to eat but not food like Taco Cabana. We talked about how we won't be able to just get in the car and drive to visit Nanaw and Papa. But how we can talk to them on the computer still, and mail them pictures and drawings. We even explained how instead of ice cream there will be gelato. Instead of car trips we'll take train rides to places like Venice and Milan (both about an hour away from the base where we will be stationed).

Do they really understand? No. But they do know that change is coming. They do know that things will be different. And they are excited, as are we!

So that's our BIG EPICALLY HUGE news. Did it surprise you?

Everything's bigger in Texas

Since moving to Texas four months ago, we're learning that Texas is practically it's own country. The people here have state pride like no other! Everywhere you look something is claiming to be Texas' best. They have their own grocery store, the trucks are bigger and it seems like every one of them is "Texas' Best Truck". And the restaurants, oy! They all claim to be the "Best Hamburger/Mexican/BBQ in Texas". So when we were on our way to Sissy's four month check up and took a back road to avoid traffic, we excitedly but apprehensively stopped at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. 

The parking lot wasn't too full, we didn't have a lot of time and it smelled delicious. They were able to seat us right away and despite being a "Mexican Cafe" they had a lot to offer. it's a crowded little place, the walls are covered with pictures, articles, old ticket stubs, magazine pics, coloring book pages and everything but the kitchen sink. The booths are old Long John Silver ones and the waitresses are loud and friendly. After looking at the menu, I opted for the Chicken Fried Steak. Afterall it's a Texas staple, I love it and I hadn't had it since we moved. I expected it to be a big serving. I didn't quite expect it to be bigger than my daughter is...

Okay so I exaggerated, but just slightly. What you can't see is that the plate is full of french fries underneath the steak. Or the Texas toast that Pooks had already swiped. I ate a good portion of the steak for lunch, took the rest home and ate a bit for dinner and B polished off the rest the following day. So are you wondering the price?

$10.

Yep, everything is bigger in Texas and I'm not complaining about this one!