Powells in Sicily!

We've moved...

2009-08-18T18:42:00.003-05:00

Come check us out at our new blog! It seems fitting to switch now that we aren't living in Sicily anymore and I am officially "in business" now that we are back in the US!

http://lindsaypowellphotography.typepad.com/

Random musings..

2009-08-14T13:33:00.010-05:00

Here are a bunch of random thoughts and pictures to recap the last week or so... .

*Valerie absolutely loves Pepper and I used to feel sorry for the cat until I realized the feeling is mutual. We got her in April and slowly she has become Valerie's cat. She follows her around the house and was -ridiculously- clingy to me when Valerie was at Grandma and Grandpa's last week. She especially likes to lay with Valerie when she watches her morning 'toons. I don't see why Pepper puts up with it since she inevitably ends up with a ribbon for a leash almost daily, but the bond is there.

Eleanor has been full of sass and a half lately. Yesterday I told her to please put my post-it notes back on my desk and she threw them down her shirt and said, "You'll NEVER find them now!! hahaha." and ran away giggling. man. Valerie never has said anything like that to me. It's a whole new world with this little pill!
She does look awfully cute when she's sleeping though :) Even if it's on the stairs.

Look who's 6 weeks already!

Happy Birthday to you..

2009-08-13T12:33:00.006-05:00

Happy Birthday to you.. Happy Birthday dear Derrick.. Happy Birthday to you..

Derrick's birthday was yesterday and we celebrated by eating lunch at Portillos (for those not familiar.. they have Chicago-style hot dogs and italian beef and the BEST cheese fries.. it's D's fav these days although we rarely eat it for obvious reasons!!) Valerie wanted to get him a game, so we got him Mario Kart with the wheels for the Wii and played that in the afternoon. After dinner we had a Coldstone Ice cream cake.. it was phenomenal!! What a great day!!

We love you for being such a hard working, active Daddy and Hubby-- may you have many more...

Build-A-Bear

2009-08-09T17:22:00.000-05:00

For Valerie's birthday this year, we chose to do it out of the house for the obvious reasons of cleaning, food prep,etc. with a newborn. We also have touch up painting to do among other things and aren't quite ready to entertain. Valerie chose Build-A-Bear for her birthday, and I couldn't have been happier with the results. At first I thought, "That's crazy expensive".. but then realized I was only paying $10-15 (we set the limit at $15.. so you decide how expensive of a bear they can choose from and the party lady gives them the choices) for each kid plus a .75 cent cup of ice cream and homemade cupcakes at the food court. Easy day!! I think I'd have spent twice that, atleast.. on a meal, decor, games, goodie bags,etc. at home. This way every kid got a super awesome gift for coming too and with little kids (like Ellie.. lol), it's sometimes hard to have all the glory go to the birthday kid!! Three of the guys Derrick works with have 2-3 year old little girls and our new neighbors came as well.

At any rate here are a few pictures of the party. We had a great time! A special thanks to my Mom who stayed and helped with the kids, especially Maddie. My parents so wonderfully kept Val and Ellie for us for a couple days beforehand to let me catch up on housework and rest and drove them back up here Wed morning!

Valerie was originally going to have a butterfly party here at the house. Since we had to bail on that, I atleast kept her invites and 'cake' in a butterfly theme. These cupcakes looked *gorgeous* in person but unfortunately the one picture that was snapped for me before they got handed out.. was over exposed and blah. Atleast you get the idea. The butterflies were piped onto wax paper with chocolate and colored candy melts and let dry.. it's easier than it looks. I can't take credit for this idea - I followed the instructions on Annie's Eats food blog! She's fantastic! http://annies-eats.com/2009/05/26/butterfly-cupcakes/

Valerie Grace turns four..!!

2009-08-07T15:13:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was Valerie's fourth birthday! I just ran out of time and didn't get to post this, but figured better late than never, right? It is so hard for me to fathom that I have been a parent for four years. I honestly remember the details of that pregnancy and birth so clearly, I suppose because it was my first. It seems at times like so long ago and at other times I can picture Valerie crawling up to me making that squealing noise she used to make around 8 months old. ;) Valerie had a great little birthday at Build-A-Bear with some new friends and Grandma Deb could so graciously stay to help! I will post pics of that later, need to edit. As a tribute to our birthday girl- "Here's your Life!" :) We love you!

Morton Aboretum

2009-08-06T17:30:00.006-05:00

I am trying to catch up on posts, so expect a couple coming soon!

Last Saturday we had planned to do something fun with my parents, trying to meet in the middle somewhere. Chicago is halfway, so often times it's hard to find things that don't involve parking downtown (and spending a whole ton of $). My mom suggested the arboretum this time and it was fantastic!! While a little pricey, I thikn it's worth it once or twice a year (more if you live closer.. you can buy an annual pass) because the children's gardens and play areas are absolutely fantastic. They are spread out and we spent the entire day in this one area, which was about a tenth the size of the entire arboretum. There are hiking trails, and just acres and acres of beautiful land.

Lake Co. Fair

2009-08-03T18:14:00.007-05:00

Friday we took the girls to the county fair. They had a blast.. we ate corn dogs, elephant ears, saw the animals, played games.. and some of us enjoyed rides. some of us didn't. ;) Apparently our dare devil child is afraid of kiddie rides. Who knew? After this attempt (she was sobbing the entire ride.. but didn't start crying until AFTER it started, I promise) we put her on another one that she insisted on riding and was hysterical.. they had to turn it off and get her off of it. geeze. She would ride the big rides, just as long as Daddy was with her. And yes, it had to be Daddy. Valerie was the opposite. She wanted to ride everything herself, including the big ferris wheel. She's *almost* 4, you know. lol D said she was taking his arm off her the whole time on the ride telling him that she didn't need him to hold her. :) That's my girl!

They are the top

It's Monday already?

2009-08-03T12:49:00.005-05:00

How are you all doing? I got quite a lot of feedback after my last post so I thought I'd update. Some thought I was losing my mind and some thought I was just telling it like it is with a newborn, something that we sometimes don't do for some reason. I'm not sure if we just don't want to scare new mothers, are in denial, or if we think we're the only ones who feel so frazzled after having a baby. Some how our society paints this picture of bringing home a little bundle of joy with the cute little clothes and everyone doting over the precious newborn, sleeping peacefully. Sometimes it is like that. Some days it's not. I think it's okay. Some days it's hard to take a shower. If you do you just have to deal with kids coming in and opening the door to tell you that their sister won't share a toy, or the baby sits in the bouncy seat in the bathroom with you screaming because you just couldn't shower quick enough. Anyway that is life these days.. but I am still genuinely blessed by this girls and hard working husband!!

It is so hard for me to believe that Madeline is one month old already (3oth). She is currently going through another growth spurt which has her up and fussy a lot more than normal, but she is the sweetest thing. I am starting to see tiny smiles once and awhile and she will open her mouth as if she wants to talk to me, sometimes letting out a sound. This is such an exciting time to have a baby as you see them truly blossom into their personalities and start to form those connections with the people around them. I am loving that!!

My parents thankfully took the girls Sun-.. probably tomorrow.. and so I am getting the house put back together, although admittedly, mostly holding a fussy baby. Ahh well :) Atleast we got to enjoy some quiet time together! I will post in a sep post some pics from our trip to the fair Friday and the Morton Arboretum on Saturday. Here are a couple pictures taken last week. We took some photos at the forest preserve around the corner for Maddie's birth announcement.. but here are just a couple out takes (below Madeline's obviously).

The craziness that is our life these days

2009-07-29T14:09:00.005-05:00

No sooner than I had posted my last blog entry about how things were falling in to place, everything seemingly fell apart. Valerie, in particular, has been testing our limits to places I didn't think she would go for awhile. The lying has started, the tantrums at bed time, harrassing the cat (like tying ribbon "leashes" to the poor cat's collar and putting her in a box!!) .. just total defiance and it's had my nerves on end. Poor Derrick has been bringing work home after a very stressful couple weeks at work with a lot of changes and basically comes home, eats dinner, and passes out after doing his homework on the couch. Madeline has no sleeping schedule at all yet, as I don't expect her to, so she generally wakes me twice a night to feed. She usually goes back down easily but once and awhile is wide awake for some reason which makes for a long night.

Last night, I was lying next to her feeding when she blew out her diaper. There was lovely newborn breastfeeding poo all over her, me, and our sheets. I had to totally change her, and wiping her with cold wipes in the middle of the night (stupid lindsay) completely woke her up. She was crying and crying. Meanwhile I am changing my own pj's, putting a towel down to lay on.. and Derrick is sleeping through all of this less than two feet away. I would really like to know what men are on that they have the ability to sleep through something like that.. and can I get some of that?? Oh wait, I have to be the mommy so that would never happen. He wakes up and kisses my forehead before leaving for work asking, "did you get a lot of sleep last night?" and I just rolled over with a 'hrmph.' MEN!

Ellie walked into my room about 4o minutes later (it does seem that they have a radar to know exactly which mornings would be *awesome* to wake Mommy up an hour earlier than normal). I told her that I just could not get up yet and I needed her to watch tv or play in the play room. I heard her wake Valerie up, "Valwee Gwace Powellllllll the sun is AWAKE" and then they both came into my room, fighting over a toy. I told them not to wake the baby and to go in the other room. I turned on the news and hoped to snooze for 10 mins before crawling out of bed to the coffee pot. Apparently I fell asleep because I woke up an hour later. whoops. I wasn't *too* worried since they honestly have been so well behaved up until very recently and in general, I can trust them to sit and watch their beloved Dora in the morning or play dress up in the play room. oy.

I walked out of my room and realized that it would be one of those days. The toy room was a total disaster. Blocks everywhere, dress up clothes everywhere, parts to every single board game.. everywhere. They were downstairs making pink lemonade in the living room. I don't allow drinks in the living room, it's light colored carpet. They had the huge Sams Club sized can of pink lemonade mix in the living room, water in it and made this sort of pink paste that was all over the rug, carpet, their chairs, and my coffee table. They had dumped an entire box of wheat thins and a bag of goldfish crackers into random bowls for a feast. Again, *awesome* day to pick to do this, girls. They had taken the movies and cd's out of the tv cabinet (a big no-no) and as soon as they saw me on the stairs they ran away. They KNEW they were naughty!!! We spent the morning with me standing over them while they cleaned it all up. It took over two hours and I had to take away some priviledges and Valerie's brand new princess night gown. Ugh. I hate having to be the bad cop sometimes.

Days like this I just want to run away and get a job because it'd be so much easier than being a stay at home mom. After some quiet time on all of our parts, I'm feeling pretty calm and humorous (finally) about the situation.. but just anted to let you all know what life has been like lately. If you haven't gotten a returned phone call, email, have been expecting a package for 2 months, or have been told we don't want visitors yet, this is why my friends.

I know it will get easier, it will just take some time. .. so bear with us!!

On a very unrelated, but more positive note.. we did take the kids downtown on Saturday to get out of here and do something fun. We rode the train downtown and for $10 round trip all 5 of us rode! That is a deal considering we'd have paid $30 easily for parking, not including gas, traffic,etc. We ate some deep dish pizza, saw an orchestra concert in Grant Park, and went to Venetian night on the lake front. It was way too crowded for my taste, or to even visibly see the boats, but we greatly enjoyed the fireworks afterwords and a nice walk around the city at night!! Here are the only pics we took. We had D's little camera, which apparently needs to be replaced. lol Half the pics were blurry.. I'm not sure why! These pics are in reverse order of being taken (below obviously at sunset), it's not letting me switch them around again. Is anyone else having this problem? I'm about to switch to a different blogging company!!!

A Powell Update

2009-07-22T12:39:00.010-05:00

Hi all--

I figured that I would write a little update post on our daily life as I haven't really done that lately.

The girls are doing really great. As many of you know (from facebook I think?) we had huge issues in June as we adjusted to having the girls share a room with bunk beds. They had been asking to do this for awhile and I thought, "No way, I don't want to deal with it." and then realized how invaluable it'd be to have a guest room right now as we had my Mom here for a couple weeks before the birth and were expecting Derrick's to come up afterwards. We figure that they can be separated later on and we'll give up the guest room when they are old enough to not actually like sharing, but for now they actually really do! The problem was that they were having SO much fun, they weren't sleeping! So a quick update on that- we eventually nipped it in the bud by putting them to bed later. I am in general, a huge stickler for bedtimes and kids getting adequate rest, as their behavior reflects how much rest they are getting.. but we all had to have our sanity back. It's hard in the summer when it's still light outside at 9pm and they usually go to bed at 8! So now it's closer to 9, and they quiet done super quick.

They are adjusting well to being big sisters. They are little mommies in their own way and I have to watch as they are sometimes a little *too* helpful. This morning I found Valerie on the couch with Madeline on her lap, only to realize she had taken her out of the swing and carried her over to the couch by herself!! EEK!!! Luckily, she supports her head, but I about had a heart attack.

They both want to do ballet this fall and Valerie starts preschool next month. We are eager for them to have a little structure again.

Madeline is doing really well. She was back at birth weight at 2 weeks on the nose and is still breastfeeding beautifully. In general she sleeps well although I've had a few nights of being up for atleast an hour or two at 3 or 4am which is a bit hard to deal with when your 2 year old wakes up at 6:15 some days. Maddie is a really happy baby who just loves to be cuddled, and definitely can tell when she's not with the family. Gone are the days of eating hot meals, but I was used to that with the other two. We just adore her though and I honestly feel complete with our 3rd little girl!

As for D and I, that's about all the new stuff we can handle right now. I'm slowly working on my photography again but don't have much time to deal with the business side of it yet (getting my site together and all of that stuff). I am struggling to find my balance of holding/nursing Maddie, giving the other two play time and keeping the house remotely put together.. let alone putting activities in there or anything else! Derrick is a huge help to me and I am so blessed that he is an active Dad, although I think that should be a given for any Dad, not an exception!

We have been trying to do a photo shoot at a park for atleast a week now but every time we prep the baby is either super cranky that night, it starts pouring rain, D gets off work too late,etc. lol SO we'll see.. some time I will actually get her birth announcements out. :) Hope all is well. Here are a few random pics from the last couple days.

Camping.. Fishing.. oh my!

2009-07-20T14:47:00.001-05:00

This post is old, but I've been saving it as I am still unable to edit pictures/words for some reason. Does anyone know what is up with this site? If I upload a photo, I can no longer click and drag it below text or rearrange the order. So I had to redo this post, uploading from the bottom up and copying/pasting my words.

2 weeks ago, Derrick took advantage of perfect weather and camped out for the 2nd time in our backyard with the girls. He had been helping me out nightly with Madeline but I was finally doing well enough to handle her on my own and the kids deserved some fun time that didn't put them after Maddie's needs! Here they are growling like a bear in front of the tent. I missed them putting it up unfortunately! I slept inside with Maddie obviously.. not quite ready to sleep on the hard ground!

They made smores in the firepit and stayed up until nearly 10pm catching firefly's around the backyard. This might not seem a huge deal to some, but we didn't have firefly's in Sicily so they were very excited!!

Last Saturday we went to Chain O' Lakes state park about ten minutes from here. Derrick has been promising them that they could go fishing since we moved here and they found his long lost fishing gear. I have no interest in catching fish but love to sit by the water, so Maddie and I went along for the ride. They each got new fishing poles, Dora and Princess, of course, and had a lot of fun learning to cast into the water and so forth. We wouldn't let them use an actual hook yet since they kept smacking each other enough with the plastic fish and bobbers.. but they did have a good time!

The Hurt Locker

2009-07-17T10:36:00.003-05:00

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5132135n&tag=related;photovideo

I am excited to see this movie. I am sure I will have to listen to Derrick telling me every single thing that the movie portrayed inaccurately about disarming bombs,etc. but watching these things always helps me to understand his job. I remember when he came back from Iraq and showed me -hours- of bomb explosions and silly video of them goofing off in the hummer. It was really neat for us to understand what he went through. I only wonder what kind of movie this will be and if it will actually help the EOD image or hurt it!? Time will tell. It did get extremely good reviews according to a few tidbits I've seen on tv. Let me know if/when you see it and if it's any good!

Derrick's Reenlistment

2009-07-14T09:48:00.007-05:00

**I'm not sure what's going on with blogger but it won't let me move pics around and usually I can.. so they are totally out of order and the "story" is down below. I give up. Sorry for the confusing post. ;)

Unfort the entire background is in focus and we aren't.. I'm not sure how that happened. Oh well!! :)

On Friday, Derrick reenlisted in to the Navy for another 3 years! He is currently sitting at 19, and after these 3 years are up we will decide if he's going to stay in for another tour or if he will retire here. We'd like him to retire here, as we'd go back to sea duty (another round of deployments) and we are very happy with our new home (both the actual house and the area!) Only God knows our future plans though so I am trying not to be concrete in my feelings until we know for sure what will happen. Hopefully a job will eventually line up in a couple years!

Here are a few pics of his reenlistment. Since it was raining, we were in a muddy pavillion and therefore most pics didn't turn out as I didn't remember my flash and I had to stand out of the pav. in the rain to take the pics. Oh well. I will post them anyway so you get the idea!

I look angry but I think I was teary eyed. Derrick had certificates made for all 4 of us girls for showing support in his career,etc.

The guys took a seat out of the work van for the girls to sit on. They are staring at a couple rows of the boot camp guys lined up in front. They were making faces and Ellie was growling during parts. Nothing like making your parents proud, girls.

a very sleepy Maddie stayed in her carseat during the ceremon

We are so proud of D.. we love you!

pics...

2009-07-06T19:16:00.015-05:00

How we spent our 4th.. resting and bonding with the bambina-

My parents kept the girls from Fri-Sun so that they could enjoy the 4th of July parade and fireworks. They had a great time and 2 more days of rest really helped my pain level and I have a lot more energy every day! We went to pick them up last night and Maddie got to meet Grandpa Jeff and Great Grandma Ruth!

I am nursing, but do pump once or twice a day to have some bottles on hand if I need a break! Valerie also begs to feed her sister- so we let her yesterday.While Ellie napped, Val had some bonding time today:

I took a few pics today.. will shoot more in days to come:

Introducing Madeline Ruby

2009-07-04T09:05:00.012-05:00

* June 30th * 11:18pm * 7lb 5 oz * 18.75" long

------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the world, baby girl! Monday evening I started having very painful contractions about 10 minutes apart, lasting through the night but suddenly tapered off around 3am. I was a bit frustrated but knew it was going to be very soon. Tuesday at my doctor's appointment she was still high and I wasn't dialated at all. I was having contractions 6-8 mins apart the entire time I was at the office but he said, "It could be nothing." I left very annoyed as I was definitely starting to be in some pain and didn't think I could last another week with the contractions (aka not getting sleep!). About 4 hours later my back pain was so intense I decided to take a bath to soak and as soon as I stepped into the tub my water broke! It was a huge gush so I knew what it was right away and started calling for Derrick to get everything in the car. The girls were unfortunately still awake and reading a bed time story as this happened so they were wired/too excited to sleep for Grandma Debbie. They were yelling out the window, "good luck Mommy!" and it was the sweetest thing ever.

I called the Dr. on the way to the hospital as it's a 30 min drive and by the time we got there my contractions were pretty close together and extremely painful. The hospital would definitely not let me do a VBAC2 (vag birth after 2 c-sections) and I just wasn't in the mood to fight with them. I wanted to just get it done with and had decided to have my tubes tied as well since they would already be operating. I was prepped for surgery and walked myself down to the OR. They gave me the spinal but had a lot of trouble getting it to work. It felt like an hour that they had a needle in my back but was probably only a few minutes.. it is just the part of the c-section process that I hate the most.

I remember lying on the operating table and they let Derrick in the room. It was so emotional for both of us as he wasn't there obviously for the last 2 babies! Unfortunately every time they checked me to see if I could still feel pain, I could, and I was told I would have to be put under general anesthesia and Derrick would have to wait in the waiting room instead of witnessing the birth. I started sobbing and I am pretty sure I made both my doctor and anestesiologist cry as well. Poor guys. I was just so incredibly disappointed and I knew what it meant to Derrick. I also had flash backs of my horrible recovery with Valerie and didn't want to go through that again. D kissed my forehead and said, "I love you" and went out in the hall. I vaguely remember breathing through the mask before falling asleep. Next thing I remember is waking up extremely sleepy in the recovery room around 1am. Derrick was there holding my hand and asking if it was too late to call my mom. He was trying to show me pictures of Madeline in the camera but I couldn't focus my eyes at all and just remember falling right back asleep. I think I was moved to my room around 2:30am.

They brought Madeline to us a few minutes later. Luckily Derrick was able to be in the nursery/recovery with her the entire time and didn't miss very much of her birth. He got to see her being weighed and bathed and all of that good stuff. My first reaction was that she looked like Valerie did as a newborn. She has lighter skin as Valerie and I do and very light brown, almost dark blonde hair. For now, she has light blue eyes and we honestly can't figure out where she got those from.. she definitely looks different from both of our other girls with her eyes open! The staff at the hospital was absolutely amazing and we just had the best stay there. Maddie latched right away and has been nursing since day 1. My friends who know my struggles with breast feeding in the past with the other girls will know what a huge deal this is! I'm not sure why #3 feeds with no problems and lactation consultants couldn't even help me get the others to work.. but it is definitely a blessing this time! It was absolutely amazing to see Derrick holding our newborn and he stayed with me the entire time at the hospital. He has been waiting on me hand and foot, he is truly an amazing husband and daddy!

The recovery is going so-so. I was incredibly groggy for a couple days and had a very hard time staying awake. After my surgery, I found out that my uterus was "lazy" after the birth and was not contracting as it was supposed to. Consequently I lost a large amount of blood and am now very anemic. Luckily with medication it fixed itself and I did not need a blood transfusion but it explains my very low energy and the recovery hasn't been as quick this time as a result. I was allowed to go home Friday afternoon after a lot of bloodwork showing that my levels were stabilizing but am not to drive, go upstairs, etc. and just overall have to take it much easier than I did with my last c-section. bummer!! In a way, I see it as a blessing that I was put to sleep as I think it would have been a very scary situation for Derrick to witness and maybe it's best we found out about that after I was in recovery! :)

The girls are doing well with Madeline. They are both little mommies and want to constantly bring her pacifiers, blankets, toys,etc. Poor Maddie will definitely not have much peace and quiet in her home. When we got home yesterday the girls were all dressed up and had worked with Grandma Debbie to hang balloons, get a birthday card and cake,etc. for Madeline's birthday party. They were SO excited and were screaming as we got out of the car. It was incredibly sweet. We can't say thank you enough to my mom for taking care of them while we were in the hospital. They went to spend the 4th with my parents and we will pick them up tomorrow. We'd like some alone time as a family for a week or so before having visitors so that we can all adjust and I can recover a bit. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts-- we have truly appreciated them and are so touched to have such a great support network- world wide! :)

Here are some pics for now- will try to post a lot more in the coming days!

Standing in front of the elevator to head up to Labor and Delivery after my water had broke! 39 weeks.

A nurse took this pic for D in recovery

Grandma Debbie

Valerie is definitely the little mommy.. she will sit as long as you let her with Maddie in her lap (with an adult next to her, of course!)
pics taken just before going home, in hospital

Madeline was ready to eat.

She was a little freaked out by the dogs who ran up and licked her feet!
Mom found this delicious strawberry cheesecake at Target!

An update of sorts.. but not much to report

2009-06-27T09:53:00.003-05:00

I went to the doctor yesterday (Friday) afternoon but there is nothing to report. shoot!!!! I am still not dialating and basically the same as last week so that's a bummer. My blood pressure was on the high side (140/80.. which is about where it started heading when I developed pre-eclampsia with Valerie) but I have no other symptoms luckily. However they want me to come back on Tuesday instead of waiting a full week. As for now, it's only 9 days until my scheduled c-section and due date so maybe this one just needs to bake a bit more. It is frustrating to have painful contractions that apparently aren't doing "work" but I also am of the belief that if she needs to stay in there, she needs to stay in there!!! :) We are off to the park, and possibly the zoo to enjoy the cooler weather this weekend! Hope you are all having a great weekend! :)

Ciao for now-

Nope, no baby. Here's some pics!

2009-06-26T08:19:00.008-05:00

No baby yet.. still here! I've been contracting on and off daily but they don't get consistent so we're still waiting. That is alright with me, she will show up when she wants to. I just feel a little for my poor kids and mom who have to deal with me being so tired and no fun these days! We will see what the doctor says this afternoon at my routine appt.

We have been spending a lot of time in the a/c, the splash park, or on the back patio letting the kids swim in our little plastic pool as it's been in the 90's all week. Yesterday it said 98 on my car so I'm wondering what the heat index was. Us Chicago-lander's aren't quite loving this heat!! :) Here are some pics of the kids outside.

Grandma taught Val how to play hopscotch!

Her suit is a 3T.. her other 3T's are getting to be too small so I'm feeling like this one was mislabeled. silly gymboree.

Super Quick Dr Appt update

2009-06-18T23:56:00.002-05:00

I've had quite a few contractions (and back labor) and a few other symptoms this week so I thought I'd atleast have made some progress. Last week I was 0cm and 0% effaced.. I was like ahrhghggh!! This week I'm only 1/2 cm dialated.. but I'm almost fully effaced! wahoo! SO hopefully that means it won't be forever. Next week would be great. Tmrw would be excellent. :) I know I sound impatient, and it is completely appreciated that I made it full term. However, at 38 weeks with Eleanor I was gladly still pregnant. I wasn't even ready for her yet. This time, I am in so much constant pelvic pain (my doc says this is normal for a 3rd pg?!) that I am just done. Derrick and I just walked for 30 mins around the neighborhood and I'm now up with some pretty painful contrax. again (totally irregular..) but let's hope they are doing something. As long as I can get myself into 'active labor' they will do the c-sect.. whatever that means. ;)
Good news is that Mom came up today just incase and to be prepared.. so we're ready!

ciao!

Beach!

2009-06-17T11:09:00.009-05:00

This past Sunday was absolutely gorgeous out! We haven't had very many warm, sunny days yet this summer. According to the news, there has been a cold jet stream for weeks that usually hits farther north than here, so it is unseasonably cold! Sunday it was almost 80 and the girls have been begging to go to the beach so we spent the afternoon there! The water is still so cold this time of year, but it was perfect for splashing and digging.

This is the one of the IL state park's, and the only 6 mile stretch of coastline left that is designated to the parks (in IL). I wasn't extremely thrilled with the beach itself though, it left much to be desired. Growing up near the Indiana Dunes, I was a bit spoiled. The sand is perfect there for sand castles, there's actual bathrooms (hello.. this was NOT good for a lady who is 9 months pregnant) and huge sand dunes to climb on! This beach will have to do though, but we may try the beach on base or head down closer to Chicago next time. It was so rocky that we couldn't even make a sand castle!

My belly shadow. ha.

Thanks for looking! :)

Random pictures

2009-06-17T08:09:00.008-05:00

I have hardly posted many pictures of normal life recently. My mind is consumed with having this baby and being prepared! I have had contractions on and off as well as some back pains (back labor? I had that with Val) all week but nothing serious yet. I will update after my appt tmrw.

Here are some random pics from the last week or two. They aren't edited, no time for that ;)

This is Ellie's growling face. She was growling at me because Norman ate her food.

The girls have been putting bibs, hats, onesies, and cloth diapers on their stuffed animals since I unpacked the baby stuff. Elephant had to join us at the breakfast table that day.

Sunday afternoon nap with Daddy.. they almost always fall asleep on the way home from church and then of course, don't nap. Inevitably they fall asleep while watching a movie on the couch.

37 weeks- Belly Pic

2009-06-15T15:23:00.003-05:00

Nothing much to report yet...

This past Thursday, I had an u/s showing that she's already 7 lb 3 oz. Judging by the size of her head and her leg bones (so not just weight), her due date should be 6/30, not 7/11. HA .. just as I have been telling my doctor. So I am somewhere between 37-38 weeks and trying to be prepared! So far she is doing well in there though, as far as we know!

I don't feel as though I've dropped too much but have been feeling pretty sick on and off the last couple days which I have read is a very early sign. Ellie and I walked the entire mall twice today while Valerie was at VBS and I was feeling some contractions then. We'll see if anything progresses.. my next appt is Thursday. I'm not quite ready for her to show up yet (too much to do this week) but next week would be great! :)

Picture taken Saturday:

almost there!

2009-06-08T08:39:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow I am 36 weeks!!! It is amazing to think that at this point almost 4 years ago, I had Valerie. She was 5 lbs 14 oz (although they did give me steroids at 32 b/c they knew she'd be early). I am so curious to see how big this one is, as Val and Ellie were pretty much on the same growth track and still are.

I go in on Thurs for another appt and u/s to check on everything. I'll update then. As of now, my csect is scheduled for 7/6 but that is basically my due date, so he says to just come in if I go into labor. At a routine appt with Eleanor, they checked me to find out I was already at 4cm and wasn't even in labor, so I am a bit worried still of not even catching it and having this kid in the car. My parents are 2 hours away, I don't know anyone here yet, and we are atleast 30 mins from the hospital with no traffic. arhghhh!! I am going to ask him to start checking me this week so hopefully we'll keep an eye on things.

This past week we went through a 2 day New Member's class at our new church, First Presbyterian in Libertyville! We love it there and are so excited to meet new friends, both for us and the kids. That took up most of our weekend. Friday we did take a break to take the girls on a paddle boat around our local forest preserve. The girls had a blast!! It was so peaceful. We saw otters, turtles, ducks, fish, and birds!!

Saturday we did find the girls some new beds for their 'big girl room' that they are happy to be sharing these days. We do have 4 BR but decided that while they are young and actually *want* to share, we'll keep the 4th as a guest room and make it easier when friends and family come to visit! Later when they are older, we will just have to get rid of it or turn the play room over the garage into a guest room. SO come visit! :) (after my c-section has healed and we're a bit settled though ... :) )

I promise to take more pictures, and will soon have pics of the girls' rooms up also. We're waiting for their new beds to be delivered next week and still have to paint Maddie's room. We plan to tackle that tonight. Enjoy your week!!

Busy Week!

2009-06-02T12:23:00.002-05:00

What are you all up to this week?
Last weekend we decided to do a trial run camping with the girls in the backyard. Derrick has been wanting to take them, but we weren't sure if they'd freak out when it came down to sleeping in the woods at night. This way, if they did, we could easily run inside instead of packing up camp at 2am in the dark!!! We roasted smores in our fire pit and had a great time! The girls slept all night (with about 8 blankets and sleeping bags thrown on top of them) and poor D froze outside with them while I slept on the couch. Our air mattress sprung a leak somewhere and we slowly started feeling our hips sinking into the hard ground and it was too much for this pregnant woman to deal with! I am excited for the days to really camp though!

Saturday we took the girls to see the movie, "Up" at the theatre. It was alright. I thought the idea was cute, the old man was adorable. The scary dogs chasing them and shots being fired,etc. were a bit much for Val but they sat through it and seemed to like it over all. It was great for our rainy Saturday morning!

Sunday we planted some flowers and did some much needed yard work. We also attended our new "home" church for the second time and definitely want to stay there, what a relief! I hate church shopping, and we're excited to make new friends. Valerie will be old enough to go to VBS this year, which will also give me a break in 2 weeks!

Not much new to report as far as baby Madeline goes. Tmrw I have another appt at 35 weeks.. I am going weekly now just to make sure I don't develop pre-eclampsia again or have complications. Tomorrow evening we tour the hospital/OB area and pre register. The girls both had physicals today, Val's for pre-K. They both had to have shots, so we picked up some comfort food/aka mcD's & milkshakes and are about to all go take a nap.

Enjoy your week!

Playing at the Forest Preserve

2009-05-29T14:43:00.013-05:00

I threw sundresses on the girls today and ran over to the local forest preserve to snap some pictures. I've been having issues with my shots lately and finally verified that it is indeed that I have a junky filter, but luckily is not my new lens! (I have had to throw out entire sets of photos, like our trip to the zoo, for example because every single photo was blurry!) Lesson learned. Here's what we came up with today:

Oh, P.S. Those on facebook know, Valerie cut her hair *again*. Soo the pixie bangs and giant chunks on the side of her face are not -my- doing. Oh well.. she thinks she has magic hair that grows back over night apparently.

34 week appt

2009-05-26T13:20:00.002-05:00

I just got in from the doctor. I had some pretty bad swelling over the weekend and sudden weight gain,etc. but it seems to have gone down a lot since then. I'm thinking it's because it was 90 degrees in St. Louis and only 70 up here! I'm not quite used to that hot/humid weather! Just incase, I'm going to go every week from now in to keep me monitored, but my blood pressure and other signs were normal.. so for now, no pre-eclampsia! I also fully passed my glucose tests so no GD either. great!

I have really been dreading having another c-section and told him I really wanted to try to go naturally and he said, "absolutely not." I have met several people that have had vbacs after 2 c-sects but we don't have much choice in the hospitals/doctors we see, so once again, I have no choice. It angers me since he would have let me had I had a vbac with Ellie.. but they didn't give me that option in Italy either. This is the downside to free healthcare!!!

On a weird note, he is sticking with a July 11th due date. This frustrates me because my due date was July 7 and the only thing I can think of is that my previous doctor in Italy changed my due date after my first u/s which wasn't very accurate. I know my body, when the baby was conceived,etc. It's not a huge deal, except that a July 11th due date puts my c-section date for July 4. Since it's a holiday, it's not allowed to be scheduled then, not that I'd want to, so he thinks I'm going to have to move it up for the week after, into my 40th week.

Since I had both the girls weeks before my due date, it's basically pointless because now I'm going to be sitting around waiting to go into labor so that the hospital with accept me into the ER for a c-section. Trying to get ready for a c-sect while in active labor is NOT awesome and either is the anxiety I'm getting trying to figure out what to do with my children before my parents can get up here. It takes 2 hours for them to get here, and that's if they walked out the door the second I called them, and it isn't rush hour. arhghhh!! I just have this fear of me having a c-sect alone for the 3rd time while D is in the waiting room with the girls :(

Anyway, that's all I know for now. He said he'd check with the hospital on dates because they have 'policies' that apparently don't budge (aka he's not sure he can schedule me for an earlier c-sect before 4th of July unless I can somehow prove that my due date should be 7/7.. riiiight). SO I should know more next week at my next appt.

Ciao for now!

Just catching up.. and some belly pics!

2009-05-25T22:54:00.002-05:00

Happy Memorial Day!! I hope you got to relax on your day off, but also hope you remembered these guys and gals who die fighting for us!

We have been so busy, but doing really great! A little over a week ago we had lots of fun visiting with our dear friends April and Brian and their cutie pie kids. Derrick took Brian's job, so unfortunately they moved on as we arrived here and we never even got to see each other!! We were thankful to be invited to Brian's 40th birthday bash and got to spend some time here at the house with them and the kids. It is hard to see your best friends' kids grow up in pictures!!! :) muah!

Last week we spent much of it getting the baby's room put together and clothes washed/organized,etc. I think we are nearly ready!!! My parents came up Thursday evening to watch the girls and Derrick and I flew out to St. Louis on Friday morning, very early. The Navy will ship your car to the States for you, but it's up to you to pick it up, annoying. It was nice to have a few days away though before the baby arrives and made the most of it!! Other than Sears ripping our exhaust system off our van and causing us to spend the entire first day of our "getaway" in an auto waiting room, it was a fabulous weekend!!!

We ate many relaxed meals with adult conversation (imagine that), went shopping (poor D), and hung out with some great friends of ours, Sarah and Dave!! We took turns taking pics for each other in Forest Park (downtown St. Louis.. gorgeous!!) and went to eat. I made Dave drive us all the way out to the famous ice cream/custard place, Ted Drewes (thank you, Dave) and got my fill. I have been craving it since Julie took me there last year. YUM!

Sarah is a great photographer and friend.. for those in the St. Louis area-- I recommend her! :) If you want to check out my pics with D in the park, go to her sight and click on 'feature' and we're the pic with hands on the big belly.
http://www.sarahlough.com/

Tmrw I have my 34 week doctor appt.. I will update after!

Mother's Day and Millennium Park

2009-05-11T11:39:00.012-05:00

Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all you mama's out there!! I hope you had a great day and felt as loved by your family as I did! :)

Our weekend was nice. Friday and Saturday we got the painting finished downstairs, put some things on the walls,etc. I will take pics soon. There are still random boxes of things we haven't figured out what to do with, paint rollers,etc. setting around. ugh. another day.

Sunday I woke up to my cutie pie's YELLING in my ear that they were awake and Happy Mother's Day!! It was the sweetest thing. They gave me cards while I was in bed and helped Daddy make me crepes with nutella for breakfast! (That was my favorite thing I ate in Paris). We went to church and finally found our church home after weeks of searching and growing frustrated. In the afternoon, we met my parents downtown at Millennium Park and walked around for awhile. Right now there are tulips blooming everywhere and it's a great time to be downtown! We had a nice dinner and had a really great day!! Here are (a lot) of pics from our day:

behold the hugeness that is my belly. lovely, eh?

my new favorite picture of Valerie, unfort. with Ellie's hand sticking out. Val has developed a recent camera hatred and I had to tell her the tulip looked like an egg to get her to not make a mean face. lol

New Lens, and big news for Elle Belle

2009-05-07T18:17:00.003-05:00

... she's almost fully potty trained!! (well, except pull ups for night time, but that of course is a physical development and will take time!) A couple months ago we started putting her on the potty and she would randomly go but usually not. I didn't really want to deal with it until after we moved and I could stay in one spot to be able to take her to the potty every 30 mins or so. Since it's so nice out, last week we put her pullups away and told her they were only for night time and made a huge deal out of the fact that she gets to wear big girl underwear!! She is currently wearing the gerber kind with extra layers so it helps soak up any liquids if she has accidents. I highly recommend this, as I did not have these with Val and ohhh what a difference. At any rate the first 2 days I think she had like 18 accidents. No joke, the kid would pee, change her underwear, and pee again 20 mins later, after sitting on the potty. It was frustrating but I hit a point that I was done with pullups. After only a week she is now down to about one or two accidents a day, and today survived an outing of an hour and a half walk/park and came home dry! I was impressed (and had extra underwear in the wagon incase. thank goodness for sundresses) We're so proud of her (and relieved, we may only have one in diapers again! hooray)

We are going to use cloth again with this baby, so I don't need too much. I'm feeling pretty prepared, and quite honestly think I could get more done around here if I could actually bend over or climb a ladder so we're ready! I am 31 weeks, however she is measuring very large and there's some discrepency between me and the doctors on the due date. I know my body very well, so I'm sure that's when she's due but I think my babies just seem to be done cookin' a little sooner. Ellie came at 38 weeks, so I told D to just be prepared.

Lastly, my new portrait lens arrived today and it's wonderful! It's a canon 85mm f/1.8 and I highly recommend it. What is lovely about it, in comparison to my 50mm f/1.4 is that you don't have to get so close to the subject (aka a running toddler) to take a portrait. The clarity is wonderful (I've read comparable to an L-series in many reviews) and the background blur is beautiful. This might replace my 50mm for my fav. lens, but I'm happy to have something new to play with. I'll take lots of pics this weekend as we are meeting my parents downtown at Millenium Park on Sunday! Here's 2 we shot really quick when I got my lens to test it in our front yard:

Just talkin..

2009-05-04T10:11:00.002-05:00

No pics to share today, sorry. I'll have some this week though. I finally found my camera's battery charger that has been gone for months randomly packed away! I also am getting my portrait lens fixed and Derrick let me get a new portrait lens too!! I can't wait for it to get here, I will definitely shoot a bunch this weekend. Happy Mother's Day to me!! :)

It was gorgeous here this weekend. Since it rained the last two, we spent most of this weekend outside. There are beautiful forest preserves and huge parks full of lakes, hiking trails, and gardens all over up here. We went to one Saturday and the girls loved to watch the ducks swim on the lake and play at the playground. Derrick is in heaven here.

Sunday we tried out yet another church, our third thus far. It was a United Methodist church in Libertyville and it was small but really warm and friendly. They have a very large congregation seemingly but we chose to try out the contemporary service which unfortunately is very small and in the social hall rather than the sanctuary. yuck. I don't like sitting on folding chairs (esp when I have this restless leg issue being pg) and it didn't feel churchy. Their ministries are great, they are very involved with habitat for humanity and others that D and I would love to volunteer with. The girls had a good time. They had a praise band/modern music but traditional elements and it was a nice blend. We're torn on whether or not to return. I just can't find one that totally clicks. Will keep looking.

I hope you all enjoy the week and pamper your mom's for Mother's Day next weekend! I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon with my new OB, but seemingly all is well with this pregnancy. I feel like my hips are breaking apart at times but the nurse informed me that it's very normal for a 3rd pregnancy. How do women do this 4,5,etc. times?? geeze. :) off to clean up some chocolate milk that my 2 year old spilled all over the place.. them smeared all over the table and seat cushions. lovely. Ciao amici

30 Weeks!

2009-04-27T14:11:00.003-05:00

Can you believe that tomorrow I will be 30 weeks pregnant!? AAACK!! Talk about coming close. Since Valerie was born at 36 weeks and Ellie at 38, it is hitting me that this little one could be here in 6 weeks. We have so much to do, we haven't even started shopping yet although Derrick did get the crib and swing together this last week!

Here is a belly pic taken about 5 minutes ago. Sorry for the weird shot, there are limited surfaces I have to set my camera/timer on. lol :) I think I am carrying the same as the other 2, except she is definitely low and it's been very painful for several weeks now. Hopefully that means I won't be stuck in the hospital on July 4! (My due date is July 7, but they will schedule my c-section for 39 weeks. I'd expect to meet Madeline somewhere at the end of June). BTW, don't judge the hair. It hasn't been cut since before Xmas. I'm waiting for pay day and a day of no children... who knows when that will be. :)

Jelly Belly Factory

2009-04-27T14:06:00.004-05:00

Did you all have a nice weekend? Thursday and Friday were so beautiful, hitting 84 degrees and sunny! We took advantage of this Friday evening and ordered pizza with our neighbors, sat around the firepit while the kids all played. Unfortunately it started thunderstorming at 8am Saturday morning so any plans to get yardwork done or go somewhere fun outside were cancelled!

We decided to try out the Jelly Belly Factory in Pleasant Prairie, WI. It's right on the border and about a half hour from here. Basically you ride a little train/tram around the warehouse, stopping every few feet to watch another video about how the JB's are made. You wear a paper hat, the train whistles, and you do get a free bag of jelly belly's at the end! It's totally free, so I'm not complaining. I thought there'd be a little more to it, but the kids actually liked it and payed attention for the most part.

Pardon how horrible the pics are, I forgot my flash and I think shooting on 'auto mode' basically makes your pics turn out like junk.

Afterwards the girls were being so good we decided to take them to chuck e cheese for pizza/games. After a week being stuck at home (we still are waiting on our car to arrive from Italy so D takes the one to work every day) they deserved some fun. We had a great time!

It rained again, better yet POURED, all day Sunday so we did not get to try out any more churches. With Derrick's current sinus infection plus the rain it was just better to stick it at home for the day.

Enjoy your week!!!!

Fun times with neighbors

2009-04-23T08:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was beautiful so I shoved the kids out in the backyard to play while I painted the second coat on the dining room. It's finally done! This weekend we are going to hang some stuff up and hopefully find curtains, and then I'll start posting some pics of the house. We just have to put up some wainscotting, oh yeah and replace the floors covered in black stains.. and the ugly brass light fixtures.. anyway. slowly. The carpets (which are the lightest color you can get practically) look like a child ran around with a jug of koolaid. There are giant pink stains all over the ENTIRE house. it's *awesome*.

We were invited to a birthday party last night and the kids had the best time. On our street, at our end are mostly vacant houses or teenagers. We have never seen any of our actual neighbors outside, its' a bit bizarre. About 3 houses down towards the other end of the street there is a block of 4-5 houses that consistently are outside with their young children and the parents all sit and talk. So we just walk down there now and finally have some friends! The birthday party was that group of neighbors, and it was so great to see all of the wives and husbands getting along and it seemed like a big family birthday party. It was at the Build-A-Bear in the mall. I was shocked that she paid for each child to make a stuffed animal but we were so greatful they included us. Our girls both chose hot pink monkey's. go figure. ;) We plan on sitting by the fire pit and ordering pizza in someone's driveway while the kids all play outside one night this weekend. I'm so thankful to have found this neighborhood!!!

Today, I am off to scrub bathrooms and get some pictures hung. I can only handle living with piles of paint cans and pictures on the floor for so long (as can my children who are starting to get in to it!) :) Enjoy the gorgeous weekend!!!!

I just took this picture a few minutes ago. The girls are sitting with their new monkey's, in princess dresses, watching Enchanted while mommy deals with phone calls and bills. :)

Zoo!

2009-04-21T13:42:00.005-05:00

Last weekend the weather was so incredibly beautiful, we took advantage of it! I am sure most of you did too! Friday we took the kids to Brookfield Zoo. The kids loved it so much, as did we, so we bought season passes so we can go many times this year! There was so much to do, we honestly only saw about 1/3 of the park as we didn't even have time for the kids' zoo area or the kids' play area, the dolphin show wasn't running that day, and some of the indoor places closed an hour earlier than the park closed, so we missed a lot of animals!! We can't wait to go back!

Norman is adjusting just fine. He has put on a lot of weight (and eaten bowl after bowl of food) since Saturday as well as done almost nothing but sleep. He seems very happy and Kilah has been so much happier having her friend back. They have been together since puppies, so she was pretty down while he was gone. I'm guessing she was wondering if we'd "off" her next. ;)

This week we are just settling in to a new routine. Derrick started working this week and I have been trying to set up some sort of normalcy around here again. We are mostly unpacked, other than the baby's room. Deep cleaning has been taking a lot of time as the house was pretty filthy upon move-in and we have yet to finish painting the kitchen and dining room. I have been doing some homeschooling/preschool here and there with the girls since Val has already missed a month of school. They crave atleast some structure and since moving we have had zero of it!! Today we took an idea from my friend Allie's sight (see left in list for link) - No Time for Flash Cards. We talked about trees and the earth (for earth week!) and made trees out of paper, paint, glitter, and an old egg carton. We read some stories and T was the letter of the day. It was a great morning!

That is about all to report for now. Thus far Derrick is seemingly happy with his new job (not that he's been there long, but he likes the guys and so far he's glad to be going). The only downside is that he isn't really home anymore than he was before. He traded longer hours at work for an hour commute, so he's still home pretty late but atleast he's not deploying. We only live about 15 miles from base but the commute is due to heavy traffic/stop lights. yuck!

We are also planning a trip to Disney World this fall so if you have any tips let us know! They are currently offering the military some impressive deals but they end in Dec. so we want to take advantage while we can!

I will leave you with a few pics from the zoo- (mostly from the playground there).

This is the only outfit they own that matches, so don't tease. It sure made keeping track of them (especially at the extremely crowded playground) so much easier!!!

Norman came BACK!!!

2009-04-18T07:11:00.002-05:00

Just a few minutes ago.. I thought I'd update. I was sitting here checking my email and heard his notorious squeaky whining and didn't think much of it because I'm so used to blocking it out. I realized it was HIM and ran to the front door. He had already taken off so I had to run around the neighborhood in pj's and bare feet but he was desperate to find us, kept getting stuck behind fenced in yards and no way to get around them. Norm is super skinny but looks otherwise healthy for the most part. He has some sores on his feet, may be frostbite but I can't tell. His belly looks frostbitten and he has some large scratches to his nose, probably from a fight. He's exhausted! Kilah is chasing him everywhere, she is so excited! The cat is not loving him. hahaha. :) Just wanted to update, thanks for your prayers! We are not quite sure how he survived nights of snow and ice and seemingly no food for nearly 3 weeks. Wow!!

Belated Easter-

2009-04-17T08:24:00.011-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I am slowly catching up on posts here. For Easter, my parents drove up here Sat and stayed until Sun evening. It is so nice to have family close by (well 2 hours is close for us, considering what it took to visit the last few years!) It was very cold out, due to the wind, but the men finished putting together a wooden sing set/fort for the girls complete with a slide. That took most of our down time.

Sunday the girls woke up to the usual egg hunt and baskets- they loved it! It seems to get more fun the older they get!!! We tried out another church on Sunday (We had tried one the week before and it just wasn't a match). However, this one was great! It's called, ironically, "the Chapel" (since we had just been going to the chapel on base in Sicily for years). It's a fairly large congregation with a rock band, the usual 'mega church' stuff but my favorite was the children's area. There is a slide downstairs that looks like a train engine, a fantastic security system for checking kids in and out, and a fantastic curriculum. So Ellie is actually learning instead of sitting in the church nursery. We will probably go back this weekend to see it again on a non-Easter holiday but will also check out a couple others before we make our final decision.

Today we are headed to the zoo! Derrick wants to buy an annual pass (you only have to go twice to get your money's worth!) so I can take the girls all the time! Hooray for that! Will report on that tmrw. After weeks of being windy and in the 40's, sometimes 50's.. it's supposed to be sunny and hit 70 today so we're taking advantage of Derrick's last day off before starting his new job on Monday!!!

Here are some Easter pics. I very regretfully forgot to take a picture of my parents and all of us!

Don't mind the background, we need another coat on the red walls and obviously the tape/lack of light plates are due to the in-progress job!

They loved dying eggs! Derrick's first time doing this with us, it was a treat :)
The Easter bunny brought coloring/sticker books, rabbit ears, a chocolate bunny, a lipsmackers chapstick, and some fun character socks this year!

Just for kicks.. this is Easter last year. Notice that Eleanor is wearing the same dress this year that Valerie wore last year. sigh.. getting so big!

Pepper Powell

2009-04-15T12:30:00.005-05:00

I didn't realize how silly Pepper Powell sounded until I read April's comment. ha ha. Luckily you don't usually have to use your pet's last name (for her sake).

We have been thinking of getting a cat for a long time but for obvious reasons waited until we moved to do so. She is not a replacement for Norman, as we'd still gladly take him back if he came home but an addition to our already crazy family. What's one more?

Pepper came from a wonderful animal shelter in Vernon Hills, IL called Orphans of the Storm. We sat in the cat rooms for hours while cats climbed around us and sat in our laps. It was a great way to pick a pet because you get to spend a lot of time figuring out which pet would fit well with your family (aka a grabby 2 year old toddler). Pepper is very affectionate, almost annoyingly so at times, and spunky. Valerie named her, and it seems to fit her fiesty personality. She sits on your lap the second you sit down and starts purring as soon as she sees you. We think she likes it here so far, she follows us around every where we go and meows when she can't see us. Kilah, our Cairn Terrier (Toto) so far just sniffs her. They avoid each other for the most part, mostly because Pepper swatted Kilah's nose a few times on the first day.. but they don't seem to fight or care one way or the other.

Here's pics!

Random Old Pics

2009-04-14T21:36:00.009-05:00

Hi loved ones! I have been so busy getting things done that I haven't been on the computer much. Balance is key and is has been nice to take a break, but I am glad to be doing some updates. I finally uploaded some photos and realized I have pics back from March up until now to share. Here are a small few:

Valerie loved her preschool at the Child Development Center on base in Sicily. One week they celebrated Dr. Seuss week (which is nationally recognized) along with the elementary school. There was a parade, and every one made and wore these special hats. I'm sure you can guess that it's from the Cat in the Hat. She was so proud!

I ran into this one and got teary eyed a bit. It's been over 2 weeks now since Norman's runaway and I don't think he's coming back at this point. When he was only a few months old and a new puppy in my care he ran away for almost two weeks when a phone repair man came to my new apartment in college. He eventually found his way home. At any rate, it's a sweet photo of dear Normie.

Ellie's new love - the bouncy ball with the handle. We were stuck outside for almost 10 hours one day while we had our house cleaned before our inspection. We were so thankful for a warm day!

After we flew back to the States we stayed with my parents for a few days while we worked out getting a new car, having our things delivered to our new home,etc. I caught a happy Valerie blowing bubbles with Grandpa Jeff on a sunny day. Ironically we got 6" of snow a couple days later. How fast the weather changes up here!
Eleanor Lily turned 2 the very next day after we flew in. We were jet lagged but managed to give her a decent birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's. There is a diner in Schereville that has a train ride, model trains, and best of all, you can sit at the counter and a train rides around the track and brings your food to you! Most of you know by now that Ellie's love is currently trains and it was super fun! Afterwards, the gparents took the girls to ride the carosel and play at the mall so Derrick and I could do some birthday shopping. We got her a couple trains and a new Tinkerbell dress up dress (her favorite princess.. she is just newly getting into this with Valerie). We got Valerie an inexpensive generic dress also for being the big sister so they could dress up together.. as Val's were all packed up and wouldn't be there for a few more weeks. A Thomas the Train cake capped off the day and a great, low-key birthday was had by Eleanor. :)

Quick update

2009-04-06T22:51:00.002-05:00

Hi all--

Since so many asked, no we have not found Norman yet. No one has seen him either. We have contacted shelters, the police, vets,etc. It has been pouring rain so we haven't put up fliars but have been talking to neighbors,etc. Unfortunately he has done this before (twice actually) and no one has ever caught him. He is terrified of strangers, so I highly doubt he is with a family even though my heart wants to believe that. It snowed last night about an inch, so it's pretty gross outside. Poor guy. He does have a name tag with Norman on it, however our phone and address are from Sicily. We had only been here a few days when he left and didn't make it to petsmart yet. Kilah now has new tags! :)

He is microchipped also, so we shall see.

On a positive note, we are settling in well and got the rest of our things today so I am back online! This week we are busily trying to unpack and finish painting. Derrick goes back to work in a little over a week so we are trying to get the bulk of the work done now because I am definitely feeling my pregnancy at this point. I'm about 7 months now, only a short time left.. and am absolutely exhausted by dinner time! I'm not much help these days :)

Will write soon.. trying to get settled. Hope all is well!!!

Hello Strangers!!

2009-04-03T11:18:00.002-05:00

Well we certainly aren't in Sicily anymore, but I will keep the same blog address so I don't have to change everything over. Look for a new picture soon lol :)

We are moved in, but without internet access so I am just now writing an update to you all from a library computer. Our express shipment arrives on Monday so I should be back on track after that and we will be better about communicating to you all!

The move over was very smooth. Our flights went well, the kids were absolutely wonderfully behaved, and the dogs made the flight. They must have let them out somewhere because they were dry when we got to Chicago (my worst fear.. driving home with dogs in the car that had "dirty" cages). A man threw a fit because he didn't want to sit next to my kids on the plane (it was five seats across) and I found it hilarious that he moved several rows up, right in front of a kid who kicked his seat and threw tantrums the entire time. My children are used to this flight, and watched movies or colored the entire time. priceless.

We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) for several days as we were living out of two suitcases. The kids were so excited to be *home*!! We probably ate at 50 restaurants and the kids were happy just to ride the carosel at the mall or go somewhere that had crayons and a kids' menu. We decided to go ahead and move in to our home early so we could get a lot of painting done and some minor repairs before our big furniture shipment arrived. Sleeping on an air mattress for about a week wasn't so horrible but I am glad to have my bed back!! Our furniture arrived a few days ago, but our car won't be here for atleast another month. We did end up having to buy a 2nd car which Derrick can use for work.

Our home is absolutely beautiful. It has such potential and so far we have painted 90% of the first level. The rest will have to wait for a later date, when I'm not almost 7 months pregnant! I will post photos soon, when we have our own computer, and when more boxes are unpacked! Our house backs up to a marshy area and in the mornings we watch Canadian geese fly and at night you can hear the frogs croacking as we sit and watch television. There have been a couple pitfalls. The previous owners/renters must have absolutely not cleaned for the time they were there (the house was built in '04 so you'd expect it to be somewhat decent). I pulled the oven out to paint behind it and there were dirty plates with food on them, spaghetti sauce poured down the sides of the oven that took hours to remove, and rat poop on the ground. Our dishwasher is missing the wheels to the rack as well as the silverware basket and we can't use it. The pipes were complely blocked solid to our kitchen drain and had to be actually cut out in the basement and replaced. ACK! However, with some paint and scrubbing it's turning into -home- for us and we are liking it.

On a sad note, Norman, our 7 year old basset hound, ran away several days ago. He was not happy in TX or Italy and was just so ecstatic here in IL. He's definitely a midwest dog who loves the woods and the cooler weather. We were so glad to see him happy again as it has quite honestly become a pain to have a dog such as Norman over the last couple years. The direct tv guy came to remove some satellites (there were 4 on the house when we moved in.. seriously?!) and left the gate to our fenced in back yard open. We had no idea since it's on the side of the house and didn't realize it until several hours later, at almost midnight that Norman was missing. Thankfully Kilah, our little "toto" was at the neighbor's house but they said Norman took off like a bullet. ugh!!!! We've contacted the shelter, police, etc. but no sign of him yet. Say a prayer for poor Normie. Valerie is having a hard time with it. Yesterday she asked if we could get a new dog who really wanted us. :( too hard!!

The area around here is hilly, full of forest preserves and beautiful. We live in a very small town and love it, with all the major stores/restaurants within a 20 minute drive to our home. There is a metra stop to Chicago about one mile from our home also. Feel free to visit although we will need a little time to unpack and this summer, settle in with our new baby girl! :)

Will update soon, should be back online next week. Ciao for now friends and family!!

Almost there..

2009-03-15T13:45:00.002-05:00

We have been so busy, and quite frankly, totally exhausted for the last week getting ready to move! Moving overseas is pretty insane as you must ship your stuff SO early, yet live with hardly anything for two months. You'd think this would make it easier to clean, but I just think the kids get even more bored with their toys gone and get into everything they aren't supposed to! :)

We have been painting and painting, and other than a coat in Val's room we're done. The paint here is water based, it's interesting and takes several coats. We washed the car and detailed it today so we can ship it out this week. It will take about 2 months to reach the US so we have a rental car for awhile. We are hoping to buy a 2nd car for Derrick within a week or two anyway which certainly will help! We've been trimming bushes, weeding flower beds, reseeding bare spots, and scrubbing the tile patio. Today we hired an italian couple to do a final cleaning on our home. We were up until after midnight last night shoving everything left (some dishes, pots, a toaster, our clothes,etc.) into one closet so they could clean the house from top to bottom. They were here from 8-5pm and the house is spotless! They even cleaned behind the appliances, the oven looks brand new, and even the window sills are completely spotless. Well worth 160 euro. (esp if you are pregnant or have toddlers that get in the way!)

Tomorrow we have to check out from all the places on base (it's a weird process) and pack our suitcases. 8am Tuesday morning the movers come to pick up our rent-a-couch,etc. and we have our final inspection.. than it's living in the navy lodge hotel for a couple days until our flight out Friday morning!! We will be with my parents for several days until we have a date set for the movers to deliver our furniture/household goods we had shipped back in January! On a side note, our anniversary is Thursday and Ellie turns 2 on Saturday! Those things are taking a back burner unfortunately to the move, but we will do cake/ice cream with grandma and grandpa when we get in!

So that's life over here for now. We hope you are all doing great--- and enjoyed a nice weekend!!

Nursery/Kid Inspiration Photos

2009-03-13T03:14:00.007-05:00

One of my favorite things to do over a cup of coffee in the morning lately is to just browse home decorating sites/photos for ideas. I've been collecting photos for inspiration for several years, I guess I get that from my mom ;) I know many of my friends have either just moved, or are about to move (that's military life, right?), I thought I'd share some of my favorites! Sometimes it helps just to see an idea and then you can run with it! :) The best part of moving is getting to start all over again! :) These photos are just in order of how they're saved in my folder, not by preference.

I love the molding/structure of this room!

We are probably going to do a pink/brown theme in one of the girls' rooms. I can't decide if I like the walls brown or not, but it is certainly very soothing.

I love these scallops from PBK site. However, how do you do it so they are all even?

We are really leaning towards something like this for Madeline's nursery since she only has a white bedskirt for her crib with tiny pink, green, yellow,etc. flowers on it. I don't do the bumper, quilt, or any of that jazz.. and it's so soothing but gets away from the traditional pink for girls!

Another cute scallop idea from PBK.. again how do you paint it though? I like how it divides the colors without needing a chair rail.

I just love the "tacky" chandelier in this room.. perfect for a little girl yet too much for any adult!

I love this boy's nursery. I love that the bedding is full of solids and the stripes are just enough. I may do stripes in the play room like this with different colors. Super adorable.

This vine is beautiful and a lot like what I did in Val's room here, but I like how it separates the color which mine did not.

Another super cute boy's nursery. I love how the stripes only go halfway up and then there's something different, but the colors in the patterns are subtle enough that it works.

Paris- Day 3

2009-03-11T03:10:00.011-05:00

Sunday was cold and misty out. We were pretty bundled up and I rarely took my camera out because I didn't want to deal with the rain issue. We were also exhausted from an extremely long (but awesome!) day before :)

We set out to find an outdoor market. Following the advice from the man at the front desk of our hotel, we set out towards the Opera and there is a wonderful market over there. Here we bought a kilo of huge, juicy strawberries and munched on them for breakfast. We also bought some baguette's and I had an eclair at a local bakery for like .50 euro. That is the way to do breakfast, super cheap.

The markets in France (and in Germany, if you remember from my summer trip) are so much cleaner, wider/less crowded, and organized than they are in Sicily. The fruit is beautifully arranged, so neat and clean. People wait and take turns and the isles were much wider so it wasn't like walking through a mosh pit!

We didn't do too much souvenir shopping on this trip. We bought the girls each a beret at the market and I bought a coffee cup at the Louvre. We had planned to go back up to the shopping district later to grab a few things but decided to relax instead.

We walked awhile through the markets and stopped at a little bar/restaurant that we obviously had to try ;) A few friends actually recommended it to us, and we came upon it by accident! It's across from the Bastille/next to the Opera House.

Bastille:

I ate a bacon cheeseburger, which wasn't extremely good.. the cheese was like a cup of melted nacho cheese and it was a MESS!! lol. It was ironic, I had just been saying how I really just needed something American and there it was! I realize to some, it's ridiculous to eat American food while in Europe but you have to remember that we've been living in Europe for almost 3 years. In Sicily you can go out for Sicilian food, or Sicilian food. There is a chinese place in Catania, but it's not something we frequent. Anyway, so when we travel, we like to try lots of different things!

From here, we took the metro back over near the Louvre and walked to the Orsay museum. Here, you can see much more modern art from the Louvre, including the Impressionists and so forth. We loved the giant old clocks on the sides of what used to be an old train station, now converted to the museum. It is beautiful at night.

Inside, we started at the top floor where the Impressionists were and found ourselves practically falling asleep on a bench. We so *wanted* to spend the afternoon there but just could not stay awake. We lasted about an hour and decided we'd come back another time, got a Starbucks and rode the train back to the hotel. I took a 4 hour nap before we went out for a late dinner at a little French Cafe near our hotel. It was so-so. There aren't a lot of options at 9pm on a Sunday night.. but it would do. The next morning we were at the train station by 8am and it was smooth coming back, minus our luggage being lost for a week in Milan. It was a wonderful weekend and we will definitely go back some day. We did not have time to visit the Notre Dame up close, the Montemartre area/Cathedral up there, Versailles, the Luxomberg Gardens, Normandy, or Disneyland Paris! :) It is amazing how much there is to do there.

I highly recommend it, with or without kids. It would be much easier if you go when your kids are out of the stroller age though, as I cannot imagine going up and down the thousands of subway stairs carrying a stroller. We did that in Barcelona and Rome,etc.. and it certainly was a hurdle!

Paris- Day 2 part 2

2009-03-09T01:02:00.020-05:00

My last post ended with us walking down the Champs. We did stop in the Disney store to look around and peeked into one of the super fancy car dealerships for kicks. We kept going though because we knew the weather was wonderful that day and we had to get to the Arc and Eiffel Tower! I'm glad we pushed through because Sunday was rainy and cold, we didn't do too much!

At the end of the Champs is the Arc de Triomphe. There was a pretty long line to get to the top but we had the museum pass so we went right up. I also took the "handicapped" elevator because I had been walking for miles, up and down stairs all day, and quite frankly my pregnant body was about to collapse. (Just so you know, there is one. You have to ask the attendant to take you up but they were more than happy to).

From the top you can see the entire city including the Eiffel Tower towering over the city. It was really cool to see, although again everything looked grey and well, like winter!

View of the Champs:

Obviously the E. Tower area
At the base of the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI. The flame is rekindled every evening at 6:30pm.

From here, we took the metro (It looks so close, but it's a good walk and there's nothing along the way) over to the Eiffel Tower. We took a few photos and decided to skip going up to the top. I know, right? How could you not do this? Well for one, we had *just* been to the top of the Arc and had seen the overview of the city. I didn't feel the need to do it 10 minutes later. It was also starting to drop dramatically in temp now, at almost sunset, and it was getting very windy. The queue for going up the tower had to be atleast an hour and there were hurdled like cattle into this tiny little waiting area, like at Six Flags. **FYI, the museum pass does not cover this so you do have to wait in line, and you do have to pay.**

We decided to watch the sunset and take some pictures of the tower as the lights came on instead. We had about an hour before then, so we walked around the corner from the Tower and had a drink at a cafe. I had my first crepes, with Nutella even, and they were fantastic. I can't wait to make some at home!

Afterwards, we decided to hop one of the glass domed boats on the Seine, right at the base of the E. Tower. I believe it was 12 euroish per adult for a 1 hour boat ride down the Seine. There are several companies, they run every half hour or so. We took an 8pm ride and it was lovely to go at night. Almost every monument or sight is on the Seine so you really see it all on this one trip, and at night it's especially romantic and beautiful! There is a headset at every seat that speaks several languages so you can hear some trivia if you'd like along the way. I listened to about half of it and then decided to just enjoy the quiet. I will admit by about 45 min in I was completely falling asleep from walking the entire day but it was just so relaxing!!
This was probably my favorite thing on the trip. a must do!

By now it was 9pm and we had to eat dinner. We were so incredibly tired so we took the metro back to our hotel area and stopped at a little Thai place. They were SO sweet and the food was great!! I think I took 2 steps into the hotel room before I passed out cold for the night. :)

Paris- Day 2 (Sat)

2009-03-06T03:56:00.013-06:00

We used the Rick Steve's book a lot to help in our decision making for this trip, and for any of our trips through Europe so far. I highly recommend his books/shows!

The first Sunday of every month is free day for most museums, main attractions (exluding the E. Tower, and a few others). However that also means it's totally packed and the lines are long. Since we only had two full days we wanted to make the most of them and chose not to stand in those lines. We bought the Paris Museum pass, which I believe for 2 days was something like 32 euro per person. This gives you free admission to a long list of places, and you also walk straight in without waiting in line. Just to not wait in line, was worth it if you're short on time! We bought our pass when we arrived the first night at the TI booth at the airport also. Apparently you can buy it at some of the monuments but will wait in line.

Saturday morning we started off walking to a cafe near our hotel for breakfast. We had OJ, a delicious crossaint, and a cappucino. The cappo's in France are more like an espresso, not what I'm used to in Italy. I had to add about 4 sugars but it was still very nice. :) Derrick wanted to die because people were staring at me taking his photo but you'd think he'd be used to it by now!

From there we took a metro ride over to the Louvre and went in the basement entrance, underneath the pyramid. It's much less crowded underneath and there are several shops, including a Starbucks! This is me standing underneath the famous glass pyramid above.

Winged Victory of Samothrace:Venus de Milo:

Obviously, the Mona Lisa. She's behind glass, and much smaller than everyone expects

After we had our fill (you can only handle about 2-3 hours max.. so make sure you plan what you want to see) we ate at the Louvre cafeteria. We had fresh salads, baguettes, and they have some other options also. I had some kind of baguette with melted veggies, cheese, and chicken on top! We spent 31 euro, which is about as cheap as you're going to get a meal in Paris- super expensive!

On the way out we grabbed some Starbucks and sat in the Tuileries Garden (just outside). It's very relaxing. There are benches everywhere, and small ponds. I saw children running around and pushing boats on the water, seemingly the place to be on a rare gorgeous day in March! Outside the Louvre:

Arc du Carosel

You too, can be Mona Lisa.. for only a few euro ;) As you can see, the E. Tower is visible from here, although it's a couple miles away.

The above sidewalk starts at the Louvre's pyramid. It goes straight through the Tuileries, pass the Plaza de la Concorde, down the famous Champs Elysees, and ends at the Arc de Triomphe. It's a great walk, but very long, so stop along the way.

The Champs has the ritzy stores like Louis Vuitton and Cartier. There's fancy car dealerships, and cafes charging 15 euro for a drink. It's an interesting walk to people watch, although I can't imagine buying anything on that strip!

After this we went up the Arc de Triomphe and headed over the Eiffel Tower. It was an extremely long day so I will post some more tomorrow. Sunday we were so exhausted, we walked through a market, saw a few paintings at the Orsay and crashed for several hours at our hotel to get some rest. Ciao for now!

Paris Pics

2009-03-06T02:56:00.010-06:00

Paris was wonderful! The weater was in the low 50's during the day and low 40's at night. After dinner the wind picked up usually in the evenings and we could only handle walking so long in it. We flew out of Catania with a layover in Rome (Milan on the way back) on Alitalia/Air France. Yes, it's the ghetto airline, but also cheapest by over $100 a ticket!! However, they did lose our suitcase on the way home and it has yet to be returned. Apparently it's sitting in Milan, didn't make our short layover.

Here is a photo flying over Mt. Etna. I wish we weren't on the wing, because it's truly awesome to see the top of Mt. Etna from an airplane. You realize how tall it really is, when the towns below are microscopic yet the volcano is seemingly so close!!

We arrived around 4:30pm and by the time we got our luggage, took the metro into Paris and walked to our hotel it was about 7. The airport is very large, and reminded me much of O'Hare. It was smooth and super clean. The metro system is efficient. We never had to wait more than 3 minutes for a train, and most of the time walked right on. It was fantastic! Quick tip: If you are going to use the trains multiple times (it's a huge city, I'm guessing you will) buy a "carnet" pronounced (car-nay) of tickets. It saves time as you won't have to buy a ticket every time. I think you get 10 tickets for 11.40 euro and so it's 5 rides if you're with a partner!

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Francais. It's located near the Nation intersection, a bit southeast from the Opera and Bastille. It's not in a touristy area, which is sort of irritating if you are tired and just want to walk right back to your hotel. However there is a metro stop a block from the hotel and it's super easy. Since it wasn't right downtown, we had a lovely room with a nice bed for half the price (I think it was 130 euro a night. not sure) The hotel itself is immaculately clean, the bed was the most comfortable I've stayed in Europe so far. I forgot to take pics of the room, very basic but recently renovated. It's rated #43 in all of Paris on Tripadvisor, and I would stay there again. Oh and I don't recommend spending the 10 euro per person for their breakfast. It's served in the basement, and you can get an entire baguette at a bakery for 1 euro. Here's the website: http://www.grandhotelfrancais.com/index.en.html

We called the kids to check on them and headed out for dinner. We ate at Les Galopins the first night, near our hotel. It was recommended to us by our friends as well as the hotel.

It's a small cafe like setting, with very friendly wait staff and menus written on large chalkboards. It was so homey and I think I ate almost an entire loaf of a french baguette while waiting for my dinner. The bread was out of this world.. so fresh and delicious!! (I'm not a fan of italian bread). We hadn't eaten all day so we indulged. I had some sort of beef and augratin potatoes and Derrick ate a sausage the size of a coke can. He could barely walk afterwards, very romantic right :)

We were tired from a day of travel but had to atleast see the Eiffel Tower before going to bed so we took the metro over to the other side of the city. Stepping out of the metro these were our sites as we walked down the Seine holding hands. It was a lovely evening!

Plaza de la Concorde, Eiffel Tower. The Tower sparkles on the hour every hour for a few minutes.

Above- Notre Dame, one of the Seine boat cruises

Below- Grand Palais

Day 2 next post.

21-22 Weeks

2009-03-03T05:09:00.002-06:00

This pregnancy is over half over! Valerie was born at 36, although induced due to pre-eclampsia and definitely was not ready. Eleanor came at 38 on her own.. so we will see if this little one comes early or not! They generally schedule c-sections at 39 weeks, which would be during the first week of July. I certainly do not want to be in the hospital on the 4th of July, yuck. They better work around that!! (unless of course she comes on her own then, that's ok ;) )

Derrick and I just returned from a lovely weekend in Paris. The kids stayed with friends and did pretty well, although Valerie had some issues going to sleep at night. It was very hard to be away from them, as we actually enjoy traveling with our children! However, it was certainly nice to sleep in and have several meals with my husband, uninterrupted!! In March, Paris is grey and misty, temps were in the 40's/low 50's during the day. It was certainly tolerable although I think it would be absolutely beautiful in the later spring/fall!! I adored the city in general. Everything was so beautifully taken care of. Every single time we walked into a store, cafe,etc. we were greeted so cheerfully with "Bonjour Madame!" and Derrick pointed out that everyone in Paris seemed to take pride in everything that they did.

It was so different from being in Italy, where you can be standing in line, making eye contact with the person at the store, and they completely ignore you. People cut in front of you constantly. The bathrooms smell so horridly of urine (and don't even get me started on the cleanliness of them.. if there even IS a seat,etc.). It is just generally a place I am quite honestly ready to leave. It's a beautiful place to see for it's historical beauty and gorgeous coastlines. It seems as though the older generations are lovely people, but as a culture in general it is very obviously "every man for himself" down here in Sicily. Derrick and I are going to miss Europe terribly, but would only retour in Northern Europe some day if ever we decide that Derrick should remain on active duty. Only time will tell!

In two weeks, we move out of our little townhome and into the lodge for a few days before flying back to the states! We are crazy busy these next couple weeks repainting, deep cleaning, getting the dogs to the italian vet out in town for certificates, getting medical records to take back with us, etc. It is overwhelming but very exciting to be getting done at the same time!

I haven't even had a second to look at my pictures from Paris, but hopefully here and there will post a little about our trip. Today I am to clean the downstairs so we can start painting tonight after the girls go to bed. Here is a picture Derrick took of me in our hotel room this weekend- about 21.5 weeks. I'm carrying just the same as the other girls.. high and wide. lol :) Oh well :)

Back from the U/S...

2009-02-23T04:46:00.002-06:00

.. and it's a GIRL! Madeline Ruby should be making her arrival around 7/7, still growing right on track and everything is seemingly healthy at this point! (Thank God for that!)

I have felt this one was a girl most of the pg, so I wasn't too shocked. I admit to being a little nervous that if D heard it was another girl he would start crying or something but he was totally beaming. The U/S tech's wife is due around the same time as me and found out they are having their 2nd girl. The guys were comparing notes and Derrick was telling him how wonderful it is to have two girls squeal and jump all over you every day. Don't let this big bad ass guys fool you.. they appear to be annoyed with all the Cinderella but you should have heard them gushing about their girls :) We are happy as can be, and Valerie insists her name is "Flower" buuut we'll have to work on that!!

Sorry for no pics, maybe D can scan them later at work. We are down to the bare essentials here!

House Virtual Tour and Doc. Update

2009-02-20T05:40:00.002-06:00

I just found a home that is selling for 50K more than we paid for ours, a street over from our house, same model exactly! It just has nicer floors and some upgraded cabinets, and also a gas fireplace. However the pics are so helpful to us because when my parents looked at the home, it had white walls and no furniture. Every room looks practically the same and it's hard to tell how big/small a room is with no furniture in it. Ironically they have the same color scheme as us and with the white trim/wood floors it looks beautiful!

http://www.cpgtours.com/tour.php?br=0&id=2281

On another note, I went to the doctor today for my 20 week appt. I will post a 'belly pic' tonight if I remember to have D take one. Everything is fine, nothing to report. Heartrate is still in the low 140's so we are still wondering if this one is a boy as the girls' were both in the 160's. (I have heard this from numerous, but not all friends.. something to do about the metabolic rates differing in the sexes). interesting food for thought. We'll know on Monday!!! Our names are Madeline Ruby and Owen Anthony.

Have a great weekend!! Ours will most likely be spent painting and fixing knicks in doors, getting ready for inspection. Next weekend we go to Paris!!

Decorating Advice- Kitchen

2009-02-18T03:15:00.008-06:00

Hi all!

We are SICK again. Coughing like doggies over here (literally sounds like a bark) and watching a friend's 2 year old all week. It has not been the best week but we are making the best of it.

The thing that gets me in the best mood these days is planning how I am going to decorate my new house! We would like to paint a lot of the downstairs before our furniture arrives to make things easier so we're trying to somewhat come up with a 'scheme' now. I could use some opinions!!

Choice #1- Real Hardwood or Laminate flooring? (Please vote!) We really do not like carpet at all in the downstairs, especially with children who spill things and dogs who run through the house with dirty feet. After living with ceramic tile floors in every single room of the house, we love that we can actually keep it *clean* and just periodically steam clean the rugs.

I have heard from some to get real wood because it's worth more to the value of your home and you can always refinish it if it gets yucky. It looks nicer. I have heard from others to do laminate because the dogs won't scratch it, nor will my children wearing dress up shoes,etc. We aren't sure what to do- if we did get laminate we'd go with a higher end that looks as close to wood as possible, without breaking the bank. Any recommendations??

Choice #2- Kitchen

Our dishes, linens,etc. sort of go with italian country/french country or old world/pottery barn styles. Golds, dark reds, olive green, mediterranean colors.

Our new home currently just has the very basic builders' standards.. basic cabinets, beige counters, and linoleum floors. (yuck). I am obviously not going to rip it all out, other than the floor, so I need to be able to do the fixings with paint and possibly new hardware,etc.

Here is the current pic of the kitchen/little breakfast area. Remember that the floors will be replaced with wood/laminate throughout (pic taken from family room.) OR we may put a slate/natural looking tile in the kitchen/eating area for moisture.. but I'd rather have it all be the same.

We are going to also paint all of the trim white in every room, and replace that light fixture first thing with a wrought iron small chandelier or something.

So option 1:
-Paint cabinets white, appliances would blend in nicely. Replace counters eventually, walls would be either beige in the entire family room/eating/kitchen area or a red color in the kitchen and beige in the other room.

Option 2: leave cabinets natural, eventually put nicer counters, paint walls a golden color or red/white wainscotting on the bottom half. I love both of these kitchens, however the white appliances would stand out more. We could also stain just the lower half a darker stain or a dark green or something more fun .. or just the wall of the island,etc.

Option 3: Recently I've been seeing a lot of black cabinets and I love them with the wood floors and lighter walls. Especially when they have a little wear and tear on them (aka sand a little bit so the natural wood comes through and it looks kind of rough). My issue is that we have *white* appliances which would probably pop out too much huh? I can't see replacing all of the appliances just b/c I'd rather have black or stainless. Mom- I could totally see your kitchen this way, btw. with the khaki/golden walls and your black appliances. What do you guys think of the black?

Or half white/half black.These pics are from random decorating sites which I unfortunately did not mark, so I appologize for not leaving credit where credit is due. Please comment and give me your opinion- especially if you have any knowledge of floors, painting cabinets, etc.!

Blood Orange Picking

2009-02-17T04:06:00.006-06:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones! I do agree that it can be overly sold as a "Hallmark Holiday" .. but so can Christmas or any other holiday. I personally love V-day because it is soley about telling those around you how much you care about them!

This year we decided to spend it with our girls as I blogged earlier. We got up bright and early and met some other families in our FRG (Family Readiness Group) out in the countryside. Emilio and Mariska are a wonderful couple who frequently let us American's come and pick oranges, and to top it off cook a very large several course meal for everyone at their home! You pay for this of course, but it's worth it!! However you don't pay for the oranges, we took home several BAGS full (to share with friends!) and they are the juiciest oranges I've ever had in my entire life. Valerie loved squeezing the oranges in a press to make blood orange juice- it is so sweet in comparison to the regular Tropicana you get in the US. It was a great day!! To end our V-day, Derrick made eggplant parm over spaghetti (yum!) and we watched a movie together. It was a perfect Valentine's.

Here are a couple of photos from our day-

Mt. Etna is at the top still covered in snow, you can see how large it is in comparison to the surrounding hills. All you see in Sicily are rows of olive trees and orange groves! It's very beautiful, although VERY country!

Emilio our fine host, explains about how they sell their oranges and the different types,etc. We learned a bit about the Mafia taking charge of what kind they can sell and for what price, etc.

We had to eat while we picked of course! fresh off the tree!

Monday Park Pics

2009-02-11T08:38:00.004-06:00

It's almost Valentine's Day! What are you and your loved ones doing? We are going to start the day off with some heart shaped pancakes and fruit with pink yogart dip! We got the girls each a little stuffed animal and a small thing of candy, and just agreed to exchange cards for each other. That morning we are going out to the countryside to pick blood oranges and then will have lunch at the owner's home with some other friends of ours! We're so excited! V-day is typically not a date for us (who can find a sitter on V-day?) but we like to enjoy it with our girls.

This weekend we are also going to head to Acireale to the Carnivale as we did last year. If you click on the links to the right I think it might have even been my first post!!

Not much is going on this week. We are waiting for Naples to book us some plane tickets so we have a date. We got bumped from the MAC flights thanks to Norman. That dog.. don't get me started. I am, however, glad to be flying commercial so we can fly straight into Chicago and not be stuck switching airports, staying over night in a hotel in VA with dogs and toddlers! Can you imagine that taxi ride? :)

I went to the market with some friends today and grabbed some fresh strawberries, eggplant, and zucchini! I am going to make my first eggplant parm on Sat night I think.

Monday Derrick had a halfday so we took the girls to the park. Here are a couple pics. Enjoy your week!

Agrigento

2009-02-09T06:35:00.005-06:00

It's Monday and my house is CLEAN! I love the beginning of the week because I always start full of ambition, cleaning my house, ready for the week ahead. By Friday the floors are dirty, I have zero desire to cook/clean, and I'm ready for D to come home and take over. lol :)

I haven't posted too many pictures recently because 1) my portrait lens bit the dust and I'm just waiting until we move to have it fixed since I'd have to mail it to the US and 2) I realized recently that I somehow didn't get my battery charger for my camera battery into the bag and it's missing/packed out. LOVELY. (and I have yet to find a place that sells that stuff here) so I save my precious battery power.

This weekend we took advantage of Derrick finally being off the on-call duty and drove out to Agrigento. Agrigento is a very small, very poor town about 2 hours west of here. There isn't much to see in the town itself, however; the Valley of the Temples is right next to it. These are ancient Greek ruins and it's just amazing to see the history on this small island (especially coming from the US whose history is relatively short in comparison!) I went to Agrigento with my parents about two years ago, just after Ellie was born, but Derrick hadn't been yet and we thought it'd be good to go now that we have two tots and don't need a stroller!

At this time of year the almond blossoms are blooming and the smell was so strong! It was beautiful for about the first 30 minutes we were there. Then the wind came in full force and the temperature dropped what felt like 15-20 degrees. We ran to the car for our coats and hurridly had to race through the rest to get the girls back to the warm car. Oh well. It was a nice day out and away from base!

Sick, Sick, Sick

2009-02-04T23:49:00.002-06:00

I have been so sick since Friday, I think the worst was actually yesterday. Being pregnant it is hard as you can't take too much, and I avoid meds unless it's absolutely necessary even when I'm not pregnant. I was up most of the night and think I'm going to give in today and try to find some relief. Over it!!

So far this week we've been making Valentine's and "doing art" as Valerie calls it. At school she walks straight to the art center and paints something just about every day. I love it! One of my favorite days of the month is my Stampin' Up Club that I go to at my friend Andrea's. She teaches us how to make a few cards, learn new techniques, and bonus we get dessert plus girl chat time away from kids! I got some new stamps on Monday so Valerie has been going to town. She LOVES to stamp and Derrick rolled his eyes when I pulled out a little punch that punches out hearts and she said, "Ooooh! A new punch!" I already have her hooked!!

A few friends have told me I don't talk about my pregnancy very much but I guess I don't have anything to say yet! The first half is always fairly boring as you are just usually feeling kind of crummy but you don't know the sex yet, can't really plan anything yet,etc. I have been feeling kicks for a few weeks now but Derrick hasn't felt one yet. They aren't strong enough. I am pretty sure we have narrowed down our names to Madeline or Owen but have yet to figure out the middle names. Some of you know it's been a long road just to figure out first names for us this time so that'll just come with time!

I need to go stick some waffles in the toaster for the girls so I can run Val to school! Have a great day!

Superbowl Sunday!

2009-02-01T12:00:00.002-06:00

Yes they do show the game here, but not until midnight and with no commercials! Well, that's not entirely true. We get Armed Forces Network commercials (aka military propaganda). Darnit! That is my favorite part!!!! So needless to say, superbowl at this house isn't a big deal. Next year I promised D I'd make a ton of food and let him have a party in our new home!

The movers came and packed us out on Wednesday! The house is empty, except an old couch, an end table, a coffee table, a dining table, and we each have a bed. We kept our TV which sits on Norman's airline crate and the computer sits on the end table next to the couch. It's definitely interesting here and the girls are over it already. Valerie is excited to move to her new house but completely depressed that her new stuff got to go there while she is sitting here waiting. I feel your pain girl, I feel your pain.

We closed on our house on Friday thanks to my parents!!! They took care of everything for us via power of attorney and finally that saga is over! We are hoping to move in before Easter as our stuff should be arriving (as well as us!) a couple weeks beforehand.

Not much else new to report here, we are a boring bunch right now watching entirely too much tv. Hope you all had a great weekend!!!

Feel the Burn!

2009-01-26T10:36:00.003-06:00

Can I just say that I am SO EXCITED to almost have this packout done? We spent our weekend organizing and my extremely hard working husband power washed the grill and everything outside. We are ready!!! So after Wed, we will be sittin here twiddling our thumbs and I can't tell you how much I just want to go home already.. but I must wait. Plus, we still have Paris at the end of Feb!

It was absolutely beautiful out today. Everyone here was in an awesome mood. It rains and rains and then randomly we'll have one warm sunny day just to lift our spirits. I think God knows that we need a little sunshine sometimes!!! We played outside for awhile before naps and they slept for nearly 3 hours! hallelujah. I got a nap too!

Derrick is working late, I'm sitting here making a packing list and need to finish my bible study tonight. Such the exciting life I lead, but I love it. ;) Although I will admit to being ecstatic at being able to sit at Barnes with a cup of coffee every once and awhile in the near future. .. I can see it.. almost there!!!

It looks as though our house will close on time as long as USAA doesn't keep dragging their feet. Hallelujah! Today I feel very blessed, and feel answered prayers. I also have to report that Valerie has earned her star for cleaning up/listening to us and has had hardly a whine or tantrum. I should also clarify that if she throws a tantrum over being asked to clean up her mess, she still has to do it, she just doesn't get the sticker. While in college and learning about motivating children I learned that most of the time we need to set up an external reward for motivation which over time because intrinsic (internal). So far, so good!!

.. as for the title of this post, it's due to the fact that my arm is burning from playing D in Wii tennis!!! :)

Money Matters

2009-01-24T02:42:00.003-06:00

Valerie is very interested in money these days. She begs to take the money out of the atm, and use "her" money to buy, for example, her own popcorn chicken from the food court. She has a couple purses and usually has a coin or two in it, or play money that she brings along to the store.

Last night we bought and played the game "Monopoly Town" with her. It's for ages 4+ but Valerie at 3.5 completely got it. There's a circular track on which a small car (who talks!) gets pushed around. Basically the car tells you how many spaces to go, you push the car that many spaces, and put a house on the space you land on. They are #'d 1-4 and if someone else lands on your space and it's a 3, you owe them $3. She LOVES this game and completely loves being the banker.

We have had issues getting her to clean up her toys lately. She used to be pretty good about it but Ellie's tornado tendencies are rubbing off on her older sister. We made a sticker chart yesterday in which she gets a star every day if she picks up her toys when asked (and hopefully sometimes when not asked but we'll get there). Instead of throwing her tantrum about it as she has been doing suddenly for the last several days, she was SO excited to get her sticker.

To make this even more motivating we decided we'd start Valerie on an allowance. It is young, however it's a huge motivator for her! We'll hope day 2 goes well. So if she gets 7 stickers (a week's worth) she will get $1. If she wants a $5 toy than she has to save it for 5 weeks.

What do you think? Is $1 enough (if she wants a movie, she'd have to save for 20 weeks..)? She also has her daily chore of feeding the dogs. We basically say "if you do your chores, you get your star." However I don't want to add too many things to her list yet as we're trying to curb one behavior at a time.

-----------------------------------------

In other news, we're just a LITTLE stressed this week trying to wrap things up. Our mortgage company is super swamped and dragging their feet so it's messing up our closing. They also just let us know this week we needed a termite inspection so we had to rush for that. All is well there, but last night was the deadline for our mortgage and it's still sitting on someone's desk. We are going through our lawyers to hope for an extention (as it's in our contract to have it done by yesterday) but the stress and extra $ is really starting to irritate us with this whole process!!

We pack out on Wed so this weekend is spent sorting through the piles of junk in drawers and shoved into closets in this tiny townhouse, trying to figure out what we absolutely can't live without. Luckily the kids are both older this time and it is a lot harder moving with a baby!!

I had my doctor's appt on Thursday. I'm 16 weeks, the heartbeat was in the 140's. Nothing new to report, I go for my u/s sometime towards the end of Feb. We will ask to find out the gender if possible. I have thought it was a girl most of this pg but the last few days I am starting to think boy. This is mostly because the girls heart rates were always in the 150's+ and I didn't feel movement with them until 19/20 weeks. I felt this one at 14.5 and baby is already very active. We will see. We are -not- hoping for a boy this time, as nearly everyone asks us. I don't think the perfect family necessarily involves having atleast "one of each." I am just praying this child is healthy, I don't develop pre-eclampsia again, and Derrick gets to be there!!! :)

Enjoy your weekend, I'm off to clean. ug. ;)

Sunny Days.. Sweepin' the Clouds Away..

2009-01-16T06:52:00.009-06:00

I watch too much Sesame Street. :)

It is SO SUNNY today! I think it hit 60 atleast and was just a wonderful day out so far! We did some yard work while the girls played outside and then rode our bikes to the park. Valerie finally can reach the peddles on her new Disney princess bike that Daddy bought her this fall. (It was in a box, with no sample, so we thought she could fit it when we bought it). She is so excited to be a "big girl" and it is enough motivation for her to eat her veggies so she can keep growing!

My new favorite site.

2009-01-14T09:43:00.002-06:00

http://hyperhomemaker.blogspot.com/

Check this lady out. She's got cleaning tips, printable schedules, and organizational tips. She has a spotless house (not that it's possible for that to be my goal, considering I have two toddlers, but maybe in the next house it will be LESS full of clutter 24/7 with our playroom!) Anyhow, she inspires me a bit and some of her tips I find useful! .. like how to mop hardwood floors! who knew? :)

A New Day!

2009-01-14T02:06:00.002-06:00

It is SUNNY outside, the rain stopped, no flooding here, hallelujah! :)

Maybe God knew we all needed a little break before we went insane from the rain. I personally enjoy walking around with the bottom of my pants wet all the time .. lol.

I am going to sit and scrapbook a bit today with Lovie and let the kiddos play. I am pretty good about making hand made cards for birthday's and such, but scrapbooking is another story. That actually requires you to print out pictures which I don't do. I am currently working on Valerie at like 4 months old, seriously. Maybe I'll get a jump start so child #3 actually has one?! They do have baby books that I wrote in, but that may be as far as it gets.

Sorry I haven't been taking too many pictures lately. We have spent mucho time indoors, organizing our closets, toy box, and bins of baby clothes to get ready for our packout next week!! Not too much to take pictures of.. will try to get some in this weekend. Ciao for now!

Is it March yet?

2009-01-13T11:37:00.004-06:00

Oh the joys of Sicily. Beautiful countryside, true; however, whoever decided that building a base in the only low lying ground on the entire island (the rest is mountainous) was a "genious."

We woke up at about 2am to pouring rain and storms. I woke up again at 4, still pouring rain. I felt like it was going to be a long day. I couldn't sleep.

I got up at 6 and my backyard was already soaked/patio flooded as usual. It rains nearly every day here between Nov-Feb. This year seems to be worse than the last two, hardly a break at all from it. I had to drive D to work because we are down to one car and he rides his bicycle in, but obviously not when it's pouring. I had PWOC, Val had preschool and ballet, and I had a meeting! We dragged the kids out to the car and realized the car is covered in mud. Gross. Look up, the sky is full of *brown* clouds and it's pouring mud basically on all of us. Really awesome. Derrick said it's coming from Africa.

So we drive D to work and realize the river to NAS 2 (for you old Sig people) is flooding fast. This "river" usually is bone dry. The roads all the way to the other base were flooded. It was 7:45 and we had to stop at the grocery store to get a dessert to bring to pwoc (my bible study.) I drag the kids through the parking lot, which is flooded, and Val's shoes get completely soaked because I can only carry one kid at a time these days. So she's standing there sobbing, I'm yelling at her to run, we're all getting soaked. A nice lady carried her up to the door for me. Whoops, the commissary is closed today for training. again, really awesome. Tromp back to the car and sit there for 45 mins until preschool opens.. then trudge back in the rain to preschool.

We got to pwoc and had a lovely time until the commander of the entire base got on the intercoms and announced that the bases are closing and to go pick up your kids pronto! Wow. So we ran and got Val out of preschool and drove home. By this time my legs were soaked from the knee down, poor Ellie was drenched by the time we got to the other side of base to get Val. (yes, walking). The guards at the gate tell us all the roads going to Mineo (the other housing) were already closed. I'm feeling thankful that we don't live there.

Derrick was already home when I got there and luckily it was pretty safe driving home. There was atleast a foot of water on the road in front of our housing. Derrick started putting our important file boxes, computer, upstairs just incase. This afternoon it stopped raining, but as we were watching the dogs we saw another huge storm cloud coming in. The command was telling everyone to go home and put their valuables up. A few months before we moved here, there was a horrible flood here in which several feet of water flooded everyone's homes while they were sleeping at night!

So say a little prayer. I'd like to make it out of here before that happens again :)

An updated "belly pic"

2009-01-10T01:56:00.003-06:00

A reminder.. this was at 8 weeks. definitely showing already, not that I started with a 6 pack but my tummy did not stick out passed my boobs!!

Here I am last night at 14.5 weeks.

Last night we went out with friends for chinese food in Catania and it was so yummy! My springroll was very crisp and my rice was perfect. The servers spoke english and let the kids run around, we were the only people in there. It was lovely!! Definitely recommend it. I think it was the Grand Cina or something.. for those in Sicily, it's the one always in the paper every week.

In other news, my portrait lens is broken. The wheel/ring that focuses won't turn, or gets stuck if it does turn so I have to take a break from portraits for awhile. I feel awful, as I had been waiting until after the holiday's and now have to cancel on about 5 families. At this point, I will wait to get it fixed in the States.

We are working on a 3 night weekend trip to Paris at the end of Feb/early March for our anniversary! We have never taken a trip without our kids before other than spending one night in a hotel nearby while leaving them with Grandma.. that has happened twice in our 4 year marriage! We are so lucky to have wonderful friends we trust over here! (and are happily watching their children so they can go away too!) If you have any Paris tips, please let me know! :)

Just a little hello..

2009-01-09T00:56:00.002-06:00

I haven't written in awhile. I just thought I'd write today. My camera has been taking a little break. My favorite lens is totally broken (it just won't focus) and I hate dragging the huge zoom lens everywhere, plus it is raining every day these days!

Back in the swing of things, preschool and ballet have started up again. Valerie does so well with a little structure in her life and is learning a lot in preschool. We still work on academics at home for reinforcement, but it gives her a place to make super messy crafts, play with friends, have structured circle time activities, and do things like "Show and Tell!" We are currently working on learning to write her name as well as the letters and numbers. She can write Valerie, but sometimes mixes up a letter or two and tends to write huge, and not in a straight line. I can see a lot of progress already! She can identify every letter or number up to 20, however she can only write those with straight lines. (For example, the R in her name is difficult for her due to the curve!) She learned her colors long ago and we are now working on mixing with paints,etc. (what do you get when you mix red and blue). She loves that.

Eleanor is very sad to not be able to go to school with Valerie. Yesterday she took off her coat, marched in side and hung on to a table and would not let go. I literally had to drag her out of there kicking me and screaming. Poor baby. She has a long way to go til she turns 3!!! We "work" on preschool a little at home, mostly through play as I do and did with Valerie. While it is important to learn to sit still and focus, children do this much better if they are actually interested in what they're doing so you can make it fun!! We try to incorporate learning most of what we do. When we eat breakfast, we count our grapes. We talk about what color everything is, all the time. We play, "I Spy..." while driving in the car, or quiz Ellie on animal noises.

Eleanor can sing half of her ABC's, can sometimes count to 5, and knows some animal sounds. She knows the color yellow. She loves puzzles right now and her current obsessions are trains and Dora, and anything Valerie is doing at that moment. ;)

Our move is in progress, we should be packing out all of our furniture and shipping our van very soon. We will be flying out of here mid March and have so much to do before then. PCSing from overseas is certainly a mess that I don't really want to deal with again. All of us need to be seen by doctors, dentists, given health screenings. We have to ship our things so that they can travel for 60-90 days to our new home, meanwhile living with no car and no furniture. The dogs need to be given screenings and updated shots. We have to repaint the rooms we painted, fix the sink that cracked some how (porcelein, lovely!) and have housing inspections. When we get to Norfolk, we have to stay in a hotel overnight with the dogs, and then hopefully our Van will already be in VA so we can drive it back to Chicago with us. If not, we will have to switch airports and fly the dogs with us to Chicago, then get our Van later. The closest they will ship it to is St. Louis. Oh the joys of moving!!!

The baby is doing okay so far, I believe. I felt flutters this week (14 weeks) very rarely, but when i'm lying in bed before I go to sleep! My next appt isn't until the 22nd, so I don't have much to report.

Derrick is working extremely hard right now doing some sort of dive exercise for the month of January, and then will be gone a few weeks out of Feb. (perfect timing, right?) They are very under-manned here so unfortunately he will be pretty much working late until the day we move! Poor guy. He could probably use some prayers.

I'm going to bake some bread with the girls, enjoy your weekend!

Happy New Year!!

2008-12-31T00:55:00.003-06:00

What a year! I started this blog almost exactly a year ago! We started out 2008 by spending some snowy days up in Mt. Etna and enjoying our first Carnivale experience in Acireale! Derrick left the day after Valentine's day for his 6 month deployment. Ellie celebrated her 1st birthday in March, with a lady bug birthday party. In April we went to the base Easter Egg hunt and had our own little Easter at home. The Reed's graciously invited us to Easter dinner so we weren't alone. In May, I took the girls through a hellish trip on a C5 to the States to visit family and friends for a month! We got to see so many friends, go to several zoos, and spend lots of time with my parents. It definitely helped make the deployment go faster!

June dragged out very slowly as deployment dates kept changing and my fellow wives with deployed husbands and I were all losing our sanity. Close friendships were formed through this time. We took the kids to the 4th of July celebration on base and got our home ready for Daddy to come home! Derrick returned back mid July and we even got to see his plane land on the runway! In August we had a princess party for Valerie's 3rd birthday. For our summer vacation, we took a 2.5 week trip, driving over to the mainland and all the way up to Germany and back. We visited Rome, Tuscany, Venice, and Naples in Italy. The best part was meeting my parents in Germany, in the Alps, for a week! We went to a castle in Austria, took a train up to the highest peak in the Germany Alps, and lots more! Garmich is a beautiful place.

This fall we celebrated the usual holidays, trick-or-treated, and spent time with friends. We found out that we are blessed with a 3rd pregnancy! Derrick has been on call every weekend since we returned from vacation in August so this has left us with absolutely no time or allowance for leaving the base area. We have been disappointed that we weren't able to do more here, and would have enjoyed it more had it been a shore duty. However, I am very greatful for the traveling experiences we have had. Being a Navy Wife is very hard but without it, we would not have the close friendships we now have, and the stamps on our passport! For that we are greatful. We are extremely glad to be moving back to the US in a couple short months so that our family is a regular part of our lives again!

For now, we spend the next couple months getting ready to move. We will be doing our packout in a couple weeks and shipping our van over as well. We close on our home on 1/30 and hope to fly out of here and move in by end of March, first week of April at the very latest. I have a vision of Easter morning in our new home!

Thank you for being a part of our 2008 and Happy New Year to you all!!

Merry Christmas to All..

2008-12-27T11:23:00.009-06:00

and Happy New Year!

We had the most wonderful, relaxed, Christmas this year! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays with your loved ones.

This year Valerie is finally old enough to really have conversations about preparation of our hearts during Advent season for the coming of Christ. We really focused on how Christmas is all about giving, grace, quality time with family and friends, and being greatful. She is just as much into Jesus's birthday as she is to Santa, which is good, although I sometimes have a hard time explaining how they BOTH fit into Christmas. For now, she believes that Santa loves God so much and wants to share his love with all the children in the world and that's why he gives us all gifts. I guess we have to start somewhere right? :)

To start out Christmas eve, Valerie and I made some reindeer mix (aka "Puppy Chow" or "Muddy Buddies") to leave for Santa.

During the day, we made cards for Santa, painted our nails so we'd look just "bootiful" for church that evening, and made lasagna for dinner! We went to a very simple church service at the Chapel on base that evening in which we read scriptures and sang carols. It was lovely, although I spent part of it outside letting Ellie run around screaming. Here is a photo before we left, the best I could do with a tripod!

After church, we came home and ate a very late dinner, italian style. The girls were excited to have their own sparkling champagne (aka grape juice). Every year I buy the girls Christmas PJ's in which they of course wear on Xmas Eve! We left our reindeer mix, carrots for the reindeer, and letters to Santa on the table.

Another tradition in our family is that Derrick reads, The Night Before Christmas before we tuck the girls in bed. Ellie didn't make it that far ;)

Christmas morning- We kept things pretty simple this year. We decided to stay in our PJ's and hang out, eating leftover lasagna and relaxing together as a family after weeks of craziness. It was nice to have a quiet Christmas with just us.
Just woke up:
Valerie's favorite gift this year was a sleeping beauty pony that walks/makes noises, very girly.

Ellie's was actually a toy train set that goes with some thomas trains but my favorite picture of her is of her shaking some of her new instruments!

We spent the afternoon on the couch watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and letting the girls play. I found Valerie asleep in her room amongst this mess, which took her only about 45 minutes to create!

That evening, we drove about a half hour west of here to the little town of Caltagirone. They have a tradition of lining their famous steps with flowers and setting a nativity up top. We missed the live nativity by a couple days I think; however were glad to check it out! We ate a couple pastries on our way out of town and that ended our wonderful little family Christmas!

Recent Happenings

2008-12-22T04:36:00.006-06:00

This will just be a little random grouping of updates over the last week or so. I haven't had much time to blog and process photos as we have had phone line issues, interent issues, and our computers both had to be restored! (and aren't done yet! grrr!!)

Last Sunday after a weekend of xmas parties, birthday party, and our date night, we spent Sunday after church watching xmas movies and stringing popcorn. We got enough popcorn strung to go around the tree twice, which was good enough for me. Maybe next year we'll do more.. although Norman ate some of it off the tree!

On Thursday, Valerie had her preschool Christmas party. She was thrilled to tell me about making red and green popcorn balls, reindeer trail mix, and she was happily drinking cocoa with marshmallows when I picked her up. Afterwards, we had her very first recital.

The recital was completely chaotic and not really what you'd expect from a traditional recital as the kids were excited that all of the parents were there and remained unfocused for most of the hour. In general, the kids listen very well during class other than a couple of 1.5 year olds who run around the entire time. They showed us what they usually do during a class and wore santa hats, which some kids started fighting over. I was happy to say that Valerie completely behaved herself, and was one of few who did so. She did have a little melt down when her hat fell off and her hair was all messed up but we fixed that and off she went.

Friday I had my 11 week doc. appointment. All is well, we heard the heartbeat (and saw it!) on the u/s machine. Derrick was able to come this time and the girls were excited to see the baby although I'm not sure they actually understood what they were looking at. Heck, it was hard for ME to see the baby on that thing. I thought I was 11.5 weeks but she has me at 10.5 weeks so we have some discrepency. (It's not really *possible* for me to only be 10.5 weeks) so we shall see what happens as far as due dates are concerned. My kids haven't made it passed 38 weeks thus far anyway so it probably doesn't matter. Derrick will have to scan the pictures at work as our scanner died. Taking a pic of it is not workin! :)

This weekend was taken over mostly by our house-buying experience as we were up until nearly 4am Friday evening filling out contracts and going back and forth with our realtor and the sellers. I am glad to say that part is done. We're a bit stressed this week as it is Christmas yet we are scrambling today to get an inspector, attorney, contracts mailed, mortgages set,etc. arhghh!! I will be glad when it is all done and we can be settled before the baby comes!!

Sunday after church we decided to work on our gingerbread house. We baked the pieces of gingerbread on Saturday and let them sit out over night to harden. Getting them to stick together and stand up is a project we didn't have much patience for. Ellie of course wanted to eat it NOW and Valerie just wanted to decorate. There is no way I could have held them off to let each piece dry before adding another, so i took it apart and they each made their own flat cookie house. It worked out much better, took 10 minutes, and made for a good dessert last night.

Update: We got it! (officially)

2008-12-20T12:29:00.002-06:00

Signed contract in hand.. they accepted our counter offer. (We just kicked in the closing costs which they were agreeing to pay for originally.) Ahh well.. it's ramen noodles for us for awhile but that's okay right? :)

We're so excited!!!

(For those who asked, it's near Great America/far Northern Chicago area)

Ha. I spoke too soon.

2008-12-19T20:33:00.003-06:00

Geeeeeze!!!!

There was another offer submitted at the same time as ours (who said this was a buyer's market.. because so far every house I've had any interest in flies off the listings..). Apparently ours was higher, they countered to their terms and we accepted so we could be done with this fiasco. Poor Derrick has been running back and forth to work to use the scanner and phone (our phone line is also dead.) The italians say, "Va Bene!" (it's all good..) but we say no dude.. it's not all good... our phone hasn't been working for 2 weeks!!! Anyhow it is nearly 3:40 am here and we are still up. We had both accepted our terms, we signed the contract, scanned it back, the sellers had it, I was to mail the check in the morning.

I just got an email saying the first people showed back up and 'raised their offer significantly.' GREAT. I'll keep you posted. I am sure hating this house buying business.

On a good note.. baby #3 is well.. will post u/s pics tmrw. I am measuring an entire week behind what I thought I was, so there is some iffiness there as to my due date but healthy it seems.

ciao!

House Hunters

2008-12-19T18:17:00.003-06:00

We just bought a house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we hope so, anyway! Our offer was accepted today and we close the very end of January! My parents looked at several houses for us last weekend (thank you!!) and they were all duds from our list. Break-ins, neon paint on the walls, mold, you name it. However they happened to see this one for sale next door and we had originally taken it off of our list due to the high taxes but have since realized we have to pay the price if we want our children in good schools! They loved it right away, it is super clean (white walls, white carpet.. we'll see how long that lasts) but move-in ready. It's 4br, 2.5 bath AND a playroom, a den, and a basement!!! It's absolutely perfect for us and we couldn't be more excited!!!

Wish us luck this month, cross your fingers that nothing weird happens to mess it up!

Christmas is coming..

2008-12-17T02:14:00.005-06:00

the goose is getting fat! (Is that how it goes? random.)

We have been so busy this year with Christmas parties, house stuff, and work stuff! This coming weekend we plan on staying home together and enjoying some of the Christmas things we haven't had much time to do yet. Valerie and I plan on making our first gingerbread house and we may venture up to Etna to let them play in the snow depending on the weather. Some days the whole mountain is covered in it, and other days it looks iffy.

Last Friday, we went to Derrick's command Christmas party. I will take any chance I can get for a date night with my hubby and we had a great time! It was at a large italian restaurant/hall out in town and we had the typical 4 course italian meal of antipasti, pasta, meats, and cake. Derrick even won a door prize, an XBox 360-- of which I only play pacman on thus far, but what a cool gift! Our sitter took a photo for us before we left.

Saturday we finished up our xmas shopping, went to an open house, a birthday party, and a party at church! It was a very busy day. Sunday after church we layed around in sweats, strung popcorn for the tree, and watched Christmas movies. My favorite being the Chevy Chase, "Christmas Vacation" and Derrick's is always "A Christmas Story." I think he secretly wants a bb gun.
I don't have any pictures without Ellie holding a cheeto. It's an obsession, and if she's at a party with an open bowl, she will have one in her hand until we leave. Anyway, Lovie bought this adorable sweater for her at a craft fair several weeks ago and I had to show it to you! It's handmade.. and adorable, I think!

looking trendy in her Zara dress and boots!

Incase you forgot, she's 3. lolVal's ballet recital is tomorrow.. be prepared for pics and hopefully video!! :)

Ho, Ho, Ho

2008-12-15T03:30:00.006-06:00

... says baby Fin :

I took some photos of this cutie pie last week and here are a few of my favorites! Alison was dealing with no power for 2 days, my children and her toddler tearing up the living room, and it turned out okay!! Thanks Alison, for letting us come take over your home :)

We thought the bow was a little large, but it's all we had. It also shows how tiny he is!! May try again with a smaller blue ribbon (which I forgot, of course). Look at all that hair for 3 weeks old!!

This is a special photo. The chair is a family heirloom and his shamrock blanket was bought for him in Ireland while Ali was pregnant! His name is Irish, as his parents are both Irish as well.Gotta get those tootsies ;) I remember when Valerie's foot was exactly the length of my thumb. Eleanor's was never that small as she came out 2 weeks later. Ah how they grow.

A little randomness..

2008-12-10T02:30:00.003-06:00

Hello loved ones,

OY. This week has been an Oy, Oy, Oy week.

Ellie is cutting her molars and to put it frankly, I'd like to run away until they come in. Monday she was hanging onto me all day, crying and whining. I can't even go to the bathroom without her banging on the door sobbing. She screams at the top of her lungs if Valerie even touches one of her beloved Thomas trains (which are Valerie's btw, she just took them over). As I'm writing this, she just went outside in her pj's (footies) and is splashing in the puddles and mud in the backyard. Oh the fun of having a 20 month old! This stage just simply drives me insane as their big emotions and new found independence are almost too much for them to handle. I realize in my head that she doesn't yet have the words to express how she feels and probably feels faster than she can even process so the frustrations come out in screams, hitting, and driving us all bananas. I remember this with Val, and remember the joy when she was over it. This too shall pass, I must remember, but I will admit to also wishing some days I wasn't pg so that I could drink some wine when she went to bed. ;)

Here is an example of her new found independence: She is loving Dora and Elmo these days, and took all of Valerie's Dora underwear. Luckily Val doesn't care. She's apparently moved on to bigger and better things like sparkly princess underwear. However, Ellie will only pee in the potty after her bath (yay!) but wants to wear underwear on the OUTSIDE of her clothes every day. That's really a fashion statement. again. oy. The cranberries on the couch are garland for the xmas tree. .. we must have been decorating at the time.

Other than that we are doing alright. I am having serious frustrations trying to find a house that is affordable, in a good school district, that doesn't have 9-10K in taxes a year (hellllo craziness) or that isn't 2 hours out of Chicago. I have 3 or 4 on my list finally after hours of searching and hopefully my parents will tell me one of them is livable. If not, they will probably have 2, soon to be 3, little house guests for awhile :)

Baby Tre is doing alright in there so far. I have my next appt next Friday when I will be a few days shy of 12 weeks! Hard to believe isn't it? Time is flyin'! We aren't sure on any names yet, feel free to throw out a suggestion.

Ciao for now! Oh P.S. I am still addressing Christmas cards. I realize they take 2 weeks from Sicily, but we're a bit busy as you see. So you may get one after Christmas. :)

Italian villa photo shoot

2008-12-08T12:56:00.008-06:00

This weekend I took some photos for our friends Ryan and Lovie and their two little boys. I've always wanted to take pictures up on the hillside at this big estate type place, but was nervous to trespass. Luckily, there were people in the yard when we pulled up and I just asked them super nicely if we could use their yard for photos and they said, "Si!" It was great!

After we move and I have everything established I will be changing my blog. I have yet to determine if I will combine my professional photography blog with my personal blog. What do you think? I have seen it done both ways, and have to admit that those photographer's whom I admire most and would most love to have take photos of my own family combine their personal stories with their professional shoots. I think it shows both sides to the photographer's personality and allows you to see who the person truly is behind the camera. Great photos happen, in my opinion, when there is a connect between the photographer and the subject and it's very important to atleast agree with the photographer's style and vision to get what you want. For now it's chaos, a little of this and a little of that. That's what I've got for now. :)

Getting into the Christmas spirit..

2008-12-05T08:01:00.006-06:00

The day after Thanksgiving we always put up our tree. This year as no different, but we had two helpers this year instead of one! Last year I think Ellie was already in bed sleeping as a baby!

They had fun playing in the box, pulling ornaments off and putting 3 ornaments to one branch. You may think, "Wow, Lindsay is totally anal and a perfectionist and she must have been going nuts." You'd be proud. I gave up long ago. You should see our tree. (Which btw, has had lighting problems/circuits blowing every time we plug it in so you will have to wait to see the finished result. lol)

We are heading out to the tree lighting/Santa's arrival on base. Enjoy your weekend!

Christmas Survey

2008-12-03T04:08:00.002-06:00

Both my mom and Danielle sent this to me so I thought I'd post. Copy and paste on yours or leave a few comments!!

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1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? For Christmas I like to wrap presents so the kids have something to rip open. I like it to color coordinate also and it's harder to match gift bags.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I like the smell and idea of getting a real tree, but practically speaking we have a decent artificial. I also like to keep it up from Thanksgiving to New Years!

3. When do you put up the tree? day after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog? No! My husband does though!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? That's so hard. The very first thing that popped into my mind was a fisher price kitchen with all the play food. I think I played with it for a couple years. Either that or I always asked for a new doll of some sort.

7. Hardest person to buy for? my husband's siblings

8. Easiest person to buy for? my kids

9. Do you have a nativity scene? yes, it's a knock off version of the willow tree simple set. I'd eventually like to have that.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail of course!

11.. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? There is no such thing!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation! gotta love Chevy Chase. Love Actually is a very close 2nd.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? In October but I actually enjoy shopping during the holiday season with the crowds and stores decorated!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas Present? not unless it was a duplicate

15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? special xmas cookies or treats

16. Lights on the tree? Right now they are all white, non-blinking. Val asked for colored AFTER we decorated the tree, so next year maybe we'll just load it with colored lights like a big gumdrop!

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

18. Do you travel or stay home at Christmas? changes every year. We are about done traveling for a loooong time though so if you want to see us, you can come to our new house next year!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? of course! However I read Val Twas the Night before Christmas year round.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? angel. We got it at an antique shop in my hometown.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Growing up we were allowed one gift on xmas eve, the rest xmas morning. I think here we are going to let them open new pj's and maybe slippers/socks every year on xmas eve and the rest on xmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Usually I'd just say the increased lines/crowds while shopping but this year it is being homesick for the USA!

23. What theme or color are you using? I don't really have a theme. Our tree has red cranberries in a grapevine garland and red ribbon swagged around it.. but my living room has red curtains so it's just that I like red ;) However we are fans of homemade noodle wreath ornaments and the silly hallmark ones as well.

24. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? This year I'm feeling like either italian (duh.. but like a lasagna or something) or mexican/enchilades. The last few times we were with my parents we went out for chinese before church. That would work too!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? a watch (Ellie flushed mine down the toilet in Rome), a new pr of boots, or some caleca dishes to replace my slowly chipping set I got at the market.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving in Italy

2008-11-29T15:30:00.010-06:00

This year we have so much to be thankful for. I was so happy to spend the day with friends who have become like family to us over here. Many of our husbands deploy together so we tend to stick together on holiday's! This year Derrick's det (team) came over for a huge amount of food and games! I'm not in any pics, D says he is afraid of my camera. ug. I would just like some memory that I actually was AT Thanksgiving this year, but oh well. :)

Val dressed herself with striped tights and sparkle shoes. So Ellie had to wear a dress and sparkle shoes too. This drives my husband crazy, who already had El dressed.

Kylan and Valerie dancingEllie rocking out on Guitar Hero

oh that dorky husband of mine and Al

Poor Izzy.. the kids were hanging on her all night. At one point I think Val even talked her into taking her to the bathroom. lol

Julie and Austin

Chris and Ivy

The Waller's

Hope yours was wonderful!

8 weeks

2008-11-26T04:27:00.002-06:00

I am 8 weeks along as I posted yesterday and going strong for now! As you can see, my belly flopped back out but that's alright. I have only gained 1 lb so atleast I can say it isn't from ice cream. ha ha. Pardon the hair and outfit, I was about to head out for my morning walk with the girls.

8 week belly pic:

Dancing Queens

2008-11-25T05:27:00.003-06:00

I haven't had much to report as of this week. We are battling colds,etc. and staying in a bit more than usual. Week 7 of this pregnancy hit me with a force and I have had a hard time not falling asleep during the day! I should be 8 weeks today or tmrw. I also am officially in maternity pants. Apparently by the 3rd child, your belly literally just flops back out there. nice. :) Today we are hanging low, getting some prep done for Thanksgiving. I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here's a video of the girls dancing during lunch time. Valerie stills wears her princess dress constantly, and I do mean any time we are in the house. This week they started listening to the "kids holiday" radio station on yahoo music (hence why you are hearing that in the background).

Brrr

2008-11-19T01:19:00.002-06:00

Wow it is nice and chilly here lately. It is currently 41 degrees outside but I am personally loving it!! :)

Monday I had an ultrasound to check on the baby & confirm my due date since my body works a little differently than some. I was lying there for 45 minutes while the u/s technician stared at the screen (which was turned away from me) clicking not saying anything. It is a hard situation as they aren't allowed to give us results but you just lie there anxiously waiting for something. I knew something was wrong when he went to get the doctor. The doctor explained to me that I had a yolk sac, but it was empty. I sat up to see the screen and apparently that tilted my uterus or something because the baby popped right on the screen. It was a little bizarre, as I went from thinking I was miscarrying to seeing the baby and heartbeat! Baby 3 is still measuring about 6.5 weeks as originally planned, so that is good news. For now, we're good to go. I am already wanting to be out of the first trimester to feel a little less worry and hopefully have a bit more energy! I feel really good other than passing out around 7:30 on the couch every night. Poor D. He is wonderfully putting the girls to bed for me and helping with dinner clean up.

Valerie is really doing well in ballet and school. She has been acting like a teacher every evening at home and telling Ellie where to stand, how to tap her toes,etc. I haven't figured out why but Ellie does whatever she says most of the time. If she doesn't want to, she will knock Valerie over with a swift shove. Smacking, pushing, and screaming are the fun things we are working on with Eleanor right now. Last week she shoved Valerie into a DVD display for Indiana Jones at the store and DVD's went flying everywhere, Val sobbing, and Ellie laughing. Lord, help us with this one.

On a positive note, Eleanor is talking so much these days and is putting words together. Valerie wasn't really doing that until after she turned two so it is awesome to see her so vocal. El likes to play dress up with Valerie some days and they dance around to their cd's in the living room.

Valerie is learning to think a bit more abstractly these days and it's interesting to hear her thoughts. Usually when she takes a nap, we ask her, "What did you dream about?" and she usually gives one word answers. Yesterday she said, "I talked to Jesus. He told me thank you for giving me a special family today. He lives for us." I was blown away. I said, "What did Jesus look like?" She said, "He had black hair. He gave me a hug and held my hand. I love him." We discuss Jesus on extremely general terms and she goes to Sunday school where they do the typical little paper crafts to learn about the bible stories but she has never actually talked about them to us before. It was really neat. She also told her preschool teacher yesterday that she has to turn 4 so she can have boobs to feed her baby and have a baby in her tummy. wowzers. mmm k :)

Ciao for now. Enjoy your week :)

I'm Singin' in the Rain..

2008-11-15T02:52:00.010-06:00

Oh boy. The rainy season has indeed hit Sicily!! It's rained most of the day over the last couple days although our backyard grass is finally growing back in and things are nice and green! Just recently snow has started to top Mt. Etna and it's actually starting to feel like fall around here.

Derrick has been in Washington D.C. this week for a job and returns home in a couple days. I've had strep throat for the last week or so but am feeling a little better this weekend. Being pregnant and sick is not the best timing! The girls miss Derrick, but he told them that he's been helping Santa fix his sleigh or something and Val can't wait to hear about it when he gets home. She totally gets it this year, it's been a lot of fun already. Speaking of Christmas, I just finished my shopping yesterday AND this morning ordered all of my xmas cards!!! For once, I am actually early with everything and will peacefully enjoy the holidays with my family. (Remember, things take a couple weeks to ship here, and then we have to ship out.. it can be a little hectic)

Before Derrick left we went to the pebbly beach fiumefreddo which is about 40 minutes north of here along the coast. The water was clear and blue, the pebbles don't stick to your feet, and we had a really nice time letting the kids run around. I was going to shoot for a tripod pic of the 4 of us but I didn't even want to try. We just let the kids have fun. Here a few pics that didn't make the Christmas card cut.. although I like some of these better but they just didn't fit!

The drama. Ellie had just wrestled her to the ground instead of hugging her, shoving pebbles into Val's mouth. Val just layed there crying like a helpess victim. oy oy oy. I told her I was going to take a picture for Grandma, and would she like to be happy or crying. She said, "I want to look like I'm crying." So here she is in all her glory.

blowing bubbles!

2008-11-09T06:23:00.004-06:00

Ciao amici! How is your weekend going?

We have been so busy! Friday night Derrick and I went on a date (yeah!) although I will admit we spent an hour of it shopping for the girls for Christmas. We are almost done though! It is certainly much harder to do so when they are old enough to remember what you've bought. We went to dinner and saw the movie "Death Race." The movie, incase you live in a land of no previews such as myself, is about the future when prison are taken over by giant corporations. They are all about profit, of course, so they start web casts of prisoners driving around a track, nascar style, to the death. Joan Allen plays the prison warden(? is that the word) Anyway it is honestly like a video game in which the cars can drive over circles for bullets, shields, insane weapons you can only think of on a game. However what keeps you wanting to watch is the main character who wants to get out of prison to see his little girl, and his only way out is by winning the race. I wanted to leave within about ten minutes; however, I'm glad I stuck it out. While extremely violent (extremely), it is so thought provoking and it had a great ending. I actually recommend it, but it will stir up some anger and the girls will squeam a few times. We were still discussing it the next morning though, so it was a good choice (not that we had one!) :)

Enough of that. Yesterday we had a going away party (boo) and a birthday party! We were very tired last night and I'm a bit sick today with a sore throat,etc. but I took the girls to the park to let them blow bubbles while Daddy went to church. We have a nice 4 day weekend and then Derrick leaves for a week or two for a job. We'll have to plan some girlie fun while the boy is out of the house!

Enjoy your weekend! .. and Happy Veteran's Day a little early!

That is Mt. Etna in the background, the top half covered in clouds. I was hoping to catch it but it warmed up. Motta is the little brown spot to the left of Val's head almost to the bottom of the hill. That's about a 25 min drive from our house. (For some of you who asked, to put things in perspective of where we are, which is in the middle of no where!) :)

Sunday Motta Shoot

2008-11-06T02:57:00.004-06:00

Sunday I did a shoot for one of our great babysitters, Jayden, and her family who are friends of ours from church. They let me get some practice in despite the cloudy/hazy day and unfortunately Mt. Etna was out of sight which we had hoped to get in the background. Here are a few favorites:

You will probably notice the watermark on each photo. My website is now up and running! There are a few areas under construction due to our upcoming move and the uncertainty of how everything will lay out once we are settled. For right now, I am simply practicing on my wonderful friends and family who let me use them as guinea pigs. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of such a gorgeous setting while it's still there? So check back in the future, pay no attention if colors change, galleries are added, etc. It's a work in progress!

lindsay powell photography

Penny Pinchers!!!

2008-11-06T02:52:00.002-06:00

I think we are all feeling a little squeeze in our wallets right now. I have been cutting coupons to help save on our grocery bill and I thought I'd share some sites I love to look at for deals and ideas!

couponmom.com - has lots of great coupons to print for free as well as other ideas. (i'm talking $1 off things, not 25 cents!)

http://justlintinmypocket.blogspot.com/ always has coupons, coupon codes, and freebies she finds in stores!

http://dealfindingmom.blogspot.com/ another great money saving blog!

naughtycodes.com (yes it sounds like a weird name.. but it's not sexy naughty!) You can look up codes by alphabetical order for almost any site out there. Sometimes you can find free shipping codes, or sale flyer coupons that you may not know about to shop online! I have used this for gap, children's place, you name it.

restaurant.com has gift cards you can buy at a fraction of the price so you are paying essentially sometimes half price for your meal out!

http://bargainshopperlady.com/ She is one of my favorites, she always has amazing deals and some how figures out how to use the coupon codes to get things nearly for free from places like V.Secret, Starbucks, and Coldwater Creek!

.. until next time. :)

Fall Fest

2008-11-01T14:26:00.008-05:00

Today we went to the annual Fall Festival on base here at Sigonella. The festival has lots of food, crafts to buy, wine to taste, and rides for the kids. There was an adult Fear Factor type game, a live band, and kiddie games. A good time was had by all!

Kylan and Ellie playing with the EOD robots
Valerie navigating with Daddy

They had a fundraiser where they were locking people in jail, to be bailed with money of course. Ellie voluntarily went in several times.

The American Red Cross had a booth where you could search for random body parts in a thing of 'gook' for $1.. guaranteed a prize. Say no more, we're in! Ellie got an eyeball.. only later to be exchanged for a little toy ghost. I think Val ended up finding an ear.. she traded it for a squirt gun (great) Notice she had to use a glove. That's our little miss Val.

and of course, rides!

Trick or Treat!

2008-10-31T15:23:00.008-05:00

We had a fun night of trick or treating with friends tonight and our usual pot of chili/cornbread. One thing I love about living in military housing is that everyone sits outside and visits during trick or treating, but this year it was windy and cold!! The festival was also going on, so it wasn't the best night for trick or treating but we had a good time. I'm about to attempt kitchen clean up but here are a few pics for the grandma's

..Val being her obvious ballerina (had to put a sweater on though.. too cold) and Ellie being the bee that Val was last year. The bee costume was handed down to us from my Aunt Janel! (thanks! as you can see.. it got two years of use!) :) ... although Ellie was *screaming* when she put it on for the first 10 minutes or so... but we bribed her with a sucker.

The girls with Kylan (Buzz Lightyear!) I let the girls sponge paint/finger paint plain orange gift bags last week.. hence the 'smears'

Can't forget baby Westin and his insanely gorgeous mother, Lovie!Ellie ran down the street for awhile before finally giving into the wagon

getting the goods from our neighbor and friend Blake!

Pumpkin Carving!

2008-10-29T01:16:00.008-05:00

Thank you for all the well wishes on baby #3! We are very excited that Derrick will actually be around for one of them. Val is already drawing pictures for "her baby" and insists that it's a baby brother, but she wants a girl. I don't quite think she understands the word brother. Her little friend just got a baby brother so of course, that is all the rage. We shall see! I don't think we are going to find out the sex!

This past weekend we carved pumpkins. Notice they are both in overalls. They also both wore green dresses and brown boots to church on Sunday. One of them gets dressed first and then the other always wants to wear the same thing. It's pretty funny.

We are looking forward to this coming weekend for trick-or-treating and the annual Fall Festival here on base. It's a large base with carnival rides, food booths, a craft tent, and inflatables! Derrick and I are both working at a booth for awhile on Saturday for our job/organization so it's going to be busy around here until next week!

Happy Halloween!

pardon the blurry pics below, I didn't feel like getting out the tripod. you get the idea

Ellie's: (goofy face)

Val's: "Pumpkin kitty cat" It's hard to see but the eye cut outs were stuck on to make ears!

Party of Five

2008-10-27T00:19:00.003-05:00

... we will soon be!

The 3rd little (and last) little Powell will be arriving sometime around 7.7ish.09!

Graveyard in Motta

2008-10-22T01:07:00.009-05:00

Jen and I went to the market last Wed in Motta and then walked across the street through the beautiful graveyard. We saw several older women, dressed in black, coming to graves with fresh bouquets of flowers. Almost every single grave in the entire area had a beautiful bouquet on it, only a day or two old. Families are buried together, graves from the very early 1900's to very recent. Here are a few pics.

Sat morning Motta walk

2008-10-18T15:31:00.012-05:00

Hi loved ones!

We hope you are all enjoying a nice fall weekend! We are taking it easy this weekend, making the most of family time after a hectic and stressful week. This schedule we are on isn't working but we don't have much room to play with it, unfortunately. School, ballet, pwoc, etc. is all on Tues/Thurs and there is only one time, and one option on this base so you can't just choose another day! We just need to figure out a better strategy; for now we are lying on the couch like potatoes the next morning(s). :)

This morning we walked around Motta, the closest small town up on the hill from here. It's about a 20 minute drive. The town itself is very gritty and littered with trash. It is definitely not the cutest town but has a great little pastry shop that we like to buy treats from. The girls and I had cannoli's while Derrick tried some sort of pastries with meat/rice. I will miss those fresh bakery goodies! We ran some errands and bbq'd this evening. I think tomorrow we are going to call it a "stay in your sweats and watch tv/hang out" day & play hookie. We all need that once and awhile! mental health day, right?

Here are some photos from this morning of the girls in Motta.

You've been Tagged

2008-10-17T00:55:00.002-05:00

Wow. I've been "tagged" 2x this week! I'm behind. April tagged me first to name 6 random things about myself, and Missy tagged me next to name 7 plus tag others. I'm going to follow both in one post.. so get ready. You may have to sit down for this.

1. I am double jointed, I suppose. I can move just the tips of my fingers and lock my knuckles. It freaks my husband out, love that.

2. I am a total girly girl. Some wouldn't know that since I live with a manly man these days. However I must drink coffee out of my pink coffee mug every day and love my pink heart key chain, and pink polka dot scarf tied onto my purse.

3. My secret dream is to be in a show on Broadway. I don't have the voice, the stage presence, or the location but it's the random dream you never really chase.

4. I absolutely love to cook. I spend time every day reading recipes, cookbooks, or food blogs. I rarely make the same recipe twice in a 4 month period unless we can't wait to eat it again! This did not used to be so. When we got married I probably made 3-4 things, no joke. I guess that is what living in a country with no take out does to ya!

5. Since moving here, I've become a pottery collector. I buy something every time I go to the market and have plans to buy more before we leave. It's the best souvenir from Italy, IMO.

6. I like kid cereals. Derrick eats Fiber One or something gross, but I still like my Lucky Charms or currently, PB Captain Crunch!
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7. I love big storms. They fascinate me and I have been known to stand outside during tornado warnings to look for tornados. I would totally be out there with my camera.

8. I know how to sew but hate doing it. There are atleast 6-7 things sitting on my sewing machine that need to be fixed.

9. After only spending 9 days in person with my future husband, I packed up my stuff and moved across the country from Indiana to Texas to live with him. We met while visiting April on Spring Break (for those who haven't known me very long) and just talked on the phone for hours, one weekend visit, and 2 months later I was down there with no looking back! It's been almost 5 years so I think that was a good decision, although I'm sure my parents will tell you they thought I was insane. They met him the day I left in the uhaul!

10. My favorite city in the world is Chicago. Even after traveling to several in Europe. I would give my left arm for a piece of deep dish Chicago pizza right now. mmmmm

11. Speaking of travels, in the last 2 years I have been all over Sicily, Naples, Sorrento, Rome, Venice, Sienna, Cinque Terre, Austria, Garmisch, Munich, Barcelona, Nice, Merseilles. I feel like there's more. We still really want to see Ireland/Scotland and Paris but it's going to depend on when our orders show up.

12. In Derrick's words I drink, "cream with a little bit of coffee in it." every morning before I'm functional.

13. Every time we go out to eat in Sicily I have bruschetta as my antipasti. I judge restaurants on how good theirs is (can't be soggy, you know..) :)

I tag:
Anyone who reads this who wants to. :) Kids are up now! gotta go!

Zafferana Oktoberfest

2008-10-15T06:35:00.012-05:00

Sunday we drove up Mt. Etna through many towns, winding our way nearly to the top to the small town of Zafferana. Every year in October they have a festival on Sunday's, each week featuring a different theme. This week's was honey! Honey is a popular local souvenir along with the usual wine and olive oil. Our friends, the Cunningham's and the Waller's went with us and we had a really nice time. It was extremely crowded so traffic was a pain, and we did almost run out of gas, but we ended up making it safe and sound. I had some sort of wrap with veggies and lamb or pork? and it was to die for. We also got to have corn on the cob, which was a little different from back home. It's literally just set, unhusked, on the grill with no butter,etc. and a little salt. Jen said it tasted like popcorn.. so true! At any rate Val was thrilled. ;)

I don't know if you can see the sign or not, but it says Kentucky Derby. I thought that was pretty funny, in Sicily!!

Walking out we let the kids ride one little kiddie ride, a train on a track. Val had her usual serious face while on the ride and Ellie was dancing and waving her arms around. It is so amusing to see their differences in every aspect of life!!

We also caught a Native American rock group singing on the sidewalk~ they were pretty good!

I know I'm not in any, but I'm always holding the camera. I think Jen has a shot of all 4 of us, i'll have to post that later. Ciao!

baby love

2008-10-10T19:18:00.005-05:00

Look at this cutie.. our friends Ryan and Lovie had their baby boy Westin a couple weeks ago and I took some photos of him the other day. Isn't he as cute as a button??

Derrick's last deployment- Djibouti, Africa

2008-10-04T09:43:00.001-05:00

Here are a random assortment of photos from Derrick's recent deployment. I thought you'd like to see a little bit of what he does! You will see that most of the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) guys are sporting a mustache. They do this on deployments but I am happy to report that bad boy was shaved off before he came home. ;)

Day 14: Last Day in Venice

2008-10-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

We woke up and layed in bed for quite a bit today. We were all a bit ready to go home and sleep in our own beds. After breakfast, we went on a gondola ride. It was 70 euro which is pretty nuts but it's one of those things we had to do while there. Since it wasn't going to be a scene of romance with the girls, we went during the day to save 20 euro- prices go up after about 7:30pm. It was nice and relaxing, winding through the little canals and ducking under bridges. I can imagine doing this some day with my hubby by moonlight with a bottle of wine. Ellie started flipping out after 30 minutes and was pulling on the rope on the side of the gondola and broke off the little statue/rope holder 'thing.' great!

handome hubby

pardon the hideous pacifier. she is still stuck on that thing to sleep and it was well passed nap time at this point in the day

people watching the gondolas down below

We ate lunch at a chinese place about a block from San Marco's. We needed something different. It was pretty good food! We got there just before two huge chinese tour groups showed up so we never saw our waiter again or got drinks but I do recommend it normally if you want something other than italian for a change of pace. It's also cheap! Our bill was 26 euro for 2 entrees, an app, and a table charge.

We had another nap afternoon at the hotel. This is a must if you want to keep small kids up to eat 8:30pm dinners! We saw the clouds coming in so we scooted over to the waterfront and bought an impressionistic oil painting of gondolas @ sunset from a man there. Paintings range from 10 euro to 300 euro, watercolor to oil ~ a cool souvenir! We had dinner, pizzas, at an outdoor place and went for gelato. It was a nice end to Venice.

The painting we bought was a canvas which we rolled into a tube and just framed ourselves. The mask next to it is one that D brought back from Africa. (there is another one on the other side.. which I realize have nothing to do with each other but we're moving in 6 months so that's what I have to work with. ;) )

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Day 15 we went and got our minivan and drove down to Naples. I think it took 7 hours but I can't remember. We spent 2 nights there as we got to Naples fairly late in the evening. Naples itself is extremely dirty and covered in garbage everywhere. In August everything is closed and we pretty much spent the day at our hotel other than a stop at Ikea. We drove to the Naples base to see what they had there and it was super tiny! I was shocked at how insane this place was and glad to be stationed in Sicily. We went to a Rock n' Roll McDonalds (the only thing open, literally, within blocks) in downtown Naples and there was trash at every single table, artifacts ripped off the walls, just absolute filth. It was so sad because it was probably once a really cool place with a little soda fountain machine in the back of an old Cadillac (broken, of course). We had planned to stay two nights to give ourselves a break from the drive and maybe walk around the island of Capri but we had no energy left. It was a fantastic trip but by the end, we were so ready to be home. It took us about 9 or 10 hours to get back home from Naples I believe, including the half hour ferry ride back over. I highly recommend driving if you have small children or plan to buy souvenirs that you don't want broken by Alitalia ;) Let me know if anyone has any q's-- I'd be happy to help trip plan!

Ciao for now!

Weekend Update

2008-09-30T09:08:00.006-05:00

It was about time for a date night. Derrick has actually been pretty stressed at work lately as he's taken over a platoon of guys and he is just swamped with paperwork and people coming and going off the team. He just left for London yesterday and is meeting with some big whigs for a few days. SO we were all about relaxing together this weekend with the family and to the Khaki Ball!

For those not in the military, the Khaki Ball is the night when all of the guys who moved up in rank to a Chief get to celebrate. The current chiefs and their spouses go as well. It is the end to a 6? week process of training, extremely late nights and even earlier mornings,etc. We went through that when Derrick was promoted and it was definitely a night to celebrate! Being a chief is a pretty big deal as they now wear the khaki uniform that officers/upper enlisted wear, hence it's title, Khaki Ball.

It isn't really a "ball" as we think of Cinderella. It's in a nice Italian hall, though very small, and includes a 3 course dinner. They give a few speeches and play a slide show of photos of the guys and then by about 11pm everyone heads out to dance outside on the patio to a DJ. We left after dinner because it was already 11 and I had to sing in church the next morning! It was really nice to sit and laugh with my husband over dinner, which we don't do often enough.

Here are a few pics shot right before we left from my babysitter in front of my kitchen window. Pay no attention to my horrible hair cut and color at the present time. It's a growing frustration of mine to get my hair cut by someone who does not speak english! I think I am seriously going to have Derrick cut it from now on. He does a better job. (seriously!)

Other than that we hung out and got some house stuff done, let the kids "rike bikes" around the neighborhood. As you can see Val uses her feet because she is still too short for a tricycle supposedly built for a 2 year old. I should get dinner going. ciao for now!

Day 13: Venice Stroll

2008-09-29T05:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry this is so long in coming.. but there are a LOT of photos. Believe it or not, I already narrowed it down considerably but I just am so in love with Venice I couldn't leave any more out!

Day 13: We slept in a bit and went to breakfast at the hotel. (By the way, our room was 140 euro including breakfast). Breakfast was so-so. It had the basic cold meats/cheese, yogart, cereal, toast, eggs, and sausage. They brought a pitcher of espresso and another of hot, foamy milk. This I loved!!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, in the 70's and sunny. We walked along the water and watched the painters and artists for awhile.

Then we wandered into San Marco square and let the girls chase pigeons for what seemed like half the day. I am sure it was their favorite part of Venice! I was in heaven just walking around, snapping photos.

We shopped for masks for the girls (see more below on masks), grabbed a piece of pizza (2 euro and very tasty at the walk up stands) and went back to our hotel for a long afternoon nap. We had been using the stroller all morning and after carrying it over bridges all morning we were done!! I recommend using a backpack for your kids if you have one. We've been through several backpacks and carriers if you need a recommendation! I am currently in love with a sturdy framed hiking backpack or if you want a soft one that folds up, I recommend the Ergo. Val can still use the Ergo when necessary! (as seen below napping on Daddy's back)

We went to dinner near our hotel on the water. I had lasagna and Derrick had a very good penne pesto. We loved being able to split a bottle of wine and walk only a block back to our hotel (don't worry, we weren't even tipsy. I wouldn't do that with the kiddos!) It was very relaxing and the girls could run around freely without worry.

Rialto Bridge

Carnivale is the huge festival in February in Venice. Everyone wears masks and there are huge floats and so forth, much like Mardi Gras but better and seemingly classier. Therefore there are mask shops everywhere and it's one of the most well known souvenirs to bring back from Venice. We bought the girls each a mask from this little shop. It was really neat to watch her brush the gold leaf? on the masks. (The masks for the girls will be hung up high in their rooms for when they're older as a special keep sake) You can get a mask in Venice anywhere from 10 euro to 100 euro!

I wanted to get some night shots of San Marco so we walked back over there. It is the most romantic place to go with a loved one. We will definitely come back for a future anniversary, without children! The little (and extremely expensive so don't go there unless you are prepared to spend atleast 15 euro for a drink) cafe's on the square have orchestra's that play almost continuously. The girls loved to dance and dance. We did this more than once. It was a very good day had by all!

P.S. for Mom- This is the cuckoo clock we bought in Germany. The top dancers go around the circle to music (the clock alternates 3 songs. this feature can be turned off) and the wood chopper chops with the cuckoo bird that comes out of the green door. It's in our dining room along with a painting we bought on day 14 in Venice, photos of us on the beach in Sicily, and 2 big wooden masks from Africa. ha. what a 'theme' !

Day 12: Drive to Venice

2008-09-29T01:00:00.000-05:00

storm clouds and CORN! ha. (we don't have corn on the cob down here..) road leading into Venice

Day 12 of our Trip back in August.. for anyone just catching up.. I kept a journal while on travel and will print these to some day show the girls. So bare with me as it can be lengthy!
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We packed out and D drove my parents to the Garmisch (Germany) train station to say goodbye. It was sad but we will soon see them all the time! We were admittedly sad to leave the cool weather, bright green landscape and return to a Sicilian summer. Sicily is gorgeous and full of flowers in the spring; however, with no rain and 100 degree temps it is pretty dead, hot, and brown until Halloween! It was raining, 49 degrees, and cloudy this morning. We left how we came in! We were so lucky to have awesome weather this week.

The autostrada is easy and smooth to fllow, just as interestates in the states. While you're on it, it is actually easy to forget you are in Europe. As soon as we crossed out of Austria into Italy we saw the crazy driving, disgusting rest stops, people parking anywhere they want to and not following any rules! Ahh to be 'home'.

Luckily it is still pretty cool up here. We'd heard Venice would be awful and stinky but it's very mild in comparison to Sicily. The autostrada dead ends into the cruise ports and parking lots so it was very easy to navigate. 20 euro a day puts your car in a nice covered parking garage. We felt safe leaving our car there. You can hop a water taxi right there for 6.50 euro/single ride. I believe under 5 yrs rides free. No one ever checks your tickets that we've seen but apparently it's a hefty fine if someone happens to check that day so you should get the ticket. (A good judge of character is someone who does the right thing when no one is looking, right?) :)

We rode down the grand canal and got off at San Marco's Piazza. Unfortunately it was pouring rain and going over bridges with luggage and a stroller while holding umbrellas really stunk. The girls were crying and I stupidly wore flip flops with worn down traction on the soles so I was sliding all over the cobblestone streets and clinging to the buildings. It was absolutely ridiculous.

We found our hotel fairly quickly. We stayed at the Hotel Bisanzio- Best Western about a block from San Marco and right near the water at the mouth of the Grand Canal. It's a decent sized room with a double bed and 2 portacribs for the kids. There were exposed beams in the ceiling and atleast, a/c!

After baths, we went to eat at a restaurant recommended by the man at the front desk of our hotel. It was a few blocks from San Marco square. I wish I could remember the name of it. I think we spent 45 euro for a caraf of house wine, water, pasta for me, pizza for D. It's pricier than things in Sicily, but we knew that going in. I had expected it to be a bit worse actually!

We pretty much went back to our hotel and to bed after that since it was raining and we were tired. I'll have more a lot pics to share on day 13 & 14. It was hard to take anything decent with pouring rain off and on!