Complaints

I'm going to take a break from my semi-frantic cleaning to complain. First, I just spilled root beer on my computer desk and mouse. Second, the joys of having the husband gone.

Win has been off training in Germany for the past week. He'll be gone for a couple more weeks. Granted, this job requires him to be gone. But I've gotten spoiled. In the last nine months, he's been around, give or take a few weeks. This is the longest he's been gone since the Big One -- all 13 straight months of it. So I've done it before, but I'm still complaining.

Besides the obvious things, here's a list of the daily things you take for granted:
1. Having someone to take out the trash and recycling (especially when it's pouring rain and the diaper genie smell makes you want to vomit)
2. Someone else can do the dishes
3. Someone to pick up milk and toilet paper on the way home from work
4. Someone to take the rambunctious toddler outside for hours, giving you peace and quiet
5. Someone to supervise bath time
6. Someone to wear out rambunctious toddler
7. Someone to leave rambunctious toddler with while you go buy groceries alone
8. Someone to carry said groceries up 2 flights of stairs when you get home
9. Someone to wash the car
10. Someone to talk to besides rambunctious toddler

Another thing I've realized, I have an interesting way of coping with these separations. What do I do? I stop cooking and live off the really unhealthy food. Usually it only lasts a few days, but this time around it's still going strong. It's just so much work to cook dinner for one person when the smell of cooking food makes you want to spew, and you know after you go to all that work, you won't be able to eat it (because of the spew factor). So I have been eating on post way too much, and eating quite a few frozen dinners. I am at least trying to feed Lem healthy food, but he has also had his share of French fries and chicken fingers.

And since I knew things would be crazy without Win around, I asked my mom to come take care of me for a couple weeks while he is gone. And guess what! She is coming tomorrow. I can't wait for her to cook for me (and to see her!). I know she is super excited to see us, Lem for obvious reasons, and me. She didn't see me pregnant last time except for the very beginning and very end. And now she will see the middle part.

P.S. One thing I like about Win being gone: I can watch all the worthless reality TV I want, and no one is around to judge me. American Idol, anyone? Dancing With the Stars? Survivor?

Sheep!

I had to do a separate post for this because it is so cool. Well, I think sheep are cool. Especially like this.

On our way to Lumignano on Saturday we got caught in a traffic jam. The cause? A huge herd of sheep crossing the road. This happens every springtime around here, but this is the first time I've seen them stopping traffic. Usually they are already in the fields by the time I come along. My first couple years here, a flock would take a rest at the empty lot one street over, right in town. (They don't anymore because it is now a construction site. So no more sheep, but no more gypsies camping there either.)

Anyway, enjoy the pictures. If you look closely at the first one, you'll see donkeys, dogs, and herders, as well as the sheep. There is one donkey in the middle wearing what looks like a green blanket. It actually has pockets on the sides for carrying the tiny lambs.

Michelle also has pictures here.

Oh and the giant building in the background? That is a working farm/famous villa built by Palladio back in 1580 or so. Its called Villa Chiericati Porto Rigo and it's in Grumolo delle Abbadesse. I drive by it every time I go to Vicenza.

This weekend

We had a good time this weekend, considering it was our first one without Win. (He's in Germany for training.) Michelle and Vivian came over on Friday for a play date and tie-dying adventure. We did it last spring and decided to do it again. They turned out really good, and I dyed some for the Grub as well. I made yummy yummy chicken salad for lunch. You can get the recipe here.



Saturday, we tagged along with Michelle, Dustin and Vivian to the Gusti Berici in Ponte di Lumignano. It was a sort of festival/exhibition of local foods and environmentally friendly things. It was at a villa/farm, and there were ponies, chickens and huge turkeys for the kids to see. It was actually a bit of a Earth Mother/Hippie fest, which made it quite interesting. Luckily there was lots of grass for running circles around Dustin, and there were quite a bit of kids' activities. We spent about an hour there, it was small, but a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon. And of course, as long as Vivian is around, Lem is happy.





Check out Michelle's blog for her take on the day and more pictures. Also thanks to Dana over at Lumignano Adventures for the tip.

Earth Day

Stopping to smell the geraniums.

Happy Earth Day! We had a really good day, although, ironically, ours was spent consuming rather than conserving. We spent all morning shopping: Birthday presents, gas coupons, house stuff, and groceries.

We did however, make up for it this afternoon, by going to the Earth Day event on post. It wasn't much, but it was nice. Patricia and Semaya joined us for the recycling scavenger hunt and paper making at the art center. After we took Lem and Semaya to stretch their legs on the track. The weather today was beautiful, and everything is so green right now. I even had a shirt to wear, which said, "Conserve Your Earth."

Sprouts

I cut open two apples this afternoon, and this is what I found. They are sprouting! I've never seen that before. We planted them, and if anything happens, believe me, there will be more pictures.

I'm also trying to use more of the settings on my camera. I used the Macro setting for the first one, it's pretty cool. It makes for better close-ups.

The Beach!

On Saturday we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Jesolo. I think we all needed a day out. The water was freezing, so we hung out on the sand, Lem playing with rocks, sticks, his little tractor and bucket. After a couple hours we walked around a little bit, had a snack and then headed home.

A couple notes: The first picture is of the fields on the way to Jesolo. I wish I would have gotten a better shot, they were spectacular. On the way home, the traffic was terrible on this stretch of road, because everyone was slowing down or pulling over to take pictures. Michelle's mom says it is Canola. I thought it was Yarrow. Any thoughts?

The other is the tractor. Lem was thrilled. A tractor on the beach! And that's about the true distance of the tractor from where we were sitting. He was smoothing out the sand. One thing we love about Italy: Everything is at your own risk, and you are responsible for your mistakes. Also, no one cares. Meaning, here's this tractor, middle of the afternoon, smoothing out sand on the beach. And there are people sitting/sleeping/laying out right in his way. What does he do? Honks to tell them to move, or goes around them. Some people moved, others didn't. I tried to get a shot of a tiny head sitting up between the dunes as the tractor zoomed by, but it didn't translate.

One last note, apparently, I look super pregnant. Didn't quite realize that until I saw the pictures Win took.

Flower Shopping in Camisano

Improvised Water Play

Pasqua

Dying Easter eggs

Helping Maria open her big present at her party on Saturday. That's Forsee and Bianca as well.

She got a mini four-wheeler.

Easter morning

Passed out from all the chocolate

Buona Pasqua! We had a nice weekend, fairly quiet. We dyed Easter eggs, as well as most of Lem. He loved his green foot and cried when it came clean in the bathtub.

We spent Saturday afternoon celebrating Maria's second birthday. We all had a lot of fun; Lem got his first birthday present from them, which was a huge Tonka truck. Anamaria's cousins were visiting, and they have a boy who just turned a year. It's a tradition in Romania to cut a child's hair on their first birthday, and Ana did the honors on Saturday. He cried. They also have a tradition of setting 5 different things in front of the child to see what he picks. That tells what he will do in life. Ana set in front of him a book, pen, money, mirror and a cell phone. He went straight for the cell phone. I guess he will be a scientist or something technology related.

Sunday, all our plans got cancelled because I woke up sick. Nothing too serious, just a combination of preggo sick, allergies, and a cold all times 12. So we took it easy. Lem ate M&M's for breakfast and then crashed. Win BBQ-ed steaks for dinner, and that was about it.

Una Passaggiata

We're Having A ...

... Baby!

I had my second ultrasound today, and, like last time, we decided to wait to see if it is a boy or a girl. Win told me it was up to me this time, but it didn't feel right finding out for this one when we didn't for Lem. What's different this time is that I still don't have any strong feelings either way. With Lem I knew he was a boy from the beginning. Either way, in August we will know.

The ultrasound took a long time because the Grub (I'm going to use "he" by default) wouldn't give the technician a good profile shot. He was too interested in trying to get his hand in his mouth. The technician said everything looked normal to her, and the radiologist at Landstuhl will give my doctor a full report. The Grub has huge feet and really long fingers.

I'll try to post some of the pictures, but I might have to get creative since my scanner isn't working.

Husband Bragging

Win had a really good day at work yesterday. Two of the soldiers in his squad went to boards yesterday, one for an award and one for promotion. Both of them passed, and with flying colors. Wolfe won the Soldier of the Month Award, out of the entire battalion, and Wakefield was selected for promotion to E-5. Win was really happy because he had spent a lot of time helping them prepare, and he knew both of them deserved it. They are both really good soldiers.

Later last night, Win got some more good news. His company participated in the Sky Soldier Competition this week, and they won! This was out of the brigade, the entire 173rd.

Read the news article here.

Play Date

Vivian came over yesterday for a play date while Michelle had an appointment on post. There were a few tears when Mom left, but after Lem showed Vivian his room and all his toys, the tears dried up. I took them outside, and they had a blast. They growled at me from the top of the slide, ran laps around the building, drew with chalk, and ended up climbing the neighbors fence. It ended with Vivian picking flowers (and me putting them in her hair), and Lem trying to kiss bugs.

We Dare Not Speak Its Name ...

Just hanging out, drinkin' some milk.

So Lem understands quite a bit now, and it's finally come to the point where we are really going to have to start watching what we say. Besides the obvious, the first word we've realized we need to avoid saying at certain times is "movie."

Yep. Lem loves to watch movies. Especially with Win, because then they get to watch "Justice League" and other fun superhero animated movies. Lem's word for movie is "woo-dat." No idea how he came up with that one, but he always asks for a "woo-dat."

Anyway, last night I was putting Lem to bed, and I made the mistake of telling him I was going to go watch a movie with Daddy. That was it. He cried, "Woo-dat?" and immediately tried to get out of bed. After about 20 minutes of crying and fighting, he finally went to sleep.

And then tonight, at dinner Win said he was going to watch his movie right away so he could go to sleep early. As soon as Lem heard that, that's all he wanted to do. He was not interested in his bath or anything.

Well, luckily Lem was worn out tonight, and he didn't put up a fight. But I think from now on, we will be talking about the m-word instead of movies.

20 Weeks and Rain Boots

20 weeks and counting

Rain boots and puddles!

Here I am at 20 weeks. Halfway there! I have my second ultrasound next week. If my scanner works, I'll post the pictures. Or else I might have to take a picture of the pictures. I'm feeling pretty good, I just usually need a nap in the afternoon. The only problem is that I think Lem is giving up his nap. He hasn't slept at all during the day for the last couple days. Right now he is getting mandatory "quiet time" in his room. He is still sleeping on the futon.

It's been rainy here and yesterday we had to do some errands. This is Lem outside the vehicle registration office in Torri. There wasn't any traffic and lots of puddles so I let him run. Those boots were the best investment. He loves them and wants to wear them everywhere. I think it helps that he can put them on by himself.

I realized that I haven't announced our big news. Win got selected for the Warrant Officer program! We are super excited. As much as Win loves the infantry, he is ready for something different. He is now going to fly helicopters. The selection board met a couple weeks ago, and out of more than 400 applicants, only 30 were selected. We are still waiting on a school date, but regardless, we are moving to Ft. Rucker, Alabama, sometime soon.

Flossing My Brain

Win brought home an issue of Mental Floss magazine. The cover story for this month is The 25 Most Powerful Books of the Past 25 Years. It was interesting to read, because of the books they picked and the reasons why. It made me want to read most of them, and expand my mind a bit. (I did just go through a Sophie Kinsella reading phase. I love her books, but they aren't exactly "difficult/educational" reads.)

We only have a couple of the books on the list in our own personal library. I bought The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho after my brother raved about it. I tried to read it but didn't get very far. I happen to love the Harry Potter books and have two copies each of the last two -- I bought one for myself and one to send to Win in Afghanistan.

The two I will probably try to read first are The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. I loved The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, and I happen to love grammar books. But both will have to wait, because I just started Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. So far it's much easier than Anna Karenina, except that I always get confused by all the Russian names.

Random ramblings

Beautiful organic lettuce

This is going to be kind of a random post. I have random things to talk about today.

First of all, it's 7:30 p.m. and dinner is still cooking. We are still on pre-daylight savings time here. Oh well, I'm happy it's still light out. We are having lasagna, leftover chicken and salad. Lem was just stealing the feta from the salad bowl. Yep, he likes feta cheese.

We went to the market today with Dana and JJ, and our new neighbor. Her name is Vivian (might cause some problems with Lem), is newly married and from Hungary. Her husband is in Win's company. She's really nice, very talkative and interesting.

The eels were out again, the fishmonger said he puts them out for the "bambini." This time they were flopping around. Lem hissed at them. We got strawberries, tomatoes and asparagus from our usual vendor, and then lettuce and radishes from an organic vendor! I was so happy, and her stuff is gorgeous. Next week I'll take a picture.

On a sad note, we said goodbye to Jenn today. Well, we said goodbye Monday and Tuesday, but this time it was for real. They did their final inspection of the apartment, and Jenn came out saying, "I'm homeless!" There were some tears when we said goodbye -- we've lived together for three (?) years and survived a deployment together. She gave Lem his first bottle! And it doesn't help that Lem just started saying her name and Bow's, and ALWAYS asking for them. I guess we will just have to take a road trip to Indiana to visit her (and Jon, Bow and Joshua).

Other change for us is that Lem has been sleeping on the futon instead of his crib. He's been doing really good, sleeping through the night once he actually falls asleep. The last two nights it's taken him over an hour to fall asleep. There's been lots of running out of his room, jumping on the bed, playing, and wanting me to lie down with him. But it's getting better. I'm hoping we can take the crib down this weekend. Oh, and last night, after an hour of his playing, I thought we were finally good to go. He was in bed, lying down, so I went out into the living room. A couple minutes later, Win went back to take a shower. He said he was walking into the bathroom, then something caught his eye so he turned around. And there was Lem, hiding under my bedside table! I have no idea what his plan might have been or how long he would have hid there, but it was pretty funny.

Well, it's now 9:15, we ate dinner, Lem had a bath and I think he might actually go to sleep easily tonight. He's only been out once since I left the room ... fingers crossed!

Oh, my one other random thing. I thought about this after Win left for work this morning at 2:30 a.m. That's right, 2:30 a.m. No other job would make you work until 8 p.m., then have you come in at 3 a.m. and work an entire work day. I was actually surprised when Win called at 5 p.m. today and said he was on his way home. Things were hectic this week because it was a jump week (as in jumping out of airplanes) and the weather hasn't been cooperating. Win didn't jump today but had to go that early because two of the guys in his squad were jumping, and he needed to be there to make sure they were "squared away." Win did get to sleep for a while after they left, but I just want all of you with regular jobs to think about this: When you were going into work at 8 a.m., Win had already been working for five hours.

Sounds like Lem is asleep! So I am going to sneak off and maybe watch some of the scary vampire Win rented and is watching. "Let the Right One In."