You're wearing as size what shoe?!

Today I am floored by how quickly my baby boy Ethan has grown into a young man.  When did he get to be so grown?  I mean, I noticed his clothes getting smaller and I noticed he was getting tall; but seriously, when did this happen?  We went shopping for new shoes since his last pair of tennis shoes had wore slap out.  He had a big gaping hole in them.  

The child is wearing a size 9 ½ or 10 in MENS.  Yes, I know it’s normal, blah, blah, blah...but wait until your little funny baby boy goes from being a sweet little thing to this smelly (yes I’m saying it, pre-teen and teenage boys REEK), voice cracking, leg hair growing near man child that is bigger than you!  

It is amazing to me how we give birth to these wriggly little creatures and then they grow into funny little boys that play trucks and cars and trains and then the next thing you know they are gangly, stinky teens.  I have to cherish this time.  He’s nearly 13 and it won’t be long until he really is a man and I’ll have to actually let him go...forever.  He won’t always be my responsibility.  He’ll always have my heart and he’ll always be my baby; but I have to let him go out into the big bad world on his own and fend for himself.  But, I won’t think about that right now.  Right now I’ll hang onto my almost teenager that will still let me give him hugs and kisses and pray that his dad and I can keep him going down the right path to be the man that we know he can be.  

Camping with Cub Scouts...

Gavin, Ethan and I went camping with the Cub Scouts last night.  I used to really love going camping but then I grew up and became the one that had to do all the planning, packing and set-up and my love started to vanish.  The idea of lying in a tent with the damp dew making everything wet is not my idea of fun; but I powered through and went for my boys.

This was Gavin's first time camping as a Cub Scout.  Thankfully Ethan loves to camp and enjoys being an experienced Boy Scout and wanted to go to help out. 

We left in a caravan out to the location to camp in Niscemi, Italy. It's an annex base for the Navy that we got permission to have a family camp at.  It was actually very pretty there.  

It's very much like a desert with tumble weeds, sand and rascally rabbits.

We left out from our neighborhood and drove an hour and half to the town of Niscemi.  I almost lost the caravan, but I was lucky enough to be following some really good folks that put on their flashers and I was able to see where they went.  Italian drivers are very aggressive.  There is no waiting your turn, they just come on out in front of you; not matter what.  

We arrived to the camping area after dark of course and proceeded to quickly put up our tent.  It didn't take us long at all to get it all put together.  Ethan then helped others.  Gavin was so happy and excited about being at camp.  

The Pack provided dinner which was dump chili.  Each family brings a can of something to dump into a chili base.  I brought cans of  black beans and pinto beans to add.  The chili was good even though it had potatoes and beets in it!  

There was a little star gazing done and the boys learned about constellations.

We had a large campfire and we had some skits, some songs and a really cool Bobcat ceremony.  I didn't get any pictures of him actually receiving his badge, because we were all three involved in the ceremony; but it was nice.  I'm so proud of him and his fellow Tiger Cubs. 

We roasted marshmallows and in true Italian style used nutella for our s'mores.  Yummy!  We crawled into our tent and tried to sleep.  It was cold.  We made it through the night and woke up around 6AM when we heard gun shots; rabbit hunters!  

This morning we had a lovely breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs and fruit.  It was a collaborative endeavor by our den and it came out great.  Afterwards there was a long hike where the boys learned how to use a compass.  Gavin says it was his favorite part of the whole camp out!

A very happy Camper!

We left camp around 11 and got home around 12:30PM.  It was a good day and camp out even though there was not a bathroom!!!  I ended up with a headache, but a nap, a hot bath and some Advil took care of that.  

Ethan snapped a couple of pictures for us on the way home of the scenery. 

The town of Niscemi

Niscemi

Niscemi

Mountainside as we drove along.

The town of Caltagirone from the highway.

All Saints Day, All Souls Day

Yesterday was All Saints Day and today is All Souls Day.  Here in Italy they are National Holiday.  Norah's preschool is closed.

     I grew up attending a Church of God church.  I never really felt like we had many traditions or ceremonies, I mean we would take communion sometimes and we'd do a foot washing on occasion, but those never felt quite as ceremonious as what I had heard about the Catholic church.  I once went to a Catholic Wedding and they held a Mass; that was pomp and circumstance.  That felt like something important.

     I always felt like we were just a little bit off from the other religions that had ceremony.  They had Altar Boys and special classes.  We didn't have that.  On one hand I liked the relaxed way the church service was, but I longed for the kneelers and special incense.  Which is funny as I was taught that incense burners and lighting candles for the dead were evil.  I was taught a lot of strange things.  Things like playing D & D was evil.  Listening to rock music was evil.  Celebrating Halloween was evil. If you smoked you were a sinner.  If you drank you were a sinner.  If you cursed you were a sinner.  If you wore too much make-up, you were a sinner.  The list was endless.

     I remember being shocked out of my skin the first time I realized that Catholic people could drink a glass of wine and no one looked twice.  I saw a Catholic priest at a base chapel event have a glass of wine in the O-Club...I was literally floored!  You would NEVER see a Church of God preacher even look at a glass of wine without condemnation.

Wow, how did I get here from talking about holidays here in Italy.  Oh, that's right; Italy is a Catholic country  and these Holidays are Catholic Christian Holidays and then my train of thought went to why I don't attend organized religious gatherings. I may get into that on another day; it's long and complicated and I'm not sure it even would make sense to anyone else.

Back to the Holidays, I think it's remarkable that the belief that one's deceased ancestors look over them and bring them gifts is still alive today.  I love that they are preserving a relationship with family members long gone. Long live traditions and ceremonies!

 

What happened to England Part 2?

I have grand plans, indeed I do.  I have terrible follow-through.  I had intended to write in excitingly delicious detail every day of our trip to England.  I was going to tell you how everything went on each day.  It was going to be glorious and you would have been so impressed, but real life isn't so beautiful or grand.

Here it is, Thursday, November 1st 2012; over 6 months later and I have only managed to write about our first day.  How absolutely pitiful.  I have every resolution to improve myself and blog posting is high up on that list.  This month is NaBloPoMo and I intend to write here everyday.  I cannot guarantee that it will be earth shattering  soul wrenching awesomeness covered in awesomesauce, but I will be here; writing.

As for England:  I will do an overview here shortly and include some photos.  From now on I plan on actually writing while on vacation even if it requires good old fashioned pen to paper and transcribing it later. I haven't even began our trip to Germany!  Agh.

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England Arrival and Day 1

When we knew we were coming to Sigonella, Italy we were so excited to be able to travel Europe!  Our first major trip was to England.  We were stoked!

We left on Good Friday for our Spring Break trip to London.  We made it to Catania Airport and found a place to park.  It was packed since a lot of people travel for Easter Holiday.  The most memorable thing from the airport was the old Italian man that literally growled at me when I didn't move when he tried to push past me.  Y'all know I'm a wide woman and this old man tried to push me out of his way; well I didn't move and he growled at me.  I laughed.  

We flew from Catania to Milan.  In Milan we had a long layover of about 4 hours.  It was not fun.  From now on I refuse such a long layover with the kids.  We ate lunch at a cafe there and it was decent enough food.  

We boarded our plane for London after passing through a little boarder control that actually stamped our passports with a a Linate Italy stamp!  We arrived at Heathrow airport and followed the signs for non-European Union residents and ended up in a long line where we discovered that each one of us needed to fill out a disembarkation card.  Yeah.  All. Five. Of. Us!  That took us a while to do.  We stood in line and then were questioned thoroughly by the Boarder control guy.  We finally made it to get our luggage just as they were about to move it over to the unclaimed area.  Then we made our way to the car rental area to discover that no one was there.  We asked information and they told us where to catch the shuttle to the car rental place.  We stood out there for fifteen minutes and watched all the other car rental agency vans come and go; then finally ours showed up.  We got there and waited in line again.  Finally we got our car.    

The next task was to find our hotel.  It was only 2 miles from the car rental, shouldn't be a problem right?  WRONG!  It took us 2 1/2 hours to find our hotel.  At one point we could see it, but couldn't find our way over to it.  Finally we managed to get in there!  We had to get two rooms because they don't allow you to have five people in one room.  We ate a quick dinner (it was a buffet) and went upstairs to pass out.  

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast (again a buffet) in the hotel.  We tried to get some pounds out of the ATM machine, but it would not take our card!  I started to panic a little.  We decided to drive out toward our cottage and hoped to find an ATM machine on the way.  

We headed out toward the village of Marden where our cottage was located.  We stopped at a roadside rest area that had a McDonald's among other eateries.  We tried the ATM there, no luck.  I was able to use my debit card to buy lunch at McDonald's though.  It took a few tries though.  Apparently in England the credit and debit cards have a chip in them and they do not have to swipe the cards.  After a few tries it finally worked.  

We started looking on the GPS for ATM machines and finally found one we could use.  All the ATM's in England did not take Master Card.  I was relieved to have the cash for the country we were in.  We made our way to the cottage, though we were early.  They weren't exactly ready for us, but were kind enough to let us in anyway.  I was so ready to relax for a minute.  

The cottage looks just like the photos online, so I didn't take any pictures there.  It is exactly as it appeared.  They had left chocolate eggs for the kids for Easter.  We rested up a bit and then decided to go look for a grocery store to pick up a few items for the week.  We found one called Sainsbury in the nearby town of Maidstone.  We picked up some goodies and I managed to sneak some more chocolate eggs in to leave out for the kids for the next day.  The cashier was pleased to speak with someone from the US since it's not really a tourist area and they don't get many tourists there.  It was fun.

We ate some of our goodies for dinner and got a good nights rest.  

Still here, not keeping up!

Wow, am I ever the slacker on here or what.  Not only am I behind with the Spring Break trip to London and the Taormina trip.  Now I'm also behind on two trips to Germany!  How in the world will I ever catch up?

I know!  I will just sit my hiney down here and just do it!  It's so easy to get distracted by silly tv shows and facebook.  Then the next thing you know it's time for a meal or it's time to do something more productive and my blog posts have been pushed back yet again.

Not anymore!  I'm getting ready to streamline my time, do some serious pruning of time wasters and get things in a good groove.  I want to document our fun cultural activities while living here in Europe and not waste so much of my time on ridiculousness.

I will start the London trip tonight!  Look for it here in the morning.  It will happen!

Where did you go?

I tell you what, I let time just slip on by and didn't take any to sit down and write here.  Boy, I should be ashamed!  Where do I start to update at?

Let's see.  The last time I was on here was way back in March.  Good grief.

We went to England for Spring Break!  That was so great.  I loved it there.  I promise to sit down this next week and write all about that trip.  It was really a good trip.

We went on an ITT trip to Taormina and Gambino Winery for Mother's Day.  I'll devote a whole post on that one here soon as well.

The boys played Baseball this spring.  MWR sponsors t-ball and baseball here since the school is too small to have a middle school team.  Gavin had a great time playing and I think he will be very ready to move up to the next level next Spring.  Ethan did well.  He's really a pretty decent catcher.  I'm surprised that he still likes to play that position.

During his last game, Gavin played catcher.  He was excited because that is what his brother usually plays.

Ethan in his catcher gear.  That's Mt.Etnea in the background.

I went to a different market, the one in Scordia.  A friend of mine went with me the first time and then the second time I took Cody.  It's only on Fridays.  I think I need to make a point to go there a couple of times a month, alternating with Motta.  That way I can get to a market every week.  I really should try to go to the Catania market, but I just haven't had the gumption to get out there and do it yet.

I'm going to Germany the end of this month to take a class to become a Certified Lactation Counselor!  Yippee!  I also started back to college.  I'm going to Union Institute and University to get a bachelors degree in Maternal Child Health: Lactating Consulting.  I can't believe that I'm actually doing that!  I'm taking a Nutrition class and a Biology class now online.  Then next month I will finish the Biology class and will start a Birth and Breastfeeding class.  It's been good so far.

It seems that since I am a doula and I am getting this certification, I will be needed here around base and my name is being floated about for me to actually do these things.  It's a little daunting, but exciting at the same time.

So that is it for now.  Summer is here upon us!