Civita di Bagnoregio

This passed Tuesday I was lucky enough to go on a 'girls outing' to Civita di Bagnoregio. The wives of the men working on the temple try to get together every so often and do little day trips, sometimes to museums or other "girly" type stuff that husbands and kids wouldn't care to miss. On this trip, Carolyn wanted to go to a pottery shop in Civita di Bagnoregio that sells pottery that is hand made by people in that area. After we dropped the kids off at school, we met up at the jobsite, packed into Ariane's minivan and set off. It was about an hour and half drive from Rome. We had to take Charly and JR with us, and only had to stop once for Charly to go potty on the side of the road. :) When we got there, we got the kids all situated in the stroller, got down to the ticket stand and then made our way up the hill.

OMG. Pushing Charly and JR up that hill was a workout. Lucky for me, Cori grabbed on too, and we did it together. Well worth it for what's on the top. I don't know much of the history, but there have been people living on that hill top since before Christ. The city that still stands there today was built in the 1600s. It's just beautiful. Here's some pictures around the town. There are still people that live there today, but I imagine not very many. There are lots of restaurants, cafe`s and gift shops. We found a little cafe` for lunch and just sat, relaxed (well, sort of- Charly and JR were especially rambunctious) and enjoyed being together. At one point during lunch I zoned out of the conversation and took a minute to appreciate that I was eating lunch outside overlooking the beautiful countryside in ITALY. It was like straight out of a movie, and I was living it.

I feel very blessed to live here and have these opportunities. Don't get me wrong, everyday is not peaches and cream. I'd even say that I struggle more on most days here than I did at home, but it makes it worth it for moments like that. Before we left, we stopped at the pottery shop and Carolyn picked out her water pitchers.

They are beautiful and I couldn't resist, I bought one. I am my Mother's daughter and am guilty of buying, what my Dad terms, "gee-gaughs". I figure it'll be cool to collect these little trinkets from around Italy to take home one day.

Ward Talent Show

Saturday night our ward had a talent show, and so our first experience with an Italian ward function. It was supposed to start at 6:30pm, so we ate dinner and got to the church about 6:20pm. When we got there, we found out that the time had been changed to 7:30pm, apparently just before we got there. (We found out later that everything was set up and ready to go, but someone from the ward who was participating would be late, so they postponed the whole thing for that person) So we waited around and talked with the other American families and the missionaries, as we cant communicate with anyone else. When we finally got going, it was great. There was singing, ballet, and quite a few piano performances. Then, as with any LDS function, the young men got up and did some silly boy scout camp type skits and then the real fun began. There were a few other fun performances and then my favorite, the karaoke. The spunky sister in the ward did a fantastic rendition of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' in Italian. It was epic. I'm sad I didn't get video of it, as the battery on my phone was dying. Then the Elder missionaries did a pancake and Nutella eating contest without hands. You know when the eating without hands starts, it's all downhill from there. After the missionaries were done, they got the bright idea to have all the Americans working on the Rome temple have a go at the pancake and Nutella contest. So Ryan, Bret, John , the Bishop and Elders Quorum President had a go.

I know Ryan did NOT want to do it, but he was a good sport and did it, and I think won. It was a toss up between him and the EQ president. Here's the video.

Ryan said that was just about the worst thing he's ever had to eat. Not because it tasted bad, but because it was so thick and dry - it got stuck in his chest and took about 2 hours to make it's way down. All in all, it was fun. We didn't get out of there until almost 10pm, but when in Rome..... I was impressed with the small ward that we have, so many people participated. Just about everyone did something. I know where we've lived before, in a ward of 300 active members, you could barely find enough people to participate, to even do a talent show. So hats of to the Italians. I loved it. It was fun - just as a ward function should be.

The Farmers Market

I've heard all about this big outdoor farmers market, and I was dying to go. Ariane was headed there Saturday morning, and agreed to bring me along. It was awesome. Rows and rows of fresh produce stands. I was giddy.

Mass quantities of food makes me happy. Sick, I know. That's why I love Costco so much. The cool thing about this place is that it is all FRESH. No preservatives. It is literally what the people grow themselves and sell it in their stand. I walked around just looking at the variety and quality of the produce at each stand. When you find a stand that has what you want, you grab a bag and fill it up with whatever you want to buy. When you've got what you want, you hand it to the person running the stand, they weigh it and tell you how much it costs. It's just fun. There are more than just produce stands, too. There are a few butchers and , of course, stands with meats and cheese. Ariane took me to a butcher that she's used before and I bought some chicken and pork.

When I asked for 2 chicken breasts (both breasts together with the tenderloins and everything) , the butcher grabbed them from his display, weighed them, and then cleaned them (took our the bones and fat and such).

So lucky me - I got to pay for the stuff he cut off and threw away! Oh well. Price you pay for fresh meat. I do have to say a word about the butchers knives. Oh heavens. He cut through bone like it was butter. If I used his knives I'd loose a finger. There is also a huge stand of flowers.

I took this picture to show Ryan, in hopes that he'd get the hint and stop by sometime on his way home.

First Day of School

Yesterday was Kate and Clarks first day at the American Overseas School of Rome. It is a private school that uses an American based curriculum and all the faculty speaks english. A lot of the teachers are american, in fact, both Kate and Clark's teachers and the principle are American. Even though it is an 'American' school, it is very diverse, as far as who attends there. A lot of them are expats like us, but a lot are Italian or from other foreign countries. I figure its Italian families that want their kids to grow up speaking english - which is smart - have them bilingual early on. Kate and Clark were very excited for their first day of school. I was a bit worried about their reaction to waking up and getting out the door after having 2 weeks of absolutely no schedule - but they did great. They even skipped and ran most of the mile walk to school.

When we got there, I walked them in (it is completely fenced and has guards with machine guns at the gates), took them to the office where they got to meet the Principal of the Elementary school and then got a little tour of the school. After that we got to go to their classrooms and meet their teachers. There are 2 second grade classes and they got split up between them.

The classes do a lot together, so they'll still be together (not that they care!) It was so sweet, there were kids waiting outside the classroom for them - everyone wanted to meet the new kids. Their teachers introduced them to a few kids and then they were off! One last hug for mom and off to meet new friends. I was so impressed with the other kids there - it was like they all knew how hard it was to be the new kid and they embraced Kate and Clark. As I was leaving the school I saw a girl guiding Kate around, showing her where they went to play and introducing her to other girls. Made it easy for me too, knowing they would be just fine. Charly and JR were quite upset that they did not get to stay and play and cried for the first few minutes of our walk home. When I picked them up in the afternoon - it was nothing but excitement and talk of new friends and how much they loved their new school. Hooray!

It's Been A Good Week

* I wrote this post last Friday, but we still dont have internet at home, so it's taken me a while to post. Better late than never! And I'm still having trouble adding the photos- when I can add them, I will! Monday was a bit of a rough day for me, and I decided that it was time to set an alarm, make myself get out of bed and take control of my day. With the adjustment to Rome time and dealing with jet-lag, we just rolled out of bed whenever we finally woke up, or the kids woke up. I realized that it's hard to not be depressed when you sleep in everyday and stay in pajamas half the day. It is not good for your psyche. Hence the decision to wake up and take charge of my days. Ryan went to work Tuesday (Monday was still a holiday - "Little Easter" they call it - Italians.) so, that made it easy for both of us to get on a schedule. I got up, said my prayers, read my scriptures and exercised. Side note on exercise. You all know how I love to exercise, as it is therapy for my soul. Apartment living in Rome isn't exactly the ideal situation for exercise. If there is a gym, it's so far away from where we live, and I'd have no way to get there - so I'm on my own. Ryan bought me this book "Choose More, Loose More For Life" by Chris Powell for Christmas.

(I love Chris Powell and his show 'Extreme Weight Loss'. I love what he does to help people realize their self worth and in turn take care of their bodies because of that self worth) I have been using the 9 minute missions in his book since Christmas. I loved doing a high intensity workout for only 9 minutes first thing in the morning, and then I'd go to the gym for cardio and some weight lifting. Not any more. Its not much as I used to do, but now that I'm in Rome - these 9 minute missions are all I've got. Ryan and I both want to get a stationary bike- and hopefully will soon. In the mean time, we walk a lot, and I figure pushing an extra 75lbs in a stroller is pretty good exercise. Needless to say, after waking up and starting my day right, by the time the kids got up - I was mentally and emotionally ready for the day. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we read scriptures as a family, the kids did some school work (math and reading) and we practiced walking to school. We live 1.5 km (just under a mile) from their school. The school has been on Spring Break this week- hence the reason Kate and Clark were still at home. They are very excited to start Monday. We spent our days doing a few chores, but with a small apartment- cleaning is much simpler! We played lots of 'Frozen Uno' , matching games, puzzles and playing outside in the backyard.

It was really nice to not be so consumed by a 'to-do list', and have the time to sit and play games with my kids. We've had a lot of fun together. By Thursday afternoon, they were just starting to get to the point where they were pushing each others buttons, and I could tell we needed to get out of the house. Lucky for me, Ariane Woods (who also lives here with her 3 kids while her husband works on the Rome Temple) was planning a day trip with her kids and invited us to tag along. She planned it all out with the bus routes and where we were going- we just joined in on the fun! Friday morning we got up, got ready and met Ariane and her kids - Austin, Emma and Kate - at the bus stop at the end of our street. I was a little leery of riding the bus, as any stories you hear of pickpocketing, happen on the bus. It was actually great. The wheels on my stroller were just a bit too wide to fit easily on the bus, so we had to lift and turn it every time we got in and out. I couldn't have done it without Ariane and her kids. Emma took Charly on the bus, Ariane held JR and Austin helped me with the stroller. The bus driver only gives you about 3 seconds to load or unload - so it's a little stressful! If I were to attempt the bus alone, I'd have to fold the stroller up to get on and off - a bit more work - but doable. Eventually I'll get there.

We went to Villa Borghese , which is basically Rome's Central Park.

Its a huge park- it'd take you all day to walk around and through the whole thing. There is also a Zoo on the edge of the park - and that's where we ended up spending our day. As far a zoo's go, the Bioparko was pretty good. They had all the normal animals you'd find in a zoo - Elephants, giraffes, zebras, lion ect, but I did notice that the animals were more up-close than the Phoenix zoo. For example, the elephants. At the Phoenix zoo, the way their habitat is set up, the elephants are always so far away, you can barley see them. Here - you were a lot closer. Some cool animals that we got to see - a hippo (2 actually), a sea lion, jaguar, meerkats and a brown bear. They also had an aquarium and a good sized reptile house. The cool thing was, most of the things we saw were different species than what we'd ever seen before. Different kinds of snakes, monkeys, fishes, birds, baboons and even long horned goats and wallaby.

The kids had a great time - so thats all that matters. It was about 1pm when we left the zoo and we found a little cafe at a museum in the park for lunch. Let me explain lunch, food and restaurants in Italy. Lunch is only served from 1-3pm. Thats it. Even in the zoo the restaurants weren't open. They have these little cafe's, or what they call here - a bar - where they serve sandwiches, maybe pastries and drinks. So unless you want to sit down to an expensive, long lasting lunch - the bar is all you've got. And it's not cheap. I got 3 sandwiches for my kids, a salad for me (they don't understand what a salad is- they think it's lettuce with maybe some carrots, corn, and olives served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Disgusting) drinks for me and the kids, and a muffin for whichever child wouldn't eat their panini. That was 30 euros. Shameful. After eating lunch in the park, we had to head back to the bus stop to catch the next bus home. I enjoyed the bus ride home because I got to look out the window and see some of Rome. I didn't get a picture (I will sometime), but its crazy to me how many apartment buildings there are. Actually- that's all there is in Rome. It's all 6-10 story buildings , the ones on the street front have shops on the ground floor and then apartments above it. Then, as close as new houses are built in Arizona, another apartment building right next to it, and that goes straight back off the street until you reach another street on the other side. Its cool. I guess that's how you fit 3 million people in a city that is not that big geographically. When we made it home around 3:30, I realized that we had no milk. Ugh. In my defense, the biggest size milk you can buy is 1.5 liters. You can buy olive oil in larger amounts than milk. I can only fit 2 or 3 1.5 liters of milk in my fridge at a time. Two of them is less than a gallon of milk. I have to buy milk every other day at the latest. I let the kids sit and watch a show on the computer (no internet or TV yet) before I broke the news that we had to walk to the store. I told them that if they came with me to the store, I'd let them pick out some gelato for a treat after dinner. It worked. We got our milk, made dinner, and after dinner -between the 6 of us - ate the whole container of gelato!

I do have to say a word about Ryan going back to work this week. He has been so happy. He loves construction, has a gift for it, and is glad to be back where he belongs - on a jobsite. Also, men are not made to stay at home all day everyday - and Ryan has been job-less for a good month and half. With selling the pool business, and prepping for the move - he stayed busy, but he was just so thrilled to have purpose again, and I was happy for him. We both have felt like we are so blessed. So lucky to be here and have this dream come true for us. Ryan sometimes thinks that he has made my life so difficult by moving us here, and I have to remind him that it is not a burden - its a pleasure. I still think it's awesome that we are living in Italy, and I love being here. I love adjusting to a new lifestyle and learning a new language. It really is 'la dulce vida'!

Easter and General Conference

I wasn’t going to write anything about this last weekend because it was really hard for me – but a few days have given me perspective and now I can talk about it. First, I have a real issue with the Easter Bunny. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that we mask the most important event in the world’s history with a bunny. Its stupid. Easter is about Jesus Christ, his Atonement for all mankind and his marvelous resurrection. I think life is too short to be teaching our kids that Easter is about a bunny – not Christ. That being said, we have always done the Easter bunny. I make sure that we talk extensively about what Easter is really about and even make sure their basket has a big empty egg (to represent the empty tomb) and a picture of Jesus Christ after His Resurrection. This year I was excited by the fact that I might be able to get away with not doing the Easter bunny, by telling the kids that the Easter bunny doesn’t come to Italy. I did buy some Easter candy before we left and brought it with us, in hopes that it could just be from mom and dad. The kids talked endlessly about whether or not the Easter bunny was going to come to Italy, so Saturday when we went to the grocery store – I told Ryan to buy a few things to give the kids. With the stress of the move and setting up our apartment – I really hadn’t given much thought to it, and even that night, after we put the kids to bed, Clark came out and asked me if he could put something by his door so the Easter bunny could leave him something. I gave him 2 kitchen mixing bowls, one to put outside his and JR’s room and one for the girls room. That night we filled the bowls with the few things I had brought with me and what Ryan bought at the store. I also laid out their new Easter Sunday clothes.

Am I glad we did the Easter bunny? Yeah. It was fun for the kids, but honestly – it was just the way it should be. A very small part of the morning. The excitement lasted about 10 minutes. Perfect. I asked Ryan if we could read from the Bible and talk to the kids about the true meaning of Easter. We read the account of the resurrection from each of the four gospels and talked about it. The Spirit was there and we were able to share our testimonies of the Savior with the kids. On Saturday afternoon I was able to go to the Church and watch a broadcast of the Women’s Conference. It had been 2 weeks since we’d been to church and I was feeling the desperate need to have some spiritual input. It was wonderful. When it was over, I asked the Sister missionaries what the schedule was for General Conference. Since we are 9 hours ahead, the Saturday morning session aired at 6pm and the afternoon session aired at 10pm. She said that they broadcast the morning sessions live at 6pm both days, the priesthood session at 11am Sunday and the Saturday afternoon session at 2pm Sunday. That only left the Sunday afternoon session that wasn’t broadcast. We tried to watch the Saturday morning session at home, Saturday night. We don’t have internet at our apartment yet, so I was using my phone as a personal hotspot to give our computer internet. It was cutting in and out so bad, that we seriously got maybe 15 minutes of the 2 hour session. Plus it was dinner time, and between making dinner and wrestling the kids to eat – it was just chaotic. We decided we’d go to the church at 2pm Sunday to watch the Saturday afternoon session. Sunday morning Ryan left for the Priesthood session around 10:30am and I decided to make him chocolate chip cookies. Or attempt with my Italian ingredients. I had planned on making cinnamon rolls, but when I got out the mixer we ordered, the bowl was tiny! There was no way I could make my bread recipe or even a regular cookie recipe in it. I had to make something, since the tradition in the Johnson family is to make donuts during the Priesthood session, I couldn’t leave Ryan with nothing. After making the cookies – I had to book it to get myself and the kids ready for church. We needed to be ready so when Ryan got home, we could go back to the church. It was also lunch time, so I was feeding kids, doing the girls hair, getting the boys dressed and myself ready at the same time. Ryan called me on his way home from Priesthood to tell me he was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and would get home only in time to turn back around. I made him a sandwich, since he wouldn’t get to eat lunch, packed up my bag with snacks and drinks, a backpack with toys for the little ones and we went down to the parking lot to wait in the rain for Ryan to pick us up. I finished my makeup in the car and we got to the church right at 2pm. We went upstairs where they had been broadcasting in English only to find it totally empty. No projector. No computer. No missionaries. Ryan had just been there an hour ago and was told when he left , that it would still be set up to watch the Saturday afternoon session at 2pm. I was devastated and disappointed. I thought, there must be a mistake. I found an Italian who was watching the broadcast in Italian- who spoke enough English to help me. The mission office is in the same building in the church, so we knocked on the door to see if we could find out what was going on. We found some American missionaries that were in a little room watching it on a computer screen. One tried to get a hold of the Senior missionary who had set up the broadcast for the English speakers, but to no avail. So we packed the kids back up in the car and made the 25 minute journey back home. I was so depressed. I wanted and needed that spiritual outpouring so badly and had no way to get it. Ryan, realizing the struggle I went through to get us all there, got all the kids together so we could take an Easter Sunday family picture.

He knows I love to take pictures on such occasions, and even though he hates it- did it for me. I then made myself lunch and Ryan sent me to my bed to take an nap. It was much needed and I did feel slightly better afterwards. We then made a very Italian version of one of my everyday dinners, not something I would ever make as Easter dinner. We tried again to broadcast the Sunday morning session (at 6pm Rome time) and had a bit more success this time around. It was doing pretty well until my favorite speaker, Jeffry R. Holland, got up. We got the first 3 minutes of his talk, and then the internet went out. UGH! We put the kids to bed and after cleaning up the kitchen, Ryan and I sat on the balcony and talked about the day and our new life in Rome. It’s hard. Things like General Conference – that are normally easy and a normal part of life, are difficult and cause disappointment and frustration. I also realize that I have been extremely spoiled, and the fact that we go to any of conference via the 3G connection of a cell phone is pretty amazing. I know that the whole conference will be available by tomorrow on lds.org, and for that I am extremely grateful. It does make me stop, take a set back and look at the big picture. I have a Savior who died for me. I have the ability to repent, be forgiven and feel the Spirit of the Lord guide my life. I love the Savior. I know He lives. That is what Easter is all about.

The Transition

It's been 5 days since we arrived in Rome and I finally have a minute to breathe and write down some of my thoughts. To say it has been busy would be an understatement, but a different kind of busy. Everything takes us longer, but probably because everything is different and new. Our apartment wouldn't have gas until Tuesday, so our hope was to buy everything we needed Monday, so we could move from the temporary to our apartment, then. Monday we didn't get out of bed until 12:30pm, and we didn't get to the mall until 2pm. Honestly - I don't remember much of what we did that day, I think we went to our apartment and unpacked a bit and probably went to the store. I do know that we really didn't get anything done. We went back to the temporary apartment that night, had dinner and got everyone to bed, but now on Italian time - aka - the kids didn't get into bed until 9pm. Tuesday I think we managed to peel ourselves out of bed around 10:30am. Everyday we get a little better, and shave an hour off of the time we wake up. The Italians all have these wonderful shutters on every window that completely block out light, so we've had to wake up the kids everyday. Naturally, Ryan and I have already talked about putting them on our house in the future. Tuesday we set out to go to the mall, hopeful to get to IKEA so we could move in. We needed to get Italian SIM card for our phones and set up internet at our apartment, so we did that first. We had to wait for Stephano to come with us to IKEA to translate, so we did some shopping at the mall. Got a few things for the house, then decided to check out the 2nd floor of Auchans. We found an iron, blow dryer, flat iron, clothes drying rack, a skillet, a few kitchen gadgets and some other things for the kitchen. After buying these few things, we knew our little Fiat would be full, and it was already 7:30pm. We dropped our things in our car and back into the mall for dinner. Wednesday we were determined to get into our apartment, so that morning we repacked all our stuff that was in the temporary apartment, loaded up what we could and took it to our apartment. We desperately needed to make an IKEA run- as we hadn't done our big shopping trip. This time we made it, and were lucky enough to do it without kids - thanks to Airane Woods. Here's what I had on my list : plates, cups, glasses, bowls, utensils, kids plates, cups and silverware, mixing bowls, strainer, pot holders, can opener, cheese grader, potato peeler, knives, pots and lids, skillets, cookie sheets, dish towels, dish rags, trash cans, place mats, clothes hampers, serving spoons, wooden spoons, cutting boards, ladle, spatula, rubber scraper, flour and sugar containers, hangers, broom and dustpan, 9x13 pan, bread pans, bathroom shelves, baskets, shoe organizers, bath mats, shower curtains, sheets, duvet covers, command hooks, kitchen counter/buffet, pantry shelving, pads for kitchen table chairs and table cloth. We were there 3 hours and didn't get it all. It was exhausting and slightly overwhelming. We filled 2 carts and could've done more. We picked up the kids and went back to our apartment. We went to work putting stuff away and trying to make our house into a home. At about 6pm, Ryan took Clark back to IKEA to get finish getting what we needed. I took Kate and the littles to the market near our apartment to get some food for dinner. This experience alone was probably the hardest thing I've had to do. It doesn't sound like it should be that difficult, but finding food to cook with in a foreign country is hard. When everything is in a different language, and you cant read labels, picking out milk becomes hard. Does it say whole milk? Is there such a thing as 2%? Then there's flour. Moses. Italians have 15 different kinds of flour.

What do all the differences mean? Are they made from different grains? Is it a baking flour that already has baking soda or powder in it? And what the heck does "00" mean? So you can imagine me standing there looking at the flours, trying to decide which one to buy while my kids are saying "Mom, I'm hungry". I decided to make pancakes and eggs - easy enough, right? But what else do I buy? Some sandwich bread, mayo, mustard, cheese and sandwich meat? Sure. Sounds good. It's hard to explain, but I was so mentally tapped out, that trying to think of food to make and ingredients to buy was so hard. I bought what I could fit in the bottom of my stroller, and we walked home. On a side note, Charly and JR figured out that if they said "Ciao" to people in the store- they would say "Ciao" back. It was quite entertaining. They just kept saying "Ciao Ciao" to everyone. It was 7pm when we got back home and now I had to start cooking. That was a chore in and of itself. All of my cook ware and utensils, were still in packages, so I was unwrapping the skillet, spatula and the hand mixer, while getting my recipe and opening the ingredients to make the pancakes. Only to realize I didn't buy sugar. Shoot, now what? Luckily I had brought some powdered sugar from home - so I used that instead. I finally get cooking and get the eggs and pancakes going - when the kids start asking for syrup. No such thing as maple syrup in Italy. No worries- I brought maple flavoring to make buttermilk syrup. Only I couldn't find buttermilk at the store, and I forgot sugar, remember? So I improvised with regular milk and that powdered sugar. Not my best buttermilk syrup- but everyone was so hungry they didn't even notice. We finally finished dinner around 8:30pm and now I had to get kids to bed.

Unwrap the towels, find the shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Finally got everyone to bed around 9:30pm, about the time that Ryan and Clark came home. After they ate and we got Clark into bed - I broke down and started to cry. I've never had to worry about what I was going to feed my kids - and that was terrifying. Not because I didn't have the money to buy food, but because I couldn't find the food I'm used to and couldn't even read the labels to find what I was looking for. Granted, I had other food they could've eaten, but, as a Mom, making dinner is one of the most basic duties - and I could barely do it. Each day is getting better and easier. As I learn my way around my new kitchen, new cookware, and utensils - it gets easier and I get faster. Another funny cooking mishap. I planned on making parmesan chicken for dinner, and got everything out to start cooking, only to realize I had no bread crumbs and no crackers to make bread crumbs. So lucky for me, my good friend Erin Merrill, made sure to pack my box of Nila Wafers, and I turned those into bread crumbs. The kids didn't notice, but Ryan noticed it was a little bit sweeter than usual. I do have so say one good thing about the Italian food- the produce is amazing. No USDA making farmers put a waxy preservative on the food. Everything is fresh. It tastes like the food out of my dad's garden. And the tomatoes. No wonder Italy is famous for it's tomato sauce. We have been eating cherry tomatoes like candy. Other things that have taken me longer to do because I am re-learning how to do it. Laundry. Oh boy. We have a machine that is a washer and dryer in one. I am not sold. For one, it's small, so the loads have to be really small. And I have still to figure out why everything comes out so dang wrinkly.

I'm going to have to iron everything. The laundry detergent isn't great, the water is really hard, and for some reason the clothes are shrinking. Ryan's socks that he's had for over a year, came out looking like they were Clarks. Looks like I'll be buying new clothes sooner than I thought. Blow drying my hair. First, I have to say that I am a creature of habit. I have been using the same blow dryer for over 14 years. When one dies, I buy the exact same one. When I would do my hair - that blow dryer was like an extension of my arms and hands. So having to use a new blowdryer, takes some getting used to. No dishwasher. Well, we have one, but is currently not working. Do you know how much time it takes to hand wash the dishes of 6 people 3 times a day? Too much. The Italians do have a nifty little cupboard for a drying rack. It does it make it nice to keep the dishes off the counter, and then you can close the cupboard and forget all about the dishes.

No microwave, yet. We have it sitting in the box on the floor in the dining room, just haven't had the time to get it out and plug it in. Plus, without my kitchen counter/buffet, I have no where to put it- it would just sit on the ground. You don't realize how much you use a microwave until you don't have one. Melting butter, reheating leftovers, softening coconut oil, ect. Again, a little more creativity - but so much more time! Modern conveniences really do save time! The last 2 days have been full of organizing, unpacking and trips to Ikea, Auchan's and Leroy Merlin (aka - Italian Home Depot). Anytime you move somewhere new, you discover all the little nuances of that place. For example, both shower heads were just old and crappy. Luckily for me, I have a husband in construction, so any little thing like that, drives him nuts and he has to fix it. Plus, the more you move in, the more you realize you need or don't have. Hence all the trips to the store. Now, since we only have one car- Ryan has been doing all the shopping for us. I'm not gonna lie- its been really nice not to have to run the errands. And I'm pretty sure Ryan is just about done fighting the crowds at the store, finding things for me, and assembling the stuff from IKEA. Luckily- had ordered all the furniture before we left, and was assembled by IKEA for us - its just been the little things like shoe racks, bathroom cabinets, extra kitchen chairs, ect. Through all these hard moments, I've made myself stop everyday, to look out my kitchen window and tell myself that I am living in Rome Italy - and that it's all worth it.

I am truly grateful for this experience and what we came here for. I just have to take a step back and remember that we have been given an amazing opportunity - to be a part of building a temple of God - and it doesn't get much better than that.