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'!