Last night I bought my ticket to go see my baby girl for Parents Weekend!
Strange sight - saw a pizza delivery guy get a ride from a police officer on his motorcycle.
John's on his way to Dayton, Ohio to run the 13th Air Force Marathon. It happens to land on the 13th anniversary of the accident that took his leg!
John opened a "cause" site on Facebook for his run. Just asking for thoughts and prayers, not money. It's already hit 239 members, many of whom we don't even know!
I'm homesick for both the States and Canada!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Eight Years Later
We had a moment of silence in the Embassy this morning. Hard to believe it's been eight years but then again, so much has changed since then...good and bad.
On a much lighter note - dropped John off at a function this evening (a guy thing) and the house number was 7. We found the street, it was a short one and noticed the first number was 70 which concerned us...the next one was 100...beside it was number 7. Go figure. Weird place we live in.
Have a fabulous weekend!! Love to you all!!
On a much lighter note - dropped John off at a function this evening (a guy thing) and the house number was 7. We found the street, it was a short one and noticed the first number was 70 which concerned us...the next one was 100...beside it was number 7. Go figure. Weird place we live in.
Have a fabulous weekend!! Love to you all!!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Well, All WAS Quiet...
This has been a quiet Saturday but our friend took Buddy for a walk with her Golden Retriever only to find her SUV vandalized when she returned to our house. John and Joanne are outside dealing with it - I had just opened up my blog to write when Joanne rang our doorbell. Living in a big city... :-(
Thankfully it looks like the buttheads got nothing. Probably they were interrupted. We live on the crossroads of two pretty busy streets. They ended up cutting her battery cable, most likely so they might be able to come back later and finish the job but good ole duct tape repaired the cable enough so that she could start the car and drive it home. I followed her, just in case and found out she lives in the prettiest house I have seen!!! It looks like a doll house or a playhouse that's been blown up to adult size!
So now the four of us (John, Nicole, Jake and I - missing Lisette!) are chilling out, watching TV and enjoying our long weekend. Hope yours is as eventful/uneventful as you'd like it to be!!
Thankfully it looks like the buttheads got nothing. Probably they were interrupted. We live on the crossroads of two pretty busy streets. They ended up cutting her battery cable, most likely so they might be able to come back later and finish the job but good ole duct tape repaired the cable enough so that she could start the car and drive it home. I followed her, just in case and found out she lives in the prettiest house I have seen!!! It looks like a doll house or a playhouse that's been blown up to adult size!
So now the four of us (John, Nicole, Jake and I - missing Lisette!) are chilling out, watching TV and enjoying our long weekend. Hope yours is as eventful/uneventful as you'd like it to be!!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Time Flies
Before much too much time goes by, it behooves me to update my blog!
The return trip from Italy included a quick stop in Hamilton. The main reason being that I had become the great aunt to a perfect little baby boy! Nolan is the most precious and beloved son of my darling Nicholas and his beautiful wife Natasha. Am I gushing? Heck ya!
The remainder of July and into August was back to work and prepping for the kids to return to school. On August 15th, John and I flew back to Miami with Lisette. Spending the next week setting Lisette up at Florida State University was one of the most depressing time of my life. As with any other dark period, one just plugs on through and tries to look at the bright side. I was happy to at least have the chance to build her her "nest" in her dorm room. It was thrilling to see her bond with her new car - a 2003 VW Beetle (adorable!) although she tried to kill us in it a few times. I'm thinking that was about it as far as a silver lining. Thank goodness for Vonage and Facebook. We're keeping in touch daily. :-)
The other thing we did while back in the States in August was settle things on a house in Georgia. On August 31st, via Power of Attorney, we closed on a lovely lakehouse in Lake Park. The property is right beside John's brother so it makes a perfect getaway place or even a permanent address depending on what happens in our future!
The kids left here in La Paz are both home sick with the flu. John of course thinks it's swine flu but that's John. LOL It doesn't really matter because we don't have access to the blood test to identify it anyway. Supposedly Evo Morales is suffering from the flu and his doc put him on Tamiflu (what we have available for our H1N1 flu patients). Interestingly, Tamiflu can cause some psychotic reactions...no, I won't go anywhere with that. Ha!
So now I'm working full-time and still loving it. Technically, I'm supposed to be working four days a week but until we have the new nurse onboard, I'm filling in the days. School started for me again this past Monday. I'm taking 9 credit hours again but they're split 3/6 over the semester...three credit hours the first half makes life much more reasonable!
John will be running the Air Force Marathon in a few weeks. It falls on the anniversary of his accident which makes it impossible to pass up. I'm excited for him but he has recently relieved my mind by promising that this is his last full marathon. He's not getting any younger and his knee gives him problems to begin with. Still, make sure you're cheering him on this September 19th! Oh, that's "Talk Like a Pirate" day too!
The return trip from Italy included a quick stop in Hamilton. The main reason being that I had become the great aunt to a perfect little baby boy! Nolan is the most precious and beloved son of my darling Nicholas and his beautiful wife Natasha. Am I gushing? Heck ya!
The remainder of July and into August was back to work and prepping for the kids to return to school. On August 15th, John and I flew back to Miami with Lisette. Spending the next week setting Lisette up at Florida State University was one of the most depressing time of my life. As with any other dark period, one just plugs on through and tries to look at the bright side. I was happy to at least have the chance to build her her "nest" in her dorm room. It was thrilling to see her bond with her new car - a 2003 VW Beetle (adorable!) although she tried to kill us in it a few times. I'm thinking that was about it as far as a silver lining. Thank goodness for Vonage and Facebook. We're keeping in touch daily. :-)
The other thing we did while back in the States in August was settle things on a house in Georgia. On August 31st, via Power of Attorney, we closed on a lovely lakehouse in Lake Park. The property is right beside John's brother so it makes a perfect getaway place or even a permanent address depending on what happens in our future!
The kids left here in La Paz are both home sick with the flu. John of course thinks it's swine flu but that's John. LOL It doesn't really matter because we don't have access to the blood test to identify it anyway. Supposedly Evo Morales is suffering from the flu and his doc put him on Tamiflu (what we have available for our H1N1 flu patients). Interestingly, Tamiflu can cause some psychotic reactions...no, I won't go anywhere with that. Ha!
So now I'm working full-time and still loving it. Technically, I'm supposed to be working four days a week but until we have the new nurse onboard, I'm filling in the days. School started for me again this past Monday. I'm taking 9 credit hours again but they're split 3/6 over the semester...three credit hours the first half makes life much more reasonable!
John will be running the Air Force Marathon in a few weeks. It falls on the anniversary of his accident which makes it impossible to pass up. I'm excited for him but he has recently relieved my mind by promising that this is his last full marathon. He's not getting any younger and his knee gives him problems to begin with. Still, make sure you're cheering him on this September 19th! Oh, that's "Talk Like a Pirate" day too!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Back Home
Well, the original idea was to keep a running diary of our trip to Italy. The largest obstacle to that goal was lack of Internet access at many of the places we stayed.
Our trip was fabulous. Definitely what we all needed. John grew a beard (sort of) which I loved, surprising because I'm not a big fan of facial hair. He looked so relaxed in it though! I got a really good tan for the first time in probably 20 years! The kids got along great considering they were squished in the back seat of a medium sized station wagon for too many hours at a time. Thankfully, they often had the opportunity to get away from each when it was absolutely necessary.
Our favourite stay was outside of Assisi. It was incredibly beautiful, peaceful and we went and saw so much!
Here's the Italy vacation in a nutshell ~
June 16th - arrive in Rome, drive to Naples
June 17th - visited the Cuma ruins
June 18th - Pompei!
June 19th - chill day, saw "Up" at Naval base
June 20th - moved down to Amalfi coast house
June 21st - chilled at Amalfi house
June 22nd - drove down the Amalfi coast, sightseeing day
June 23rd - chilled and sunbathed
June 24th - harrowing scooter ride to Vietri!
June 25th - kidnapped Lisette and John to Sorrento
June 26th - crazy day on the Meditteranean in a rented motorboat
June 27th - drove all the way up to Umbria house
June 28th - medieval fair in medieval village
June 29th - Assisi
June 30th - Lisette and I hit Deruta for ceramics
July 1st - Sienna and the "Il Palio" time trial
July 2nd - Pisa and Florence (warning - don't try to do both in one day!)
July 3rd - chilling, sunbathing, laundry and repacking
July 4th - return to Naples, fireworks at Carney Park, John loses work cell (Yeah!)
July 5th - chill, chill, chill
July 6th - drive to Taormina, Sicily
July 7th - Greek ruins, Taormina
July 8th - return to Rome, dealt with gas strike and our pseudo 21st anniversary!
July 9th - Rome, beautiful Rome
July 10th - flight from Rome to Buffalo
It was awesome.
Our trip was fabulous. Definitely what we all needed. John grew a beard (sort of) which I loved, surprising because I'm not a big fan of facial hair. He looked so relaxed in it though! I got a really good tan for the first time in probably 20 years! The kids got along great considering they were squished in the back seat of a medium sized station wagon for too many hours at a time. Thankfully, they often had the opportunity to get away from each when it was absolutely necessary.
Our favourite stay was outside of Assisi. It was incredibly beautiful, peaceful and we went and saw so much!
Here's the Italy vacation in a nutshell ~
June 16th - arrive in Rome, drive to Naples
June 17th - visited the Cuma ruins
June 18th - Pompei!
June 19th - chill day, saw "Up" at Naval base
June 20th - moved down to Amalfi coast house
June 21st - chilled at Amalfi house
June 22nd - drove down the Amalfi coast, sightseeing day
June 23rd - chilled and sunbathed
June 24th - harrowing scooter ride to Vietri!
June 25th - kidnapped Lisette and John to Sorrento
June 26th - crazy day on the Meditteranean in a rented motorboat
June 27th - drove all the way up to Umbria house
June 28th - medieval fair in medieval village
June 29th - Assisi
June 30th - Lisette and I hit Deruta for ceramics
July 1st - Sienna and the "Il Palio" time trial
July 2nd - Pisa and Florence (warning - don't try to do both in one day!)
July 3rd - chilling, sunbathing, laundry and repacking
July 4th - return to Naples, fireworks at Carney Park, John loses work cell (Yeah!)
July 5th - chill, chill, chill
July 6th - drive to Taormina, Sicily
July 7th - Greek ruins, Taormina
July 8th - return to Rome, dealt with gas strike and our pseudo 21st anniversary!
July 9th - Rome, beautiful Rome
July 10th - flight from Rome to Buffalo
It was awesome.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The Amalfi Coast
Today was a blast! The girls and I went on a scooter ride down the Amalfi Coast to Vietri. Nicole clung to me like the little monkey she can be and Lisette followed beautifully on her pink scooter like the goddess she can be. It was a long ride, over an hour, but we arrived unscathed...John's heart could rest awhile while we shopped. Besides, the view was worth his angina. :-)
The bad news from Vietri - the shop where I bought all my dishes seven years ago was closed while the owners on vacation! AHHHH! Bad timing! Oh, well, I found some other things I wanted. Just have to come back I suppose!
The ride back was a little more interesting. Lisette got bitten by something but kept the scooter under control. She's got about six bites on her back and she was near tears, poor baby! We arrived in the town of Amalfi just in time. The threatening clouds simply burst for about an hour. We had a snack and then did a tiny bit of shopping (honest, John!) and stayed dry. Nicole bought a towel for our scooter seats and we got back on the road.
We pulled in with about five minutes to spare, the scooters were due back at six. Whew! It was a beautiful and fun day!
One other close call, I had talked to Nicole about leaning into a curve with me...we were approaching a turn and I had my eye on a van that was approaching from the other direction. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching the turn close enough and almost hit the wall. While I was saying, "#%$#&^!!!" in my head, Nicole told me later she was just screaming "LEAN!" in hers. LOL
The bad news from Vietri - the shop where I bought all my dishes seven years ago was closed while the owners on vacation! AHHHH! Bad timing! Oh, well, I found some other things I wanted. Just have to come back I suppose!
The ride back was a little more interesting. Lisette got bitten by something but kept the scooter under control. She's got about six bites on her back and she was near tears, poor baby! We arrived in the town of Amalfi just in time. The threatening clouds simply burst for about an hour. We had a snack and then did a tiny bit of shopping (honest, John!) and stayed dry. Nicole bought a towel for our scooter seats and we got back on the road.
We pulled in with about five minutes to spare, the scooters were due back at six. Whew! It was a beautiful and fun day!
One other close call, I had talked to Nicole about leaning into a curve with me...we were approaching a turn and I had my eye on a van that was approaching from the other direction. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching the turn close enough and almost hit the wall. While I was saying, "#%$#&^!!!" in my head, Nicole told me later she was just screaming "LEAN!" in hers. LOL
Friday, June 19, 2009
Pompei is Simply Incredible
I finally went. After living in Naples for two years, I kept missing the opportunity to go or just put it off too many times. Now I can't wait to go back again. My family is tired of me saying "that was so awesome!" It was though. We spent about three hours there and I could have stayed for three days. I know people had said how big it was but I just never imagined it was THAT big. Wow.
That was yesterday. We moved into a new hotel, just slightly more expensive but tons nicer. Then we had lunch at the new hotel. It was delicious but brutally expensive. Off to Pompei after lunch at Lisette's urging. We're all still fighting the time change so not much energy. I'm so glad we went!
Dinner last night was at an old haunt. It was closed on Wednesday and we were worried it wasn't still running. It was and the same waiter was there too! The food was incredible - just like we remembered. The name of the place was Cerberos - it's on a hill overlooking the bay of Naples...we watched the sunset. Sigh.
Today we were up a little earlier. We had a day planned around the Navy base. John was the only one who hadn't seen "Up" so we went to see that. Then we bought some groceries before heading to Carney Park (the US sports complex) where John, Nicole and Jake went to the pool (Lisette had stayed at the hotel when we dropped off groceries) and I went to the Laundromat. Not too exotic but necessary! :-)
We grabbed some pizza at Carney Park for dinner then when all the clothes were dry, we came back here to the hotel. I submitted my final essay for my English Composition II class. Not sure if I'll make an A on this class - too much going on this last month.
Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. Maybe we'll finally be up in time for breakfast here. We should - it's free and food has gotten expensive here!!! It's still worth it though! Ha!
That was yesterday. We moved into a new hotel, just slightly more expensive but tons nicer. Then we had lunch at the new hotel. It was delicious but brutally expensive. Off to Pompei after lunch at Lisette's urging. We're all still fighting the time change so not much energy. I'm so glad we went!
Dinner last night was at an old haunt. It was closed on Wednesday and we were worried it wasn't still running. It was and the same waiter was there too! The food was incredible - just like we remembered. The name of the place was Cerberos - it's on a hill overlooking the bay of Naples...we watched the sunset. Sigh.
Today we were up a little earlier. We had a day planned around the Navy base. John was the only one who hadn't seen "Up" so we went to see that. Then we bought some groceries before heading to Carney Park (the US sports complex) where John, Nicole and Jake went to the pool (Lisette had stayed at the hotel when we dropped off groceries) and I went to the Laundromat. Not too exotic but necessary! :-)
We grabbed some pizza at Carney Park for dinner then when all the clothes were dry, we came back here to the hotel. I submitted my final essay for my English Composition II class. Not sure if I'll make an A on this class - too much going on this last month.
Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. Maybe we'll finally be up in time for breakfast here. We should - it's free and food has gotten expensive here!!! It's still worth it though! Ha!
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