Crazy Busy.

I have just been crazy busy. I just have not had the time to post some things. I wanted to post one blog on Seb's first day of school. Update you on Marcello. And post the news about the new baby. I also have a girlfriend in town visiting and I will post our road trips and adventures. I already posted about us breaking down, lol.

Well I gotta go for now. We are out the door to dinner in Motta.

Cars and me PART 2

Well, like I was saying I just have bad luck on cars. I take my car in for routine maintaines and it comes home with something broken, uggg. I have gone thru 3 summers without AC, had one person put oil in my transmission, and my car ALWAYS breaks down while Ralph is gone. This time I took my car in to just have the AC serviced before the summer began, it came back not working as well. So I just blow it off and say I will take it back in later. Well, when I did they broke my fan and tell me I have a leak. Which I did not have before I took it in, and also my heat doesn't work now. I sooooo can not wait for my new car to get here. I just don't know how much more of broken down cars I can take.

Today I drove my girlfriend to Taormina. We went there to go shopping while Seb was at school and Marcello was at CDC. On our way home my car over heats 20 km from home. I pull over at the toll areas and let my car cool down. Nothing works. I then had to make phone calls for people to get my kids for me while I arrange what I needed to do about us on the side of the road. After an hour passes, I break down and call the command to send help, the car is not cooling down, its holding water. I am told by the Italians that helped me to drive slowly to the next exit with my hazards on. While the command is trying to find someone to help me. I attempt to drive the car slowly down the autostrada trying to find the next exit. The needle is not coming down, it spikes back up and the car is smoking. I try to find a safe place to pull over again. The command advises me that they have sent someone to help me out. I feel alittle relieved, but start to panic because I feel like I am going to get hit by some crazy driver even though I am way off the road. So I move the car again so I can read road signs to know where I am. At this time another Italian pulls over and looks at my car and sees the needle has dropped enough and tells me to move my car off the autostrada. I try again and drive a few more Km and it spikes again, but I drove it slowly anyways to the next exit. I am praying the whole time I am driving, looking for a safe spot to pull over for the person to find me. I finally find a spot and it also has a shade. We sit there until help arrives. By this time its around 4 pm. I first pulled over at 1:45 pm. I start to get worried about getting someone to pick Marcello up from CDC, I have his car seat in my car with me. I finally find someone to get him. THANK GOD. That's one less thing I can worry about now. Now we need to do is get us home.

Finally help arrives, he looks at my car and finds the problem. I have a hole in one of my hoses. He walks over the the elder Italian that's tinkering in his work area and asks to borrows tools. This guy fixes my car right there on the side of the road. I can not stop thanking him, I owe him so much. My car is fixed and I am able to drive it home. I really want to command to recognized what these two guys did for me. Not only did they help an stranded pregnant wife with her husband out of the country. But come to find out it was an liberty day, the command gave everyone a 4 day weekend. They came in to help me on their day off. That my Friend is what the military community is all about. Another sailor helping someones pregnant wife and friend broken down on the side of the road even on a liberty day. I am so thankful to be an American. And I am proud of my self for remaining calm during the whole thing. I think not having the kids with me helped me remain calm. When you have them asking 1001 questions, or saying they are hot, hungry, etc, it adds to your stress level.

Well that's my story, I am thankful it didn't happen while we were driving to the north side of the island, or on another overnight trip. We had more trips planned while my girlfriend is in town. We cancelled everything and have just been hanging low and relaxing.

Cars and ME, why does this happen to me.

OK the story of me and cars. Why do I have all the bad luck. If you knew me before I came here, you know I am just cursed when it comes to cars. Ok here we go, and I will be venting ALOT about this. Ok, before we came here, Ralph and I decided to sell both vehicles. I finally had a nice brand new car that was great. It was the first new car I have had in about 10 years. We knew we needed to sell his truck, it was diesel, not 4X4, and 7 ft bed. So our plan was to buy an island car while here, and shop around for what kind of new car we will take with us when we leave the island. We were told by many people Ralph already knew on the island, to not bring a new car. There reasoning were: Insurance could cost up to 3000 a year, it will get damaged while driving here, and depends on the size, hard to drive on the small roads. So that's why we sold my car, we didn't want to pay high insurance and risk damaging the car.
Well, our first car was a rental, which of course a standard. I never have driven a standard. So Ralph had to do all the driving at first. After driving around on the roads here with him, I was starting to get nervous about learning to drive a stick. You see most of the roads do not look wide enough for 2 cars to drive pass on, no line down the middle, and are kinda like country roads. When you are in the towns, they are like alley ways and steep inclines. So you can see why I was freaking out about driving. But after being stuck at home with no car and not able to just drive and do what I wanted, I knew it was time to learn. We found a road that had no traffic and my lesson began. I wouldn't recommend you having your husband teach you to drive a stick, especially in an foreign country. Changing the gears was not my problem, it was stopping then going. If I was having problems on a flat road, at a stop sign, I would hate to see what would happen on an incline. So what do you do, you suck it up and do your best right. I am not going to sit at home and whine about not being able to drive, and the bus was hard to do with Seb all the time. I didn't mind using the bus, but there are times you just need your own car.
Well after refusing to drive the rental anymore, because of my episode at the NAS1 front gate, Ralph finally bought us a car. Surprise, surprise its an standard. But he told me this will be both of our car for now, and we will keep looking or an automatic to buy for me. Well of course about a week after he bough the car he told me he had to go stateside for about an month. And that I needed to call the seller and have him fix the few things he promised to fix. I post the rest of the story later........

Living out of a suitcase.......

Wow, driving through Motta yesterday really bought back memories of when we first got on the island. I remember when we first arrived we stayed at what is called an TLA. Knowing we will be leaving the island really has me reflecting back on everything we have done while here. And made me realized time really does pass you by. And you need to take advantage of today, because you don't know what tomorrow brings. I remember taking Seb into the town of Motta to just walk around and see what kind of stores they had. Did they have clothing stores where I might find something I liked, toys for Seb, or where to get a good cappuccino. I wanted to get out and explore my new surroundings and get a feel of where we will be living for 3 years. I was nervous and excited. After adventuring out a few times, I got the feel of where things were in Motta. It's a small town, not much there to see or do. But we enjoyed our walks while Ralph was getting checked into work. It took a while to get used to when things were open, and setting a new schedule for us. Seb was still taking naps, and I liked the down time so I could take care of things I needed to do. Ralph and I found a few places we liked to go to. One where we can get fresh baked bread, one to get deli meats, cheeses and a few other items. And also a place to get Italian pastries. You really don't realize what all you have all around you until you know you will be leaving. Sometimes you get all caught up in daily things and then you wake up and it's 2 years later. And you go, I never got to go there, or do that. 

When we first got here, we didn't know much about Sicily. Ralph spoke to a few people at work to find places to take us, and I went to the Library to find out what I could. We stayed at the TLA for about a month. So on the weekends, Ralph and I would look at the map and try to decide where we wanted to drive to. Almost every weekend we picked a new place to go to. Our first adventures were a little stressful. Learning how to get around, trying to read road signs, and the way the Locals drove. Driving and finding parking can be a blog on its own, LOL.

One of the first photos of when we got here. My camera ended up dying, so we didn't take very many on our first trips.

Reflecting back....

Well, I guess you need to bare with me. This blog page is all new. I should have started this when we first got here. I guess I am going to reflect back on a few things on when we got on the island before I post the latest and greatest on our family over here in Italy. And along the way I will post other flash back to get you up to date about what is going on. Maybe you will get a better idea of the daily challenges we have faced while living overseas. And hopefully a better understanding of why I get so frustrated. 

Like I said this is all new to me. Lets see, like I was saying we arrived in 2006. Seb was 4 going on 5 and Ralph and I have only been married for 5 months. Seb was going through a few things before we left. He didn't understand the move and why he had to leave his school, family and friends. Seb and I also had a great family connection and support from my church that I attended since I was in the 3rd grade. I was also going through some family issue and heartache. You see my brother passed away unexpectedly about a month before we moved. I guess I was the closest to him. I took it pretty hard because I just saw him a few days before he passed. And I felt guilty on not asking anyone to pick him up to bring him to my wedding. So on top of trying to pack for our move, fill out and get all documents we needed to move over seas, I had to plan a funeral. So now you can see all the pressure and stress I was experiencing before we moved to the island.

A photo of Seb at Ralph's graduation before we moved.

Living In Sicily

Wow, I can't believe it has been two years on the island. Where has the time gone? We are in the process of looking into orders of when and where we will go next. I will post another blog on that later.  Lately I have been spending my time at home with the boys, going over photos of the past two years. I have several photo albums and slide shows that are not finished. One day I will sit down and finish them, LOL.  Looking back and seeing how much Seb has grown from an 4 year old to an 7 year old going into the second grade. The saying is true, you blink and they are grown. I am so very proud of my oldest, he has over come many challenges living over here. I have work very hard with him, and I feel now all the hard work is paying off. I just need to work harder and spend more time on his reading. Seb and I have been through a lot over the past couple of years, and I feel we waded the storms OK. We came to the island in March 2006. I was so excited about coming to Italy, I wanted to submerge myself into the culture and learn all I could from the Italians lifestyles. I bought the Cd's to learn the language and books to read. I came here with great ambitions and wanted to be here. I had goals of what I wanted to accomplish while living overseas, and expose my family to another culture. Even though I was nervous about getting our family set up over here, knowing I would be alone for most of it. I also felt the timing was good for us. The company I was working for decided to venture out on their own and I saw cut back coming. What great timing for me to turn in my notice. Seb was also in an educational Pre-K school, that had a long waiting list. I finally got him in and he only spent a few months there. But I saw a big difference and was sad he had to leave. But before we did, I sat down with his teacher and asked what I can do at home to prep him for kindergarten. So Seb and I went shopping for all kinds of home school type of items. I didn't realize how much they push onto the kids in kindergarten now a days. So we started right away, and he loved it. He was so cute, I would try and set up a few hours a day for us to sit down and work on different things. I would say, " Sebastian, you want to work on your workbook." And he would go and get it and a pencil and we would begin. In the beginning, he did great, no problems with anything we went over. His writing was neat and his letters were correct. I was proud as a parent on helping him get ready for school. I had no idea that when he would start school that he would have so many challenges. He didn't show any signs at home, I even showed his workbook to his teacher before school started on what he was working on and how well he was doing. She was impressed and didn't foresee any issues either. I will blog later on Seb's school experience. I will also post our first adventures on the island.