Family Visit!

I am so tired but it's GREAT to have my sister here with her family. And that's all I can write about that:)

Happy Spring!

I was on Skype with my grandma today and I told her about standing an egg upright on the Vernal Equinox. So rather than just talking about it I did it! The photos might not be so great but I think you get the idea. I owe this great feat to my high school physics teacher, Mr. Fowler. He was one of the best teachers I have ever had.

Two more days of lazing around!

Monday begins the crazy time of family visits. I'll be traveling to London to meet up with my Dad, step Mom Martha and Nana. Tuesday Nana and I will head back to my house for a short visit to see where I live and hang out with Victor. Then on Wednesday back up to London to meet up with Dad and Martha. Thursday say goodbye to those three family members and hello to cousin Marta and friend Jenny! Stay Thursday night in London and then bring Jenny back to my house. Either on Saturday or Sunday I'll travel back up to London to pick up my sister and her family. We'll spend three days at my house and then go back up to London on Wednesday (that's the 31st) until Friday when we go to Paris. We'll stay at Disenyland Paris until Monday (that's April 5th) when I take the train back up to London and meet up with Victor and his sister at Heathrow Airport and fly to Sweden. There we will meet up with his brother and family for seven days. Fly back to London, drive home and hang out for a day before we take the car train to France and start to drive around Europe until the end of April.

Does this sound crazy to you? Because it sure as heck sounds crazy to me.

And with all this crazy travel going on, I am most excited to see Curtis and Callie. Oh, and my sister and brother in law... I just hope Curtis is more excited when visiting me than he is in this photo:

My comments have been hacked

So if you want to leave comments now you'll have to prove you're a person.

I never thought about who was reading my blog but I definitely don't want any hackers perusing the pages of my life.

Actually, I set up this blog for my family to see what's going on where ever I'm living but I'm not sure if any of them ever visit it. And I've never followed a topic intentionally. It's sort of a mish mash of what's going on in my life whether it be knitting, traveling, sewing, thinking, nothing or something. I'm glad that I amuse you some of the time, confuse you part of the time and perhaps entertain most of the time.

Union Jack Pillow!

On to a new project! I've always wanted to make one of these pillows and I didn't have a pattern so I just make one up. I think it turned out ok! I think I'll give this one to a friend for her new living space. Hopefully she doesn't read this before I see her today!

Lambing!

One of the ladies at our spinning group lives on a farm and on Wednesday we all went out there to see the new lambs. They were so cute! Yes, that sounds very cliche but it was true. It was great to get outside on a nice warm day and I even bought my first pair of Wellies!

Wordless Wednesday...I stole this idea from a friend:)

Pompeii, Paestum and the Amalfi Coast...a few months ago

Rather than overload my blog with photos, I'm just posting a few here and making a larger album on facebook. Here are some of my favorites.

I took way too many photos at Pompeii to pick my favorite but this comes close. It was a very surreal experience to visit such a historical city that has no people living there. I always assumed that it was buried under lava or ash but that's not the case. Yes, ash from Mt Vesuvius did fall and covered quite a bit of the town but the thing that ended lives was the suffocating gasses. And rather than recover and rebuild the town, the survivors just came back to take all the personal belongings they could find and move to a new town, never to return. It was an amazing trip back in time.


Paestum is a little knows city of ruins South of Pompeii, yet still in the guide book! We took the chance and drove down there on the day of our arrival and it was worth the trip. The city was built in 650 BC by Greeks who were on the run (sort of) and was abandoned in the middle ages when the people became infected with malaria. The temples were very impressive and are also the best preserved, even when compared to temples in Greece!


The Amalfi Coast was an amazing place to take a drive. The weather that day was the best of the whole trip! There were some nice towns to drive through and the place we stopped for lunch was the perfect little Italian seaside town. And since we went at a low tourist time, we rubbed elbows with the locals. Perfect!

Rome....a few months ago

We went to Rome for New Year's and here are a few photos of our adventure! And it was quite the adventure!

I tried to get Victor to put his hand in the "Mouth of Truth" to see if he has ever lied to me but he wouldn't do it. That might tell me something...

The Roman Forum as seen from Palatine Hill. Well, about half the Forum. It was a pretty big place!

Colosseum! Once again, from Palatine Hill.

Inside the Colosseum on a tour. I highly recommend you take the tour.

Trivoli Fountain at night. We threw our coins in but I'm not sure I'll make it back to Rome...you never know!

A short taste of what our wedding was like

I made a little video of our wedding ceremony. Finally! It's only been about two years. Hope you like it.

I love knitting!

Many of you know that I love to knit! A while back I went to the Alexander Palace in London to a knitting extravaganza and it was total overload! I went with my good friend Inny
and we didn't even see everything due to the extensiveness of the event. But it was a great day and even though it was a long time ago, I thought I would show you some of the good times I've hand in England.

My mom came to visit over Christmas and we hand so much fun! Of course I miss my mom but I think I miss her much more now that she came to visit. We've been in the UK about 17 months now and only a few more until we move back. I'm half ready to go and half not ready to go. There are still so many more things I would like to experience and it doesn't seem like we'll have enough time. But on the other hand, I'm looking forward to getting back to a place where I can visit my family on a more regular basis...and eat good Chinese food...and Mexican food.

There is a list of places to go before we go floating somewhere around our house but I'm never really sure where it lives. So I ask you, my loyal followers, where should we go? Any fun suggestions?

Something interesting

When I was in Italy I noticed that Italians can be quite loud when engaged in conversation. Not that I didn't know that already, but I noticed something pretty fantastic that was not around the last time I was there: cell phones. You know how when people are on a cell phone they tend to talk about ten time louder than they normally would? Well you would imagine that people in Italy would be obnoxiously loud but I will tell you that Italians are respectfully quiet while talking on their cell phones. Loved it!

I love commercials in this country

My New Favorite Kid

This kid is 5 years old and lives in Japan. He learned to play the ukulele with his dad from a five week TV program. Amazing.

How have I survived?

Not sure. I want to tell you this story in case I don't make it back from Italy. Holy crap, the drivers here are insane. First of all I have seen, on more than one occasion, a person driving with a child under the age of three on their lap or wandering up front near the driver. Second, people here don't know what the lines on the road are for and road signs are just a suggestion. Third, and the ultimate story, we were in the left lane on the highway and with only two lanes altogether, a guy passes the car beside us by going BETWEEN our car and the one in the right hand lane. I might not make it home alive! And I know I've said this before but people in the UK are WONDERFUL drivers!! I think my driving has become much more polite sine I've lived in the UK. And I also know that most of my family is Italian but I don't think I inherited their INSANE driving skills. Although, I did do some of my own pushing out into traffic today. Whenever I hear honking, I just assume it's for me. And what's with the flashing of the brights ALL THE TIME!! In England, if you flash your brights it's a "thank you" or a "you may pull out ahead of me" signal. Not here. In Italy it means "get the hell out of my way or I WILL run you over along with every one else on the road tonight!" Think of the worst driver you know and put him (or her) in EVERY vehicle on the road.

YIKES!

PS- Other than that, Italy is pretty fantastic:)

Someone once taught me

how to knit. It was a random occasion in 2002 when I was in a church band that traveled to different churches every day. If you don't know that part of my life, I'll tell you another day. One evening we were having dinner at a church when I spotted a lady knitting and said "I've always wanted to learn how to knit". The next day we had a day off and that same lady came over to my host family house with three skeins of yarn and a pair of needles. She taught me how to knit prayer shawls and for the rest of the time I was on the road, the majority of the time I spent in the van, I was knitting. Well, other than the times I was driving.
This is a photo of me and my teammate Heidi with two ladies from the church that taught me how to knit. They gave us a prayer shawl to take with us on the road. When our year was over I gave the shawl to the kids in the Youth Encounter office to pass on to the new North East team. I would like to think that they still have it...I wonder where that prayer shawl is?



And that is the beginning of my current obsession with wool.

Catching up...one weekend at a time

I went on a little outing this weekend while Victor was staying home sick. So I looked up a few places to go in my English Heritage book and headed out the door.
First stop was Avebury stone circle. It is a World Heritage Site and is considered to be right up there with Stonehenge, except that no one really knows about it. Well, no one outside the UK. I mean, seriously, how many of you have heard of the stone circle at Avebury?



And then I had lunch at Appleby's which is pronounced like the US chain Applebee's. And even though they may be pronounced the same, they are nothing alike. I prefer the UK version.


In the afternoon I visiting Farleigh Hungerford Castle and saw a 600 year old painting on the chapel wall. 600 years! This is OLD!

The contract is up!

My last day of work at Tile Barn was last week and I can hardly believe it's been a year! I really enjoyed working with the kids and getting to know the staff. I've learned a lot by working at Tile Barn and most of it has been about English culture and words you shouldn't say in front of kids.



I loved working outside every day, even if it was raining. The only thing I didn't like was raking leaves. And now it's on to bigger and better! Well, it's on to keeping house and figuring out where to travel next. It's a rough life but someone's got to do it.

Happy Halloween!

This is quite an old video from Homestar Runner but I laugh every time!