For Angela Jones...we hope you choose this one!!

For Angela;)  

Family, please ignore;)

Front of the house/driveway/front deck

Side/back yard.  You can barely see the shed that is back there but its cute.  The lawn hasn't been mowed all spring so it looks a little hairy but you get the idea.  The yard doesn't have any landscaping so it would be easy to take care of.  Just mowing.

This is where you walk in.  To the right (where you can't see is the living room, straight ahead is the dining room and then the kitchen and to the left are 2-3 steps up to the three bedrooms and the  bathroom.

This is the first living room to your right as you walk in.  The furniture is all piled into the middle so you can't see how big it is.  It's a decent size.  Not huge but generous.  You can see the door that leads onto the porch.  There's a door off the dining room that leads to the porch too so in that way the upstairs living areas are all connected.

This is the "dining room" but this is a bad picture.  I think I was taking it of the Italian Murano glass chandelier!  So I didn't get the full room.  It's equally as big as the other living room (who's size you also can't see';)  There's a door to the right of the huge window that leads onto the same front porch.  You could easily fit a dining table and a small sofa in here or a couple of comfy chairs to the side of the table.  Or a homework desk or something for the kids.  

Here's the back half of the kitchen.  I'll be jealous of your countertop space if you get this place!  Though it's narrow-ish there is a lot of countertop space.  There is currently only a small refrigerator but I told him that people would definitely want a tall fridge so maybe he would need to remove a segment of cabinets to fit one in.  He said he could do that.  

6 burner stove and cute little spice racks/shelves.

Cute kitchen tile

THe pretty buffet included in the kitchen, if you want it.  But you could put a fridge here and then have 1 and 1/2 fridges!

Front porch

A bedroom...can't remember which one.

The smaller bedroom.  You could fit bunk beds in here and the right wall is all built in storage.

The storage wall

ONe of the hallway storage cabinets

Inside one of the cabinets.  Lots of organized storage space in this house.  

The upstairs bathroom. Big.  But Italian bathrooms usually are. 

The extra separate shower

The huge downstairs room with the landlord trying to duck out of the picture;)  His name is Rudi.  He's probably in his early 30's.  Really nice guy.

The windows in the huge downstairs room.

The HUGE fireplace.  It's prettier than this picture conveys but it does need a good cleaning.  

This is just a detail above one of the doors.  But there's lots of stuff like this all over the house.   You can tell someone loved it at one time;)

This is the downstairs kitchen but a BAD picture.  Not sure why I photographed this thing instead of the actual countertops!  This drawer unit you would probably want to have moved out before you moved in.  This kitchen is pretty small but you could put an extra fridge in here or freezer or make it a little craft room.   It has a stove in it too so...two ovens.  Can't complain about that;)


This is the downstairs bedroom off of the garage.  You can't see the 3-4 feet of width on the other side of the bed.  It's at least a 15x15 room.  Again, all this stuff could go or stay..all the furniture in there he said could go or stay as the renter wants.

 An extra random storage room on the other side of the small kitchen.  There's already storage shelving in it and a deep freezer.  ON the other side of this is another medium sized bedroom that I didn't photograph for some reason. It had a bunch of old armoires and chests of drawers pushed into the middle so you probably couldn't have seen it anyway.  It has a window in it.

 Downstairs bathroom with large mirror and lots of storage.

Here's the part of the yard directly behind the house.  A little stone walkway is up against the house...you can see it to the right.

Another cute touch...chalkboard in the kitchen;)

Backside of the front door...front entry way.

the front steps to the house with a large landing.

The front walkway with built in globe lights that work!  You can see the hedge there on your left and the giant climbable magnolia tree in straight ahead.

Here's the other side of the hedge with the long straight grassy area.  Your kids would love to play in this yard.  lots of knooks and crannies and, of course, the awesome magnolia tree.  

My friend Daniela's house directly in front of you.

Danielas little girl, Emma;)  She calls me "cashi":)  She is just a bit older than Juliet and has Downs Syndrome.  She is so cute!!

The view of the house from Daniela's yard.

Best of all, it's close to us;)  (And Daniela who is actually cooler than we are;)  You will love her.  The bus ride from Sarone is about 30 minutes both ways and the bus stop is a half of a block down a sidewalk from this house.  You could totally walk there in 2 minutes...less probably!  Talk soon!

Buon Compleanno

Buon Compleanno

isaac & georgie        

 

********7*********!!!!!!!!!9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We thought a big birthday bash would be a good way to kick off our summer and end the first Italian school year.  Isaac and Georgie were excited to do it together (phew!!  less work for me!) and we wanted the kids' Italian friends to know our house was a safe, friendly place to come.  Despite a little sunny rain at the beginning and a virtual down pour right at the end we still had a great time.  It was sunny all in between and our yard this time of year is really lovely.  Here are a few pictures of what the kids enjoyed at their party:

Italians don't do Pinata's so we wanted to show them what those are all about;)  Joey staged some great pinata games for them and they really enjoyed it.

 

Especially the candy!!  "Posso Piu?"

We did a water balloon toss, thanks, again, to Joey for filling up all those balloons;)

And we wrapped the fence in butcher paper so that the kids could do some painting.  The butcher paper was ruined a bit by the initial rain but it held out okay.  

We rented a bouncy castle from the base.  The kids ate Pizza, fruit and veggies, jumped in masses on the trampoline and Isaac and some of his friends took a field trip to the cheese farm behind our house:

Here's a view from the far end of our yard.  You can see how HUGE it is;) and the mountains that we sit in the shadow of...making our winters a bit colder and our summers a bit less swarmy.

Georgie and her friends spent a lot of time out at the chicken coop.

She was imparting her chicken wisdom;)

Georgie received a hammock for her birthday and we put it up immediately.  I love this photo of Juliet and her friend Izzy chilling in it.  They lay in it for at least 30 minutes, just the two of them.  Juliet is never still for that long!  She still plays in it with her baby dolls almost every single day.

All in all it was a really great time despite the rainy hiccups and the end-of-the-party-muddy-mess that ended up in the house.  The kids enjoyed themselves.  Isaac says his friends still talk about it a lot.  Italian parties (at least the ones that we have been to) are more of a glorified play group kind of thing with lots of chips, fatty foods and a birthday cake.

Our half done American style party felt like something special to them, or so it seemed.  Some of Isaacs friends kept saying to him, "Isaac, you're rich!"  No, honey, we're just Americans who thrive on spoiling the heck out of our kids and showing off for each other;)  I think that's more of the truth! That being said, Italian birthday parties are pretty lame.  I like our American style ones much better;)

At the end of the day, at least for me, I think what made it all so fun was how beautiful and green everything was.  We love where we live...especially in May!

Happy Birthday Isaac and G!  We love, love, love you!

xoxoxo

Mom

Georgie loves Poppies

Poppies are growing wild everywhere here right now. And Georgie is obsessed. At school she learned how to make this cute little ballerina by turning the pedals upside down and using the stem to make a waist line and legs. Isn't she cute (the poppy). We are in our way home from Florence right now and it was a perfect little weekend trip. Filled with art, sculptures, naked bodies, greek history, renaissance history, an antique market, lots of walking and gelato, we had a really great time! Y

Goodnight 6 year old Georgie

I just kissed my 6 year old Georgie goodnight for the last time.  I hugged her so tight and she hugged tight back...things were going well.  I decided to pick her up because she might be too heavy tomorrow She wrapped her now long legs around me and snuggled into my neck.  I started to cry but decided not to mush things up for her so I took a deep breath and immediately noticed that she was sniffling.  "Are you crying?" I asked her.  "Yes," she said, "I'm just so sad that I lost my Biddy Baby!"  And her tears flowed a little harder.   That just made me smile because I had thought she was crying for the love of me!! It's a good thing one of us is tough.

In all seriousness though, even though everybody says it, I'm going to say it too.  I can't believe my little girl is turning 7.  She is growing up and it is blowing my mind.  A little bit about Georgie is that while sometimes you wish she would not be so silly and light minded, other times, in more quite moments, she seems quite grown up.  She can be so mindful of others feelings (things you'd never expect her to pick up on) and so emotionally complicated herself.  There are deep feelings going on in that beautiful blonde head of hers that she almost never lets out.  She keeps a lot to herself (the emotional stuff) and almost always only says the nice, positive things.  Every once in a while she lets you in and you wonder how much more of 'that' is going on throughout the day and how much she is just trying to say what you want her to say.  As her mother I wonder how much I should be doing to pull her out and how much I should let her find her own way in life.  It's a hard job...not specifically being her mother but parenting in general.  No one's there to tell you how you're doing, what they need more of and what you're mucking up.

On a more lighthearted note: At 6 years old Georgie loves to be outside.  When she grows up she wants to live on a farm and run an orphanage.  When ever I am doing any yard work she is right by my side, ready to cut out old branches, dig out disgusting grubs, remove old rusty trash that's been piled up in our backyard, clear land, plant seeds and even clean out chicken poo (our newest adventure).

 Since we've bought the chickens she is outside with them first thing in the morning to let them out and immediately after school to hold them, play with them and wonder around their little part of the yard.  She loves playing with Isaac and Juliet more than anyone else and appreciates immensely any time that Juliet wants her or needs her.   She doesn't care too much for school work:) and still prefers me to read her a story than reading one herself (she loves sitting in our laps...Georgie is a cuddler)  and she's rarely the first one to finish her chores, she can't stop herself from playing and talking to herself all along the way.  She isn't intimidated by others and is always very genuine in her behaviors toward both her friends and adults.  Our neighbor was out hunting snails in our yard yesterday morning and Georgie walked right up to her and asked her what she was doing.  They walked around the yard together and chatted in Italian about who knows what.  She spent that afternoon in rain boots and her apron hunting more snails for Bruna.  She found a small bucketful and marched across the street to deliver them.  She does all of this in a quiet, unassuming, unpretentious way, never putting on any shows.  She is real.   She also loves to be in the kitchen with me.  She's taken to making our salads for us whenever she isnt' busy after school.  Like her dad, she prefers them with lots of vinegar!  She is well versed in the ways of different lettuces and vinegars and she LOVES 24 months aged Parmesano-Reggiano Cheese.  She also loves a good feta and a creamy goat cheese for spreading on crackers.  She loves riding her bike while I run and we stop to throw rocks in the river and explore all the little shores on the way.  She's taken to saying that she never wants to leave Italy but I have a feeling she'll be ready to be back in the USA in 3 years.  She misses family.  

For her birthday today we made her breakfast in bed.   My favorite part was this:

Georgies name spelled out with legos, made, of course, by Isaac!!  He's been REALLY 

thoughtful of her all weekend.  

We had a jump castle rented for their party and they spent the morning jumping on it and playing with the chickens while we prepared for their party.  I love this photo:

Isn't she so cute!!!

Hey there Georgie girl!!!

 

I love you, we love you, love, love, love, amore, e un bacio!!

10 Years of Wedded Bliss

 This picture says it all. Ashley and I went out to eat in Venice last night to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. It was perfect. We kept smiling at each other and repeating how fantastic it was and how ecstatic we are to be living in northern Italy at this point in our lives. I may not be a perfect husband, but this is where we celebrated 10 years of marriage together. Not too shabby.

Some people don't like Venice. The water is brown and smells bad, and there seems to be graffiti everywhere. We had a hard time in Venice with the kids in July, negotiating crowds under the sweltering heat and carrying a stroller over the bridges. But this time was sublime. The weather was perfect and the decaying elegance of backstreets-Venezia won us over again.

Here is Ashley attacking a vegetarian risotto like una leonessa veneziana. Or more like una daina friulana, since we don't eat meat anymore. Now is as good a time as ever to get on my plant-based soapbox. It started for environmental reasons, was buttressed by health benefits (shout out to Adam & Michelle Garff), and has been cemented by ethical issues dealing with animal husbandry. Highly recommend "The Ethics of What We Eat" by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. All right, I'm off now. Back to the magic.

 Ashley's potato & cheese cake with sauteed vegetables. I made the "oh" face from "Office Space" when I tasted it.

We meandered back to the train station by way of the Accademia, the Rialto, and the Ca' d'Oro. Here we are at the top of Rialto looking out over the Grand Canal. We have gone out on dates since arriving in Italy last summer, but none like this one. I was reminded of just how much I adore this woman that has stuck with me through the worst of med school, the sleep deprivation of residency, four years in the convection oven that is SW Oklahoma, a massive upheaval of foundational beliefs, the biggest financial blunder of my life (to this point, anyway), three children, three moves, a new language, and the "Merback gastrointestinal affliction," shall we say. She is my everything, and I am trying my best to show her that everyday. Here's to another 10. May they be as wonderful as the first were. Brindisi!

Pasquetta and A Winner!!

We went to a town festival today up in the mountains. It was beautiful, perfect weather and yet another Italian cultural experience which is always cool. Most of the kids friends were there from school so they all ran around, hiding in the woods, playing chase, yelling at each other in Italian, ringing the bell of the tiny church perched in top of the hill where the festival took place while the adults sat around at picnic tables eating Polenta, grilled meats and French Fries. The old ladies (and Georgie and I) hunted asparagus growing wild beneath thorn bushes hidden all around us. There was a coloring contest and Georgie won for her class! She was so surprised;). And her picture was really beautiful. Our friends came along with us, and we all hiked to the festival with half the town who met in the town center. We stopped at a dairy farm on our way up and visited an ancient style bird trap that a certain local family has kept up purely for historical purposes for hundreds of years. The poor people of that time used it to trap birds for Food.

Top of His Class

Top of His Class:

We had parent teacher conference with Isaacs teachers yesterday.  Isaac was given rave reviews in all subjects, including Italian!  The teachers said with huge grins on their faces that he was doing magnifique, one of the best in his class even while only speaking the language for a few months.  HIs handwriting is BEAUTIFUL (a big deal here...I'll post pictures), his test scores are near perfect every time and all of this done in a second language!  We are so proud of you Isaac!  Keep it up dudey!!

xoxo

Mom