Organization?

I thought that if I was going to share our journey through moving, decorating, and organizing our new home then I should probably have a more organized plan instead of jumping around so much.

My plan is to share before and after pictures of each room.

I will always link any additional posts on the house through the posts  so you can reflect if there is more than one parts. I know the two girls' rooms, playroom, and craft room will have multiple parts as there is a lot I want to do to them.

I will start out by sharing you the amount of rooms to get an idea of how it will flow.

I plan to do the basic parts of the house first, then start the official decorating in A's room, then the playroom, then Baby E's room.

The layout of our house has these rooms:

Upstairs:

Entry Way
Living Room
Dining Room/Kitchen #1
Baby E's Room
A's Room
-- First thoughts and ideas
Parent's Room
Bathroom #1

Downstairs:

Kitchen #2
Laundry Room (probably no post on this)
Extra Room #1/Bathroom #2 - used as a "dressing room"
Extra Room #2 - used as an office/playroom
Extra Room #3 - used as a craft room/pantry/storage
Downstairs Entry (not sure about a post on this)
Garage

So of course, I started with some basic ideas for A's room, so I linked it above. I will do the same for each room as I do this.

We officially move in on Monday, so I may not have internet for a bit. During that time I will be working in the house and taking pictures/videos along the way! :)

Soon I will have another series started on our preparation for the holidays. This will mostly be focused on Christmas, but I may do something for Thanksgiving as well. This will be more for A in understanding and enjoying this holiday season!

20 Weeks Pregnant and In Italy

As most of you have noticed from the markets post (which was suppose to be a private post - oops!), we made it to Italy. We got here on September 15 and have been going nonstop since. Searching for a house, getting to know the area, in-processing, situating Mr. Buttons and Baby A.... it's all been a busy time for us.

Before we came here, we went home on COT leave. We went from England to Louisiana to England to drive to Italy. Our trip home was absolutely amazing. I hope to get some pictures up soon. Baby A got to meet all of her family, finally. Mr. Buttons had to stay in the kennels in England because if we would have brought him back to the states, he would have had to do the 6 months quarantine all over again. We had agreed that we wanted to avoid that at all costs.

Once we made it back to England, we had to pick up Buttons and get his health certificate. We had to prepare the car for the drive to Italy. The drive was about 17 hours.. just under 1,000 miles. We did it in 3 days with Baby A and Buttons. Both of them were amazing during the trip. Even I survived.

During all of this, the power steering in my car went out. We had planned on buying a new car when we got to Italy but since it happened sooner than expected we ended up buying a car in England and driving it to Italy while my car got fixed. Mr. Man will be going back for my car. We bought a 2013 Audi A4, which is what we wanted.

Once we arrived in Italy, it has been the normal with any military move. In processing, briefings, getting to know the area, finding a housing solution, and ... all the other normal things that come with moving.

We still have not found a house, but are looking at 3 very good possibles. It completely fits our desires and looks like the kids will have their own rooms, I will have a craft room, the parents will have an office, and the kids will have a playroom. I am COMPLETELY stoked about that. Hopefully we will officially have a house by tomorrow to call our's. However, there is a long process here in Italy to actually moving in, so we could be in a hotel for another month or so. Hopefully it flies by or goes quicker than expected. We've been living out of suitcases and (6) hotels the last 2 months.

On the pregnancy, I am already 20 weeks. I seriously can not believe that. It's been going by so quickly. Sometimes I don't feel like I have time to enjoy it, but then others I'm anxious to meet our little monster. More on the pregnancy when I have time. Things are good, everything looks great. Just normal, everyday pregnancy fun!

Until next time...
And yes, I'm trying to get back on a routine of blogging because there is so much to write about!!

PCS: Local Markets (Aviano)

The open air markets are held one day a week starting at around 0630 in the morning until about noon. They are usually located in the town square. Be aware that some markets are closed during national holidays.
 

Monday: Maniago, Azzano Decino, Vittorio Veneto and Lignano
Tuesday: Aviano, Casarsa, Udine, Codriopo and San Quirino
Wednesday: Pordenone, Budoia, San Daniele, Cordignano, Oderzo and Latisana
Thursday: Roveredo, Fontanafredda, Fiume Veneto, Sacile, and Portogruaro
Friday: Cordenons, Porcia, San Vito al Tagliamento, Montereale and Conegliano, Caneva
Saturday: Pordenone, Spilimbergo, Caorle and Treviso
Sunday: Meduno
Everyday: Trieste

Time is Flying By!

I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It seemed just like yesterday I delivered the baby. It seems like a minute ago we were in Germany. Here we are now in March!! The middle of March at that. Who would have thought?! Definitely not me since I feel like time is dragging by.

Anyway, there is no point to this blog post other than that I have finalized most of Baby A's birthday party things. I just need to find someone to do the cake because the person I booked hasn't emailed me back with the confirmation even though we have been emailing back and forth for the past month. I checked her Facebook page to see if she was on vacation or anything, but I did not see anything. So now I am searching for a back up plan.

Speaking of Facebook, I really hate TimeLine. It takes forever to load, and it is hard to find things. I do not find that it lists things in order either. Maybe it's just me and my "not-so-understanding-of-Facebook" self, but it is quiet annoying. I got a noticed today saying that all pages will go to TimeLine by March 30. Boo hoo.

I am slowly organizing the Germany pictures. As I was going through them, I realized I never posted the Scotland pictures. At least I don't remember doing it. So I HAVE to go back and do that if I haven't because I really look at this blog as our journey of life, and I hope that one day I can share all this information and lovely random posts (like this one - lol) with Baby A.

Baby A is just over 11 months old, and she is doing really well. She happy and independent, and has also started weaning herself. She started at 10 months old. She only nurses for nap and bed time now. I can't say that I am bummed, but I did not think it would happen this way at all. I thought I would have to be the one to put my foot down, but she totally knows what she wants and I am happy and thankful to see that in her. She has 4 teeth now. She loves to eat. Her new favorite snack is Blueberry Bars, but they are a specialty snack in this house. She loves peanut butter... of course Mr. Man introduced that one to her. We are also still cloth diapering, and I do plan on doing an updated post of it. It is going well! Nothing more exciting, though.

I have been researching a lot about Italy. Trying to look at houses to get a feel for what we may end up living like. With Mr. Man being the rank he is, it seems we have a lot of options this go round, which I am extremely thankful for. I really only have 3 must-haves - 1. 3-4 bedrooms 2. fenced in backyard for Buttons and 3. off road parking for two vehicles - whether it is a garage, car port, or none covered parking area. I would like to be within 15-20 minutes of base, but willing to go up to 30 as long as we get a feel for the drive first. Other than that, I think I am fairly laid back with my requests! lol :)

Mr. Man tested for Tech a few weeks ago. He feels confident about it, but I don't have my hopes up. He has only been in for 6.5 years, and he is only 24. Plus, he got an early test date so only got to study hard for a month with working long hours and not getting any time off. We will find out if he made it by June (I think).

So, that's about it. We are still staying busy and active. Letting the baby be a kid and enjoy herself. And of course, enjoying ourselves and trying to get things done one at a time.

Here's to a happy and healthy life that I can not complain about. I just wish sometimes I could make time pass a bit slower... or speed it up when need be. I think everyone has those moments. I think?

PCS-ing

I mentioned in one of my previous posts about possibly moving and needing to do this and that to be prepared for it. Well, some of you asked about if we knew where we were going and what not. I had not been blogger about it because - to be honest - I had been bummed about the results. Most of you knew that we wanted to try and extend our time here in England.

We absolutely love it here, and we have built so many memories here. From travelling to raising our daughter, we have done a lot here. I could not imagine our life being any different.

When the time came, we did put in to extend. While Mr. Man was in Korea, we got denied that opportunity. I was bummed; we were bummed. Mr. Man and I discussed our next step and decided that we would try to extend by either 1 year or 2 years. It was our choice. We chose to go with 1 year because the thought of going somewhere new became exciting and exhilarating. We became anxious, and we were curious were life was going to lead us. With that said, we decided to try for just one more year. One year would give me the opportuntiy to finish school without working, and Mr. Man would finish off what he started here with his new job. Sadly, we never heard back.

Fast forward to December time frame. We knew our chance of getting an overseas base was going to happen in January. The list came out, but there was not much for Mr. Man's job and rank. Other than Korea.. which we did not want at this time. I was bummed; we were bummed. We kept our overseas dream sheet the same and moved on to what stateside had to offer us. We thought we would find out where we were going in January, but we missed that cycle by just a few days. At this time, we knew we were not staying overseas (or thought) so we began thinking about where in the states we would like to go. We built our dream sheet based from that, not the listing. While we were in Germany the stateside listing came out, we didn't know about it. We didn't get to try and play the list, but it worked out for us because what was on the list was places we had on our sheet. Still no orders, realize we have to wait until April.

Then March 1st comes around. This was this past Thursday. Mr. Man was off for the day because the next day he would be testing for Technical Sgt. He had been studying his head off, seriously... spending every waking hour studying, all of his weekends studying, too. On Thursday, we get a call from his shop. One of his buddies asks him if he checked his work email and stated that he probably should.

At this point, we knew. We knew we got orders, but the questions was where to? Mr. Man told me and pulled up his work email. Internet goes down. I get a bit emotional realizing that we are not staying here in England. We will not be living in the house that our daughter was raised in for her first year, and there would be a chance she would never get to see England - the place she was born, the country that she is a legal citizen of. I sit patiently and not think, not look - just wondering. Everything possible happens to delay us seeing what was in store for us. Finally, it worked.

And.......... it was the best news of a lifetime. WE ARE STAYING OVERSEAS. Not England, though. We will be moving at the end of the summer.

Would anyone like to take a guess as to where we will be going before I spill the beans?

No?! You just want to know already.

Okay, okay. I am excited too and truly I can't keep it in.

We are moving to........

ITALY! Aviano AB!!