Country Living at its best or worst?

The FUNNIEST thing just happened to me today, but it definitely was not funny while it was happening. Mr. Man is gone. Myself and the girls went for our walk this afternoon. On our way out, I noticed some geese hanging out on top of a hill by the road in a family's yard. This yard is not fenced in. It is a garden, too. They geese, ducks, all kinds of things. I stopped and pointed them out to A. We watched them for a few seconds then off we went on our walk. On our way back, we passed it again. We didn't acknowledge this time, but they had other ideas. One of them ran down the hill and chased me all the way home! Well, to our road. It wouldn't cross the road, thank goodness. It was running behind me and biting at my butt. It wasn't hissing or anything. It didn't seem to be doing anything aggressive. A was laughing her head off. I was laughing, but I admit I was scared because I had no idea how to stop it. I started running from it and it followed me until I crossed the road to get to our house. Cars were honking at me and everything. I just know it had to be a sight.... It was HILARIOUS now that I look back! I know I looked so silly. I'm glad I decided to wear socks and shoes because I debated just wearing flip flops since I knew we wouldn't be going for long since I needed to also run to the store. Oh boy, looking back I laugh about it. But my heart sure was racing while it was happening. Oh well, country living at its best.

Mr. Man will enjoy this story when he gets back ;)

7 Years - {7-1-2013}

On July 1st, Mr. Man and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. It is hard to believe that we have been married for that long.

We started our journey in the small town of Hackberry, LA. 7 days  later, we were off to Texas to start our life in the military. Mr. Man had already been in for a year, and I had only been graduated from high school for 1 month. To top it off, I was only 17 years old. We moved into our first apartment together, then 6 months later we had saved up to buy our first family home. We moved into a nice 2 bedroom, 1 bath house. Two months later, we found out that Mr. Man would be deploying for 6 months. He deployed July 2008, and at his 5 month mark we received orders to our first overseas base. He came home home 2.5 months later, which made his 6 month deployment more like 7.5 months. I quit my job within the next 2 months of him returning to prepare for our move. We moved August 2009.

In August 2009, we entered the culture of England and embraced it. We spent 4 years there. Upon arriving, Mr. Man received orders for a 30 day TDY to Romania. Mr. Man deployed out of England twice. In 2010, he went to Afghanistan for 4 months. In 2011, he went to Korea for 4 months. We also had our first child, A, there - April 5, 2011. We also began traveling as a family while in England. We have been to Italy, Vatican City, Brussels, Germany, France, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. In May of 2012, we received out of cycle orders to Aviano, Italy. Upon preparing for our move, we took 3 weeks of leave to travel home to see family and friends before making our journey to Italy.

For the first time in 4 years, we went home to see family before heading to Italy. We spent 3 weeks there traveling around seeing as much of our family and friends as possible. We flew back to England to pick up our car that we drove to Italy. 3 days on the road about 5-7 hours per day. We traveled through England, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Italy. We made it to Italy in the middle of September 2012. I was 22 weeks pregnant with Baby E. We immediately began our search for a home. We  met a wonderful lady, saw some beautiful houses, and moved into our Italian home in the middle of October 2012. On February 4, 2013 first thing in the morning, I went in to labor and Baby E was born. Here we are are 5 months after the birth of Baby E and A is two and a half years old. Mr. Man is preparing for his first TDY out of Italy. He will be going to Poland for several weeks.

This life, this journey has been an amazing one. One that I would never take for granted. One that has shown me who I am, how strong I can be, and where I want my life (both present and future). It has given me hope, determination, dedication, tough love, and even stubbornness. It has given me pride and joy for so many things. Most people do not understand our life and our lifestyle, but we have learned to accept and respect that - just as we accept and respect their chosen life. So many people ask how we do it and why we do it, while others think it's a walk in the park with how much we can travel and do things. It isn't an easy life, but it definitely one I can only imagine having.

Planning for Spain: Madrid

Here I am again planning for our trip to Spain. This time I am documenting the things I would like to do in Madrid. We will be there for 3 full days and 1 half day. The half day we will spend planning and walking around just trying to get to know the area. Then the following day will start our true travels.

Day 1:
Almudena Cathedral
Palacio Real
Sabatini Gardens
Spain Square
Temple de Bod

Day 2:
Retiro Park
Prado Museum?
Plaza de Naptuno
Plaza de la Cibeles/Cibeles Fountain
Al Cala Gate

Day 3:
Day trip to either Segovia or Toledo

Madrid also offers a Hop on and hop off tour, as well as a big bus city sightseeing tour.

More kids = More Paranoia

Today I decided to take Baby E in to get checked for an ear infection. I always hate being that parent that sends their child to the doctor for no good reason. Even though it is a good reason, I always feel so silly to go to the doctor for something I think is wrong and only to be told that there is nothing wrong. In the end, it is always a relief and I would rather be safe than sorry.

Today was that day for me. I had been paranoid about E possibly having an ear infection. There was no signs of anything serious, but she had been rubbing her ears often enough and waking more often in the night. During the day, she would stay attached to me and rarely give me time off. She wouldn't even let me put her down when she would fall asleep for her naps. I had been having trouble with pressure in my ears. Then A started telling me her ear hurt. Then this morning Mr. Man also said his ear hurt. All this pushed me to go ahead and take the plunge because the more I heard about it, the more concerned and worried I got. I just wanted to nip it while I could. The sooner, the better. 

Not only was I worried about her ears, but I always was worried about two other things. Both that will probably sound so silly and ridiculous. One was her nipple. I thought she may have an inverted nipple because one was bulging upward a bit more than the other. It also felt firmer. As most of you parents know, it is normal for them to have tissue under their nipples, just as we do as grown adults. Once was just more noticeable than the other. Doctor confirmed it was normal. 

The second thing was we found a bump on the back of her head parallel to her ear. It was only on one side. I also addressed this at the doctor's appointment. Again, it was just a lymph node. Completely normal in most babies.

But now I sit back and realize how worrisome I have actually become as a parent. I was afraid of labor and delivery the second go around. I am now paranoid about her getting sick (even though A has never been sick). And I am paranoid about all these small things I keep finding on her when I never addressed any of them with A even though I found random things. I always just assumed they were normal or waited until her next appointment to address it. 

Is it true that the more kids you have the more paranoid and worrisome you become? I'm starting to find that to be true with myself. 

But really worries me (lol) is that we do want more children. I don't think we will stop at 2. So is this something I have to look forward to?

I can't be the only one. Or maybe I am nuts?

LOL! :) 

Last Cherry Harvest of this Year

Living here in Italy gives us so many opportunities. One of them is our fruit trees that are all over our yard. Since we had a long winter, our cherries were late bloomers. When they did bloom, we were out eating them off the tree just about every day. When we had a free afternoon, we would pick a lot of them (about 2 gallons) and I would cook them down for pies, cheesecake filling, and to dry out for toppings or snacks.

Mr. Man's birthday was last week and he asked for a cherry pie. That is what I did this weekend - make him a cherry pie. It was my first, and it was delicious if I say so myself. I was proud of it. But I did also learn what I would do differently.

Yesterday was a pretty day. But the week wasn't looking so great. We knew if we wanted to get one more harvest of cherries from our trees we had to do it that afternoon. So we did.

But once you pick them, you can't freeze them because they will taste like nuts... and lose their great flavor. So our only option was to pit them right away and cook them down to freeze for pies, cheesecake fillings, and so forth. That is what we spent our afternoon doing. 

Favorite Books: 2 years old

I did a 19 month list of A's favorite books, so I thought it was time to do another one. I think it will be fun to see which books E is into at these ages compared to A. They are already two completely different little girls, and E is only 4 months old.

On to the book list. A has a lot of books, as previously stated. She seems to enjoy all of them, but different months I can tell she enjoys some more than others. Lately, here is what she has been reaching for:

1. Peek-A-Who by Nina Laden 
2. Georgie Porgie
3. The Tooth Book by Theo Lesieg, Dr. Seuss, and Joe Mathieu
4. The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
5. Colors by Justine Smith, Jill Ackerman, and Fiona Land

All links to the books on Amazon. I could not find Georgie Porgie, but it is a book from England and gifted from a friend.

What are your children reading these days?