The Last Few Months

Hello friends!

Sorry I have been so absent from blogging in the past two months! The last few months have been crazy, busy, and fun, and I am just now getting to sit down and tell you guys all about them! Between having a 102 degree fever for 9 days, going to Switzerland, my sister visiting, our trip to Paris, and just living normal life, things have been really busy!

But, I am back! I plan on doing detailed posts on the major events, but until then please enjoy this brief list of updates!

1. Giulio speaks! That's right; Giulio has started talking...okay that is not totally true. He has started to say a few words, and guess what his third word was! "Ball" Not "palla" which is the Italian word for "ball," but the English word! I was so excited!! Now whenever we go to the park and he sees other kids playing soccer, he runs around screaming "ball" at the top of his lungs. Of course, this is a bit weird to the other kids because he really should be saying "palla." Oh well!! I am very proud!

2. I have been in Italy for 7 months! I really cannot believe that I have been here that long! It feels like just yesterday I was packing my three gigantic suitcases and leaving for what seemed at the time like a crazy adventure. Now this adventure (though still crazy sometimes) is just normal life! I will be here for about 4 1/2 to 5 more months, and I am going to be so very sad to leave. My prayer now is that one day God will bring me right back to Italy for a longer period of time! I mean I have thrown several coins into the Trevi Fountain! Although, apparently I do not have a picture of me doing so! God has definitely been growing my heart for Europe since I have been here, and I would love if he would bring me here again to do ministry!

3. I went to the opera!! It was amazing! For Natale (a.k.a Christmas) Alberto and Lilli gave me two tickets to see Madame Butterfly at the Teatro Dell'Opera here in Rome. Both the theater and the opera where beautiful!  This will definitely not be the only opera I ever see! I felt so cultured even though I had no idea what they were saying! I did not feel so badly about that since my friend Cristina, who came with me and is Italian, also could not really understand what they were saying!

4. I celebrated my first Carnevale! Carnevale is basically the halloween of Italy. It takes place right around the time of Mardi Gras. And let me tell you, people go all out! I did not have a costume, but I did get to see some pretty amazing ones! My friends and I celebrated at this cool place called Circolo degli Artisti (5 euros to the non-Italian speaking person who pronounces this correctly and 2 euros if you can tell me what it means) and we saw a group of Native Americans, milk cartons, witches, animals, and all kinds of great costumes!

5. I baked chocolate chip cookies for the family, and let's just say we ate 4 dozen of them in one day. Apparently they were good.

6. Most of the time the family thinks I am crazy when I eat "American" things. I still cannot convince the girls that banana and nutella taste good together. However, Cecilia did say that when she comes to America she will try pizza from Pizza Hut. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

7. I introduced the girls to Raffi! Do you guys remember him? He was the guy that sang all those wonderful children's songs when I was a kid! Now, they wander around the apartment singing "Down By the Bay." Cecilia also learned all the words to "Popular" from Wicked. She can sing the entire song, and I have to say I am pretty proud of her. Our musical repertoire now consists of the songs from The Sound of Music, the songs from Mamma Mia, "Little Bunny Foo Foo", "Popular" and "Down By the Bay." We should probably put on a concert.

8. We have watched this video from Yo Gabba Gabba about 100 times...Hopefully it will stick, and Giulio will never bite his friends!

9. My sister came to visit!! (Her visit will get its own post soon!) While she was here we went to see The Hunger Games in English, in Paris! It was awesome!

10. Lilli made homemade Tiramisu, and it was so delicious! I ate way too much of it! Come to think of it, I eat way to much in general here! The food is just so good!

These last few months in Rome have been great, but the homesickness has finally started to kick in. I miss my friends and family, and I hate missing out on what is going on in their lives! I could also really go for some Mexican food, wouldn't mind getting to dry my clothes in a dryer, and as summer is drawing closer, the thought of not having air conditioning in the apartment is making me start to sweat, but besides those things, I could stay in Rome forever. Considering the fact that I don't have a job back in the States, that does not sounds like such a bad idea!