iheartbowz

I have this wonderful friend, Heather, that I met here in Italy who has the cutest little girls. She has embarked on wonderful journey of making and selling hair bows. They are handmade and would look great with any outfit for your little girl.

http://iheartbowz.blogspot.com/

This is her link to cute, adorable and affordable bows.

GOOD LUCK HEATHER

NEW BLOG

I have decided to start a new blog where I can advertise my crocheting. Right now there is only a couple of things which can be purchased, but I hope you will check it out and spread the word.

http://pammiejeans-things.blogspot.com/

Birthday Girl!!

Today is Wendy's 19th birthday! Her last year as a teenager. Wow, where as the time gone? I was thinking about that last night and I realized that my life would be so incomplete without her here. She has been such a joy and inspiration to me. She has been so much help during the trials in my life and I don't know where I would be if she wasn't here to help me out. You see when we found out that we were pregnant again so soon after having Aimee (she was five months when we got pregnant) the doctors wanted to abort her. I had had such a hard time with the pregnancy and recovery with Aimee the doctors didn't think I would survive another one so soon, if ever, that they didn't want to risk anything. But we told them no that we would go through with the pregnancy and leave it all in the Lord's hands and I am so glad we did. I have never regretted that decision.

Wendy has helped raise her younger sister, Kaitlyn, and she has been a great housekeeper. She took over the mother role when I was unable to. She has cooked, cleaned, done laundry, planned meals, planned parties and anything else she has been asked to do without so much as a complaint. She has been a lifesaver to our family. She has done all of this and excelled in her school work and anything else that she has wanted to accomplish. She has set goals for herself that are absolutely amazing that at 18 I would never have set for myself. She sets a fantastic example to all of us.

Wendy loves to teach her Primary children. She remembers their birthdays and cheers for them when they succeed. She is amazing!

We love you Wendy very much and are so glad that you are a member of our family.

When It Rains, It Pours

So this month has been a bummer, joke, the pits, or absolutely hilarious, depending on your outlook on life.

We started out the month THINKING that we had hot water. When the hot water heater got fixed LAST month, it lasted all of THREE DAYS. That's right three days!!! The water heater has been broken since the first of this month, that's 17 days so far. The guy keeps comin' out to fix it, but for some reason it ain't workin'!!! We keep going to the gym on base to take those nice HOT showers in the evenings. But today I thought, 'Oh it can't be that bad.' HA HA on me!!! It is that bad, especially when cold makes the pain in my back and hips WORSE!! So much for going to church today.

Our car started having a leak from somewhere about three weeks ago. Well, last Wednesday, it had it's last leak. Dave said, 'I don't dare drive it any more. I think we've blown a headgasket.' Oh great!! That sounds bad!! So as we were sitting in the food court waiting for Aimee to get off of work someone out in the parking lot was talkin' with Dave and said to take the car to this mechanic that has a shop up the street from us in Marsure. So Thursday morning Dave took the car up to him. Thursday afternoon the guy calls and says, 'you have a leak in one of the hoses from the radiator and it'll cost about 150 Euro to fix.' Dave said okay and had him fix it, it was job beyond Dave's capabilities. We were pretty glad when it wasn't gonna cost us 1000 Euro. So Friday evening Dave went and picked it up and it's fixed. YEAH for mechanics!!! Plus the guy knocked 50 Euro off the price!!! YEAH for nice Italian mechanics!!

Friday, because we had no car and it was raining, we decided to clean the living room and move the furniture around. Well, I tripped over something and so I moved my foot to catch my balance and instead my foot slipped out from under me. I know, graceful huh? Any way, I landed on my belly, pulled the muscle in the back of my right leg and wrenched my back. I am such a klutz!! Now you know why the pain in my back from the cold shower is so bad. Any way, I felt like an idiot!!! I am always so careful when I clean or walk because sometimes I'm not so steady on my feet any more, but what can I say? Maybe I shouldn't try to clean any more? That sounds like good advice to me. ;0)

It just seems like when we are trying to do everything we are supposed to be doing, everything falls apart. I guess it's just another test to see if we will be faithful? Oh, who knows? I just want to catch a break sometime soon.

I have made a few friends here in Italy and all of them are in the military, so you know what that means....MOVING. Well, one of the friends that we have become close to over the past 6 months or so is moving this week. The Abbott family has been so fun. We have gone out to dinner with them, BBQed with them, played games with them, and Annette has even learned how to crochet. We have watched movies with them, visited and gotten to know their wonderful family. There is Chris, he is so funny and he's the husband/dad of this wonderful family. There is Annette, she is so quiet and reserved until you get to know her and then WATCH OUT, she's the wife/mother of this amazing family. There is Hannah, the oldest and only girl, I totally feel for her, she is so hilarious! There is Jake, the oldest boy, he cracks me up! There is Jared, he is a hoot, he was a munchkin in THE WIZARD OF OZ play and he made me laugh so hard!! Then the baby, Nate, well, he isn't a baby any more, but he is the youngest and so adorable ya just gotta love him. All the children are between Wendy and Kaitlyn in age and all the kids get along great together. I wish we had more time to get to know their family better and do more things with them, but their assignment is up here and so they must move on. I hope that we are able to see them again sometime when we return to the states.

FINALLY

Okay, so we have been out of hot water for like 10 days! We started calling the property manager 10 days ago to let him know that the hot water heater wasn't working. He would come over and 'fix' it and the next day when it was time for showers again, there would be no hot water. On his second trip out here, he had someone else come 'fix' it. It was a temporary fix. Again the next night when shower time came, there was no hot water. By this time we are all get a bit upset because we were having to call friends to see if we could use their shower. Last Thursday Dave called AGAIN and told him it was broke to please come fix it. Well, Friday was an Italian holiday, so the property manager wasn't going to be able to have anyone come look at it until Monday. So this time we went to the base gym to shower in nice hot water with REAL water pressure. We all felt so CLEAN. Monday came and the property manager came out again to look at the water heater and took a component out of it, I have no idea what it was he took out, but he said it was fried. He would have to go get the part, so he went and got the part put the new part in an STILL no HOT water!!!!! Tuesday afternoon he showed up again and brought someone with him and they drained the water heater, replaced the thermastat, hooked it back up, and left. When it was time for showers this morning, we HAD HOT WATER!!!! Yeah for hot water!!!