Just checking in...

It's hard to imagine that I will be missing my first Halloween/Mardi Gras ( for all my Italia friends this is a festival in my hometown). After 21 years, it feels weird to not be thinking about the parade and all the family coming in. But I suppose its time to grow up. Josh and I carved our own pumpkins last weekend, which we have been told are very impressive to the Italians. Pics to follow post.  Last Sunday we went to a pumpkin festival in Venzone with our friends Nick and Tiffany.  It was a packed and traffic was not fun. I wish we would have went earlier because by the time we parked the car it was almost dark outside.  It was a cool town though thats for sure.  

In other news I have a small job three days a week. Im watching a one year old baby girl who is living with her grandparents while her mother is deployed. I have only worked two days so far but I enjoy it and I feel busier not to mention the extra money is nice!!

This weekend we have the bazaar going on at base. Vendors from all over the world will be here selling their products. Josh is on a mission to purchase something neat. 

We will see how that goes over. I think thats about it as far as news with us.  Hoping everyone is doing well....and to all my Pinckneyville folk have a great Mardi Gras! Miss you all very much!!!

-Holly 

Zucca Festival

Back to Italia

After a very long day, I made it home on Monday evening. I had a good flight and had no problems getting a seat on the rotator.  I had a fantastic visit with my family and friends, two weeks wasn't enough!!  I'm trying to get back into the swing of things...I'm having a rough time getting adjusted to the time difference. This morning I was up from 2-6:30...then slept until 11. So that means that I won't sleep again tonight! Maybe I should resort to some Nyquil or something.  

The weather has changed to fall since I was home in the states.  Everything is still pretty green though.  We have already had our heat on, these cement walls do not hold in heat very well at all.  This weekend starts the Halloween festivites. There is a Trunk or Treat for the kids as well as a Haunted Spook walk on Sat.  I'm going to try to drag Josh to it.  He has to work on Saturday, which stinks because we were planning on going to a pumpkin festival a few towns away.  We might try to go on Sunday.  We have three huge pumpkins to carve as well.  I asked Luisa (our landlord ) if Italians celebrated the holiday and she said they started about 5 years ago! I haven't seen any pumpkins or decorations in our neighborhood though. 

Well I think thats all for now, hope everyone is doing well!! Miss you all back home already and I enjoyed spending time with ya'll SO MUCH!!!

-Holly

Home Sweet Home

I think most of you know this already but I made a surprise visit home last Sunday. It was so much fun I keep telling people that I want to surprise them every time. Its so nice to be home, although not much has changed since I have been gone. It honestly feels like I just left. I got to spend some time with our nephew who was still in the hospital when we left for Italy. He is going on six months now, and its crazy to see how fast they grow. I went to St. Louis to spend two nights with my cousins. I took Sadie to the Magic House and I think I had more fun than she did. I'm already dreading leaving, but I miss all my Italia peeps. I think me and my sister are heading out shopping hear in a little bit. Probably going to do some major damage. Hope all is well with everyone. I will write again soon!

A little news

I wasn't allowed to post this picture until everyone had been notified.  But this happened while we were in Rome. 

It was so awesome to be apart of this special day for Aaron and Hillary. She of course said yes! Wish I could take credit for taking the picture, but Josh stole the camera from me and stuck me with the video camera.  Oh well. It was an awesome day! Congrats again!!

A little update on a Thursday afternoon!

Hope this post finds everyone well.  Josh and I are doing great, we just ended a great visit with my sister in law Hillary and her boyfriend Aaron.  We finally got to see Rome, and it was an experience of a lifetime. Just to be able to think back that some of this architecture was made before B.C/A.D. just blew my mind.  We also traveled to Verona which is a beautiful city about 2 1/2 hours away from us.  Josh claims its his favorite place so far.  Hillary and Aaron went to Milan and then we all four went to Venice on Thursday.  We took a water taxi over to Murano to see the famous glass blowing.  It was cool to see although I expected them to make more eye catching items.  Even though it was neat to learn about the history behind it.  

As far as anything new with me, I have been volunteering at the base Radiology dept.  Its nice to be around my profession.  Its kind of slow as far as patients but on the other hand I dont really have much else to keep me busy.  Josh is gearing up for a long week of 12 hour shifts hopefully this week goes by fast.  I have been having fun watching him play flag football a couple nights aweek.  He claims he is never sore, but Im picking up different vibes!! :)  

The weather has been cooling off ever so slowly, I'm actually excited about fall/winter.  Im ready to give this snowboarding thing a go....we will see how long that lasts.

Thats about all for right now.  Miss you all!

Here are a few pictures from the past week.

It's been awhile....

These are long overdue...but here are some of my favorites from when my family came to visit. We had an action packed 12 days. We went to Salzburg-Austria, Croatia, Venice, Florence, Pisa, and also had time to visit the local area a bit.

Venice

Croatia

Salzburg, Austria

There are many more but I know most have seen them on myspace/facebook so I will spare you. Life in Italia is going good, we are ready for it to cool off so we can give our A/C a break. Josh's sister arrives in a little over a week, so we are gearing up for a trip to Roma. Looking forward to that!! Josh has been on day shift for the last 3 or 4 weeks and I have been loving it, although that has meant that it is actually necessary to cook dinner. But all in all I'm loving Italy and cant believe it has been four months already!! Im going to miss summer and those days of laying by the pool with Tiff, but Im also looking forward to seeing those Alps covered in snow.

Hope all is well with everyone! I will post again soon!!

As promised...pictures from Sardinia.

You will see from these pictures that Sardinia looks like paradise. I really hope Josh and I can make it back down to the island for a vacation before we leave Italy. Im sure Josh will be back because the military goes there often for training. I know he had a good time!

In other news my family gets here in two weeks. Can you tell Im excited?!?! They have no idea how tired they are going to be because I have packed a lot of things to do in a short 12 days. I just hope the weather will be better than it has been the past week. Josh and I are dog/house sitting at our friends Nick and Tiffany. Its been nice to be able to turn the A/C on as much as we want. Hopefully our shipment of furniture will be here soon, it has been a stressful situation. Thats about all that is happening on this side of the world. Hope all is well with everyone. Missing everyone in the U.S.A!!!