Guess where we're headed....

We are leaving tomorrow to Venice for five days :D. I'm hoping the drive there, which is eight hours, will be a smooth one. Today I have a lot of planning and packing to do. I will hopefully be able to blog while I'm there and meet up with Kasia who is staying in Vicenza for a few days before driving up to Germany. Pray that our trip will be safe and uneventful. I'll fill you in on all the details of the trip later.
Ciao,
Stephanie

Lazy days...

Yep, that's what our day will be like today. Trent has duty at the hospital so we are watching holiday movies all day long. Hope your day is spent just as well.
Ciao,
Stephanie

Black Friday shopping.....

Ahhh...last night after eating more turkey I headed back to the base at 9Pm and met up with a few girls to send Kasia off for good. She was supposed to leave on Monday, but it took a little longer to pack her shipment. After chatting we went up to her TLA room and planned on meeting today at 7 AM to shop at the NEX. The Italian nationals who work at the NEX decided to go on strike to impact the biggest shopping day of the year. Boy did it work and was it ever frustrating to me!!! The reason why they are striking is because they want higher wages and the ability to shop at the base commissary and exchange. In my opinion, I do not think they should be able to shop at the commissary or exchange.

Anyway I anticipated some trouble getting on base this morning so I asked the MP (military police) last night at the gate if I should come early because of the strike. He proceeds to tell me that I won't have any problems because they don't anticipate any violence. Okay so Lesley and I wake up at 6AM this morning and leave the house around 6:45 since the NEX wasn't opening until 8 AM and guess what we see???

There were hundreds of union members striking. Not only were they striking outside the front and back gates, but they were blocking both entrances and exits. They refused to allow any traffic on or off base...and boy were thay successful in pissing a lot of people off and hurting the sales at the exchange and commissary today. As a matter of fact the commissary didn't even open because all of the cashiers were striking. Being that my father is so pro-union I tried to reason with myself what they were trying to accomplish, but I couldn't help but feel resentment towards these people who were disrupting my shopping and the plans that I had for this morning. Eventually since they were blocking the entrances to get on base I drove by them and the Italian police and just parked my car amongst the crowd then walked on base not even caring if they broke into my car and vandalized it.

Finally I was going to shop after the 40 min. delay outside the gates. I eventually met up with my friends, bought several gifts for the kids/ Trent and then stopped at the food court to have a cup of coffee with Jackie, Janet and Patricia. Lesley and I headed home after a very long morning. It was so long she fell asleep on the way home;D

Guess who greeted me as soon as I pulled into our carport......he's so cute..I love him to pieces!!

Our Thanksgiving.....

This year we spent Thanksgiving at home. One of Trent's co-workers joined us for our early feast which was ready by 1:30 PM. We had the usual array of dishes....turkey, my mom's stuffing,macaroni, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and gravy. Lesley baked a pecan pie from scratch. She even made the pie crust...I was impressed and it was delish. After eating we went to watch High School Musical 3 which was fun. We also stopped by the video store on our way home and rented Edward Scissor Hands. I am so thankful that Trent isn't deployed and is able to spend this time with us, but as we said grace our thoughts and prayers were for the families who are spending this holiday season apart.



Compared to past Thanksgivings the only things missing besides extended family were the viewing of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and Dallas Cowboy game. Back in good ole' Texas that was a must:D

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Noah adding leaves to our Thankful tree

Wordless Wednesday

Husband Tag...

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? He's a news junkie...CNN, Sky, or Fox.

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch or a low calorie dressing.

3. What's one food he doesn't like? He will not eat menudo or organ meat YUCK !! My dad has tried on more than one occasion to get him to try menudo, but has yet convinced him it's good.

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? He doesn't drink that often, but when he does it's either a glass of wine or Samuel Adams.

5. Where did he go to high school? Acme-Delco High School in N. Carolina.

6. What size shoe does he wear? Size 10

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Navy memorabilia and books

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? He likes a good grilled panini.

9. What would he eat every day if he could? It used to be cookies, but ever since he started eating right it's been yogurt with wheat germ mixed in.

10. What is his favorite cereal? He likes Honey Nut Cheerios and Quaker Oh's

11. What would he never wear? Probably Crocs.

12. What is his favorite sports team? North Carolina Tar Heels

13. Who did he vote for? Obama

14. Who is his best friend? ME

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? He would wish I wouldn't be pessimistic.

16. How many states has he lived in? Four: N. Carolina, California, Texas, and Virginia. I could count Rhode Island too, but that was only during Officer Indoctrination School.

17. What is his heritage? He basically considers himself a black man, but his maternal grandfather is Cherokee and his paternal grandmother is Irish.

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what would it be? A chocolate cake with whipped topping.

19. Did he play sports in high school? He played football and baseball.

20. What could he spend hours doing? He is pretty much all work and little or no play. If he's not on the computer following the stock market he is working on his Lean Six Sigma project.

21. What's something cool about him? You could plant him in the middle of a KKK meeting and he'd make friends...I'm not kidding he has the type of personality that just draws you towards him..He's a natural leader and very humble. He sees good in everything and is extremely positive. Most importantly though he is very loving and affectionate towards the kids and I. :D I love him so much!!!!

Not so Wordless Wednesday...

Noah holding the Leaning Tower of Pisa ;D
Lucca, Italia

Big sis and lil' brother

Weekend summary....

Friday evening Trent took the boys bowling for a Boy Scout fundraising event. They had a great time as usual. Gabe insisted that he bowl without any help from dad. I tell ya he is growing more independent everyday. Thankfully he still likes to snuggle with me.







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Later that evening, I headed out to O'Rhys Irish Pub to meet up with the gals. Kashia and Viviana are leaving this week and we just had to get together. I don't think I'll ever get used to having to say farewell to friends....such a rite of passage for a military family. Alas as much as we want them to stay they are headed to greener pastures...Germany and Belgium. At the pub we started off our night with some karaoke. The girls and I sang two songs together.....we didn't get booed off the stage so I'm assuming our performace wasn't all that bad ;P The pub closed a little after midnight, but we still wanted to get our groove on so we decided to head out to some Italian clubs. Long story short I was the designated driver and we went to 4 clubs...only one happened to be open that night. LOL I didn't get home until 5 AM and when I walked in the house Trent was waking up for the day. I stayed up almost an hour more and told him about the night and then hit the pillow. Oh and believe me rarely do this...so don't think I'm out in the calle every weekend until the wee hours of the morning sans mi esposo(hubby):P

L-R: Janet,Kashia, Anna, Viviana, & Patricia
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Noah's soccer game was not as exciting as last weeks. The score was 10 to 0. He scored four out of the 10 goals. Trent said the players on the other team seemed to be younger. It was a U11 team just made up of mostly younger players compared to Noah's team. Something great happened after the game....Noah was asked to join the American Soccer Club. It is a soccer team made up of American players that play against Italian teams. Depending on how hard Noah works he could learn and gain so much from the team and coaches. They provide many soccer camps also that are taught by British and Italian soccer players.

I'll try to post some of our family portraits I got this weekend in another post.

Ciao,

Stephanie

It's touch and go....

My internet that is, one moment it is working and the next it's not.It's very frustrating to say the least!!! I really hope it stays on for good this time.
The weather today has been very cold and rainy. Over here the rainy season starts in mid November and last until late March. Usually I welcome the colder weather, but since we moved into our new house we are trying to conserve resources especially our gas. Gas is extremely exspensive here. Some things that we are enjoying a lot are hot cocoa and sitting by the fireplace.
There's nothing like getting cozy by the fire and losing yourself in a nice good book. That's exactly what I'm going to do right now with Noah. Enjoy ya'll evening
Ciao..ciao,
Stephanie

Finally we have internet...

Okay I should be getting ready to head out the door to Kindermusik class, but I'm catching up on some of my favorite blogs. Our internet has been down for over a week and our phone has been down longer than that. In brief, we are all doing well. Just thinking today about Marsha and family. They are in my prayers daily and her posts have ministered to my heart. Happy Birthday in heaven Christian.
Ciao,
Stephanie

No words just lots of hope.......

Never forgotten..............

Randy Richard Cervantes

November 4, 1977- November 12, 1977

My beloved baby brother...even after 31 yrs. I still think about you and remember vividly like it was today your last night with us. Although we did not have much time together this side of heaven .....I can only imagine what it will be like when I see you again. Happy Birthday in heaven and I love you always.

Stephanie

Promised homecoming pics.....

Alas this is a little overdue being that Homecoming was over a week ago, but better late than never.

Can you say two goals........

Oh what an awesome soccer game Noah had today. It was one of those games that had you sitting on the edge of your seat throughout and ended with a tied score of 5 to 5. This year Noah plays for the Rhinos and today was his first game. He scored two goals whoo hoo he almost scored a third, but ended up getting the goalies foot in his face as she scrambled to block his shot. I'm so proud of him!!! Later Trent took both boys to watch an adult game between Americans and Italians. They are even planning to go to a professional game so they can see Ronaldino and David Beckham.

Brotherly love

Supporting his big brother from the bleachers



Team Rhinos