flowers

 Jordan as we were leaving the library had to stop and pick flowers.  About one of the cutest things (in this mother's eyes) is that he likes picking them for his mother.  When he was done, he came and handed me this saying:

Ecco Mamma!  Questi fiori sono per te!

Hear you go Mom!  These flowers are for you!

 Then as an afterthought he walked back through the weeds and after examining several flowers, he chose this one and said

Mamma, questo fiore e` per Papa` quando si sposa!

Mom, this flower is for Dad when he gets married!

 Aaron after we got home from the library had a snack with bread and apple slices.  As far as I can remember this is the first time this kid has played with his food like he would with his toys.  He started having the apple slices being persons that were talking to each other.  It made me glow to think of how he's growing, and becoming more of my little boy.

And I can't help but mention that this little turkey PRINCIPESSA has evolved over the last week.  She's trying to say many, many more things, although not very comprehensible.  Her falling apart over not getting what she wants is a little more showy, and she's starting to discover that she can go new places (aka my drawers) and from there get up onto the counter tops, or at least what's on them.  This time it was a liter of milk.  Sigh.  I should have taken my grandmother's advice and tied her legs.  Just couldn't bring myself to do it though.

Tonsillitis

I have had a nasty tonsillitis.  Nightmare.  And yes, that is my uvula being put in a full nelson by my tonsils.  It came on rapidly.  The very, very worst part of it wasn't not being able to swallow, or having it be horribly painful.  It was the fever, body aches, chills, hot and cold, headache, and feeling like I was going to die when I had that fever.  I couldn't keep it under control with tylenol and ibuprofen either.

Last Saturday I went to the ER.  That was my first time being an actual patient, instead of an employee there.  I got good treatment too.  They wanted to admit me to the hospital because my white blood cell count was through the roof, and so were a couple of other tests, and clinically there was  a good reason.  But I couldn't do it.  I needed to go home to my husband and kids. We didn't really have any long term kind of help with them, and Jordan has just gotten a fever and started vomiting after I got home from the ER.  Then the next day Paolo didn't feel great either.  Not too surprising since he lives with me, would work all night, come home and not be able to rest because I couldn't do anything anyway.

Long story short, I'm now doing LOTS better.  Only one tonsil still swollen, but I feel a ton better compared to before.  I started to feel better when I stopped having a fever.  A big thanks to my brother-in-law for helping with kids and taking me to the hospital a lot of times for follow up visits, to my friend Alessandra and Rebeca for helping with my kids, and mostly to my good husband who broke his back for me and the kids.

floods and tonsils

 This is a river that runs near our house, and this summer there was barely a trickle of water.  Well Monday it was a monsoon and the river rose so high that it was about to flood some houses.  Fortunately it came up to few door steps but didn't flood any houses.  The water level went down that night, but it was scary for those people that live there.

 I have the first tonsillitis of my life, and the first time that I felt like I'm going to die.  I remember people in the ER saying that they felt that way, and I remember thinking, cowboy up!  Now I can have sympathy for them.  I can barely swallow or talk, and have the worst body aches, fever and chills of my life!

Poor Paolo has been working at night and helping me when he gets home. I'm so grateful for his help!

a vain attempt

In a very vain attempt to do something with her whispy, out of control hair, I tried to put something in it.  It was vain in both the sense of vanity and a small failure.  I tried to coax her into putting them in my hair first.  We did our hair in front of the mirror together too.  She still screamed the whole time.  Our first initiation into being girly wasn't met with enthusiasm but I was able to keep the mini ponytail in her hair for a couple of hours before she remembered it was there.

friends

There's nothing like friends.  People you enjoy spending time with- people that you love and love you.  We've been friends with "Julie and Bob" (Giulianna e Roberto) since Paolo ran into them in Salt Lake.  They're from Bologna and travel pretty often to the U.S.  Since we're living here we get to see them pretty often.  Our kids love them, and to be honest, we do too.  Their only granddaughter is off for the adventure of her life going to Australia, and so we got to meet her the other day.   It was fun.

 Speaking of friends, we ran into Elder Anderson again at stake conference in Venice this last weekend.  He finishes his mission in 2 weeks and it was nice to see him again!  We also had Jun in our car.  He is from China and was baptized a while back.  He's been back in Bologna for 3 days and drove up with us.

 She is about the cutest creature alive.  She's started walking with her chubby hands behind her back and it's so funny.

 The other day we had someone over and she apparently didn't want to be looked at, and seriously gave them the look of death!  I've never seen that face on her before.  Oh my goodness!

 Speaking of friends, Paolo is Jordan't idol and he loves being with Papa`.  The other day after vacuuming out our car, he was in the car for at least 15-20 minutes with daddy pretending to drive.  He pretended to drive to the baseball stadium, to play baseball with Papa` and then drive home.  Jordan was absolutely glowing, and I was so grateful for a dad that spends time with his kids!

the golden birthday rule

March 4th is my birthday.  I had one of the best birthday's ever.  My kids only woke up once during the night (which means I didn't wake up with a headache).  At 3 p.m. Paolo had to go see someone and he took Isabel with him.  Which meant that I had time to think...  I can't remember the last time that happened.  One that I was lucid enough to do that, and two there was silence.  Two unusual things for me.  I started thinking about all of the people that had been giving to me.  My husband, my kids, the package I got from my friend Karla, the emails and phone calls.  It was definitely a day for receiving for me!

So then I started thinking about the golden: do to others what you'd want them to do to you/for you.  I'm  a BIG BELIEVER in the golden rule for a few reasons.  One, it's true.  For another thing, I feel much happier when I try to give the very best to others, even when I don't feel like it in the moment.  It made me think that I was sent to the earth for a purpose- to give to others and to love, and to become better.  I wondered if I was doing enough?  Giving enough?  I feel like I do give the best of myself most of the time, but I felt like my heart could be in it more of the time or to a higher degree.  So I decided on a birthday goal/rule for myself.  It's a good reminder to ask myself:  Am I giving? lifting? loving like I was created to?  Because when I do, I really do feel happy.

 That being said, I was very grateful for all of the love and good that was given to me, and hope to pay it forward.  Another good birthday rule:  pay it forward!  I got a fun little package from my friend Karla.

I also went on a DATE with my sweet husband.  And to top it off, I had a FREE gelato from my favorite Gelateria, Gianni's.  They give you a free ice cream on your birthday.  Too bad I didn't have my camera on my date!

 These are just a couple of pictures from meeting friends at the park on Sunday.  My kids LO-OVE strawberries and they chowed down on the little treat that we brought with us.

and the highlight of my kids day: ice cream!  My friend Rosangela lives next to this park and she had some ice cream cones in her freezer.  Oh the joy!

a few of my favorite things...

 The other day I had a few things out on my table while putting groceries away and also having pulled out some fabric I had hoped to cut into.  So here are a few of my favorite things: fresh strawberries, a basil plant, mozzarella di bufala (buffalo mozzarella, you know what I mean only if you've eaten it!), olive oil, and beautiful fabric.  I wish you could have smelled the fresh basil.  It made my mouth water!

 I was able to distract her for about 5 minutes before she realized that she had a bow in her hair (it's usually under a second).  And once she realizes it's there she throws it to the ground in a football touchdown style.  Score!  Free of another silly bow that my mom wants to put in my hair!

On the left is Anziano Anderson.  He happened to be one of the young men that Paolo worked with in our first ward when we moved to Utah.  He finishes his mission at the end of March and speaks excellent Italian!  He's serving in Ferrara, which is the closest branch to us.  It was so fun to see him again!