The past week has been a pretty "normal" one, especially after our trip to Germany. We needed some downtime to recoup.
Riann and Lincoln enjoyed their first week of preschool.
Riann is going Monday through Friday, and Lincoln goes Tuesdays & Thursdays. They are both loving it!!
Thursday on the way home from dropping them off, I was driving back to the highway. Thinking I wasn't focusing, I slowed down only to realize the road was "fuzzy" being crossed by a herd of sheep. There had to have been at least 500 or so, with several sheep herding dogs.
Holy sheep!! Of course, I had to take a photo! Afterward, I went with a friend to a market to stock up on fresh produce, one of my favorite weekly excursions!
Saturday, I ran my first race since foot surgery! Friday night at the playground, my friend Suzanne and I were making plans meet to run in the morning. Someone overheard us and asked us if we were running in the race in the morning. With that, our plans changed to run the 5k for September 11th on base at 9:30am... a bit later than what we are used to!!
Prior to the race was a 1 mile family fun run, Riann said she wanted to run with me, however she was done running after the first 1/10th of the mile. I made it a better workout for myself by giving her a piggy back ride the rest of the way. The 5k was a fun, easy little race, but it was the warmest day we've had in a couple weeks... or maybe it just because the sun was up before we started.
Saturday night, Jamie and I had "date night" which really means "no kids but game for anything". We made plans with our friends Glenn & Tina, and my running friend Suzanne and her husband Scott. We went to a place called Arbustum. I had heard a lot of great things, and Suzanne had been there before too and wanted to go back. The restaurant has no menu, they just begin serving you as soon as you sit at your table. They have a set menu - several courses of delicious, delicous food. We had bread, antipasta, vegetables (the first time I've had eggplant and LOVED it!), 2 types of pasta dishes, the main dish that was some sort of beef and potatoes, melon and then dessert. Also, the wine & water flowed as quickly as we could drink it. Thanks to Tina for capturing our evening...
Sunday, I headed with my friend Sonja and her daughter to Napoli's "Shoe Alley", a market that sells shoes, TONS of shoes and so much more. I was easily overwhelmed part way through the shopping experience but not before I bought myself my first Italian-made shoes and two pairs of "dress up" shoes for Riann for 1 euro each. I can't wait to go again soon!
Tuesday after I took Riann to school (and Lincoln did not go due to a stomach bug he had all day Monday), I went with some friends to a shop in Teverola (the little town a few minutes down the road from us) to check out demijohns. What are demijohns, you ask?
These are demijohns and you see them EVERYWHERE on base. American's love them, Italians think we are crazy. You can find them anywhere from 5L to 50L or more. You can always go on a demijohn hunt out in the country and find them on the side of the road, as Italians think of them as junk. They areThey are almost always clear or green, but the place we went Tuesday has them in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Since Lincoln was with me and he was being a little impatient, I couldn't make a deicison and will go back again very soon.
Some things we have had to get used to since living in Italy are the various "strikes" the workers go on. I joke that it is the Italian's way of having a day off. But Tuesday, Jamie told me to make sure I went to the gas station to fill 'er up because the gas stations were scheduled for a strike and would be closed the rest of the week: not just the gas stations here, the gas stations in the ENTIRE country. I must have picked a good time to go because there was no one waiting, and I got my full tank of gas. The next day, one gas station I passed had a line down the road... 10+ cars at least. Of course, the strike must have been canceled because I saw gas stations open this morning.
Still loving Italy, even when life is just ordinary.
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