Finished!!

At least 10 years ago I started an ambitious cross stitch project. An A to Z Christmas Sampler. It was going to be pretty big when finished - 9 inches wide by 19 inches long. That's a pretty good sized cross stitch project. I finished about 1/4 of the sampler, and then lost interest. I don't know why. I ended up sticking it in the back of my closet with all of my other unfinished projects. Every once in a while I would stumble across it and think to myself that I should pull it out and work on it. But I never did.

Fast forward to Richmond in November. While I was there, I went into a cross stitch store and discovered cross stitch has changed! Fun patterns, wonderful fabric, and beautiful over dyed floss! I picked up a few patterns (and the fabric and floss that were needed) to bring back to Milan with me. Something I could do in Milan to keep the boredom at bay.

While still in Richmond, I was cleaning out my closet (in preparation for new carpet), and saw my partially completed Christmas sampler. I decided to bring it to Milan with me also.

After completing a couple of smaller projects, I decided to work on the big one. So about a month ago I started. It was a lot of work. Lots of counting, lots of different colors. But two days ago, I finished it! And here it is - my A to Z Christmas Sampler:

I have to say, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I think it's the prettiest thing I've ever cross stitched. When I come home in July, I will be getting it professionally framed. They will block it, so all of the edges are straight (they look a little curvy in the picture). I can't wait to see what it looks like in a beautiful wood frame!

The sampler was a lot of work, but I'm glad it finished it.

Determined Women!

There is a group of American women who get together at a little cafe once a week. All of our husbands are on the same project here in Milan. A few of them wanted to go to IKEA (which is about 15 minutes away) and were discussing taking the IKEA bus to get there. I offered to drive, since I have a car. People were very excited and soon four of us had made plans to go to IKEA.

I find it funny that other American women are amazed that I will drive over here. None of them will. Granted, I won't drive into downtown Milan, but I'll drive in our suburban area and on the highways. I do think, though, that the Italians do drive kind of crazy. And I really hate roundabouts instead of stoplights.

Thursday we made our way to IKEA. The excitement was high! You have to understand that even though IKEA is not an American company, we have IKEA in America, so it's something familiar. I bought a foam pad for my mattress, as did one other lady. Plus we all bought from 1 to 3 bags of stuff.

Here's where the determination came in. I drive a Volkswagen Golf hatchback. The mattress pads we bought were rolled like a carpet and were each over 4 feet long. Somehow we managed to fit all of the bags into the back of the car or onto the people sitting in the backseat. The mattress pads were shoved from the back to the front through the middle of the car. I couldn't see out the back window at all. I couldn't even see the women sitting in the back seat!

But we made it back to San Donato with all of our purchases! I, as the driver, was probably the only one who was comfortable, but nobody cared! We had had an IKEA adventure and discovered that 4 determined women can cram a lot of stuff into a small hatchback!

And we've decided we're going back again.

Bummed

Scott has a week off school in February, so in September I made reservations for the two of us to fly home. Last month we decided (taking into account advice from some of you) that Scott could fly home by himself and I should stay in Houston for a few weeks longer. I was super excited about that.

Until I went to change my reservation and discovered I bought tickets that can't be changed at all. Not even by paying extra money.

So I'll be flying back with Scott after one short week.

To say I was bummed is putting it mildly. I was looking forward to staying in Houston until mid-March and coming back to Milan to find winter almost over.

I guess I'll just have to make the most of the short week I have at home. February 18th through February 26th. Leave some time on those calendars open for a GNO or two!

Airport Taxes

Scott has a week off in April. I would really like to take a few days and go to Paris. I feel like I need to see Paris before I leave Europe.

I checked on Air France, and found a flight there and back for $40.00! That means all three of us could fly for $120.00! Talk about a cheap flight. Then I noticed the price did not include taxes. I went ahead and clicked some specific times just to get the actual price with taxes.

$467.00.

Is it just me, or does it seem crazy that the taxes quadruple the price of the plane tickets?

Jeffrey

Jeffrey is serving in the Mexico Veracruz Mission. The Mission President and his wife have a blog, which they try to keep updated. They fell a little behind, and have just started to post pictures from September, which is when Jeffrey finally made it down to Mexico.

A couple of days ago, I was looking at the blog and saw a post about visa-waiting missionaries who had finally made it to Mexico. The post included this picture. Which includes Jeffrey!

It was so much fun to see him on the Veracruz Mission blog! I'm hoping that I will see his picture on that blog a few more times.

By the way, Jeffrey has been on his mission over 8 months! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by.

Lucca and Pisa

After leaving Florence late Wednesday afternoon, we drove to the small town of Lucca. Lucca is an old town and the entire City Center is surrounded by a large stone wall. It was already dark when we got there, but we walked into the City Center and had dinner. On the way back to our Bed & Breakfast, the kids climbed the path to the top of the wall and walked up there for while. Being dark and rainy, I decided to stay on the sidewalk below!

The next morning we left for Pisa - a drive of about 30 minutes. The kids decided that walking on top of the wall was really all they wanted to do in Lucca, so we left.

We were surprised when we first saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In pictures, it's always by itself. We didn't realize that it's the old Bell Tower for Pisa's Duomo. In this picture, the Baptistry is the round building right behind Robert and the kids, the Duomo is the building behind that, and then, of course, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in the back. It looks much smaller when seen with all of the other buildings.

This is a picture of the Baptistry. It cost 4 euros per person to go in, so we just took pictures of the outside.
This is an altar inside the Duomo. There's no charge to go inside the Duomo, since it's still a working cathedral. That is a crypt on top of the altar. With bones inside it.
I'm not sure what this was supposed to be, but I thought it was intriguing.
After going through the Duomo, we walked over to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The kids were going to climb to the top, but we didn't realize you had to get tickets in advance. The kids didn't want to wait as long as they would have had to wait, so they didn't go up to the top. We had to content ourselves with taking the classic picture of each person holding up the Tower.

Here's Scott. Looks like a half-hearted attempt to me.

Here's Brian. He really looks like he's working.

Here's me. If I'm the only thing keeping the Tower from falling over, than we're in trouble!
Here's Robert. He decided to carry the weight of the Tower on his back instead.
I don't have a picture of Kimberly since her pictures were taken with her own camera. She did hold up the Tower too. It's amazing how long it took us to take those pictures. It's harder than you think to get things lined up (and you can see that our hands don't line up perfectly). It was fun to watch people all over the area striking the same pose. Everyone wants a picture holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Here's a picture of the base of the Tower. It really does lean!
After that we did some shopping at the stalls they have lining the sidewalks. I got a hat, which I needed. Robert and I like it, but the boys say it makes me look like an old Russian woman!

Right outside where the Baptistry, Duomo, and Tower are located there is a McDonald's. We didn't eat there, but Brian made me take this picture because he thought it was a pretty cool looking McDonald's. I'd have to agree.
After that we left Pisa and drove back to Milan. It was a fun four day trip with the kids.

Florence

Last week we went to Florence, Italy for 3 days. I have to say, Florence is a beautiful city. We spent all of our time in the old City Center, and to me it was the picturesque Italian city I have been expecting to see ever since we got here.

We got there late Monday afternoon and just wandered around the city center. There were a lot of other people out and it was fun to mingle with the crowds.

The next morning we went to the Uffizi, which is considered by many to be the most famous museum in Italy. There was a lot of religious art and a lot of paintings of nudes. It was interesting to go through the museum, but I wish they would have hung signs over the really famous paintings letting us know to stop and look at those! I enjoyed the museum to a certain extent. I have to admit that after a while all the paintings started to look alike and I (along with Brian and Scott) were ready to leave! No photographs are allowed in the museums, which is understandable. Well, actually we were allowed to take a picture in the Uffizi, looking out their window at the scene below:

That's the Ponte Vecchio. It's a very old pedestrian only bridge. It's lined by very exclusive gold and silver jewelry stores. We walked across the bridge, but like most of the other people we just looked in the shop windows. There seemed to be very few people actually in the stores!

Here's a picture of the kids on the Ponte Vecchio looking back towards the Uffizi.

The rest of that day was spent eating lunch (which takes at least an hour and a half since restaurants in Italy do not believe in quick service), and shopping. Oh yes, shopping. We all found some things we wanted to buy at these great little stalls they had set up in a piazza. Kimberly and I really enjoyed ourselves!

The next day we went to see Florence's Duomo. A Duomo is essentially a large cathedral, and many cities in Italy have one. Florence's Duomo looks very different from Milan's Duomo, but they are both beautiful. In this picture, the building on the left is the cathedral, the building in the middle is the bell tower, and the building on the right is the baptistry.
These are replicas of the gold doors of the baptistry. The originals are in a museum somewhere, but even the replicas were pretty impressive.
It's possible to climb the almost 400 stairs to the dome of the Duomo. Possible for the kids anyway. Robert and I waited below, rather than risk a heart attack mid-climb! I sent Brian up with my camera. Here's a picture of the sort of steps they were climbing. Looking at those makes me know I made the right choice to stay on the ground!
This is one of the domes in the Duomo. Part way up the steps, there was a path that led around the Duomo. Brian was able to take this picture from the walkway.
Here's one of the pictures Brian took of the view from the top of the Duomo. Beautiful, isn't it. I would have loved to have seen those views, but like you, I'll have to be content with pictures.
For me, I think the highlight of the trip to Florence was going to see Michelangelo's sculpture of David. It is a beautiful sculpture. Much larger than I thought. It is close to 20 feet tall and stood on a base that was about that tall. I was amazed at the incredible detail. You could see where Michelangelo had carved the veins in David's arms and hands. I can see why people say it's the most beautiful sculpture in the world.

As I said, we couldn't take pictures in the museums, but in one of the piazzas they have a copy to the sculpture. It's not as amazing as the original, but it's still pretty impressive.
After that, we left Florence and headed elsewhere. Stay tuned for our adventures in Lucca and Pisa.