30 Weeks, the count down is on!

The last day of October will start the 30th week of pregnancy! As you can see from the pictures our little girl is really showing through! She is getting stronger and I feel her often in my ribs... maybe she is counting! As far as everything else goes I am still trying to understand the way the health system works here. I have been privately (vs going through the public system of seeing someone different for every visit) been seeing an Italian midwife who also worked in London for many years, because of this she has many views that are similar to those in the USA. In any case we are still in Italy and are going to be giving birth here so we must follow the system. Part of this includes choosing a hospital, now once that is done I need to have a visit with the anesthesiologist who will then decide if I can have an epidural or not... now this does not mean that I can even have one when the time comes, just that I have gone through the "paper process". Now lets move on to the hospital part. Now when the time comes and I go into labor and we go to the "chosen" hospital if they happen to be full (the largest one only has 10 labor and delivery rooms) they will send us away to another place! Crazy! The other part of all of this is that I pretty much bring all of my own stuff with me including what I will wear during the ENTIRE hospital stay as well as my own maxi pads and underwear, most places you have to bring your own TP and utensils to eat with and all of the needed clothing ect for the baby. Hopefully where ever we end up to welcome our daughter to the world the medical staff will be competent and kind! Now on a yummier note this last picture is of the Sicilian cheesecake that our friend Marco brought back from Ragusa Monday night! YUM! Wish we could have shared it with you all! I guess it is another reason for you all to visit us in Italy!

Monumental Cemetery

Since before I came to Milan as a missionary I heard about the monumental cemetery, I have even passed it a few times but finally this weekend Gio and I went to check it out! It was pretty cool! Check out our photos!

some of this week

This week Gio went to London for a quick overnight trip here are a few pictures he took while there.

Easy Peasy!

Kristi (my sis in law) just opened her etsy shop! It is full of fun creative baby clothes!Check it out!
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6374550

Dialogue in the Dark

This weekend and part of the coming week is an International Food Summit that Gio has been involved in planning. There are many representatives from different countries here in Milan for forums and events organized by the (non-existent *still no law signed) EXPO 2015 committee. This was planned around the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) day to "Stand Up against hunger in the world".
As part of this week of events Gio and I went last night to the Blind Institute here in Milan to participate in "Dialogue in the Dark". Basically you are guided by a blind person through a series of different environments: a park, the seaside, the city, a house and finally to a piano cafe where you can sit order a drink and snack on munchies, however, all of this is done in COMPLETE BLACKNESS! You are given a stick to map out obstacles in front of you, but you rely on your other senses to get you from one place to another, all in all it lasted about 2 hours. The group we toured with was small, one other couple along with us, and we had a great time! What an opportunity to try and understand how someone with no sight lives! It was a great date for us! The picture is the outside of the building we had this experience in.

Carless

Last week when I came home from my friend Natalies house I parked the car a street away from the apartment in a zone it could stay on while we were gone last weekend (the city cleans the streets and we have to pay attention where we leave the car). Last night Gio went to go get a few cases of water from the car, he called me to make sure he understood where it was, but to our horror and dissapointment it was gone!!! After calling 3 numbers and being on hold a LONG time we found out the car had been towed! Apparently a few days ago a sign had been put up that some work was going to be done on the street and the car was towed just the day before!!!! We had a good laugh! Now we need to go pick up our car!

I got tagged, tagged and tagged again!

I have been tagged 3 times in the past week, so here I will do my best to do what they all ask.

Primo: Picture tag, Go to the 4th folder and post the 4th picture then add 6 quirky things about myself. This is a picture of my nephew Jameson taken last year while he was on grandma's giant exercise ball. 1.I have co-owned a PET chicken that ran away my parents always teased me that we were eating Goldie for dinner- how mean! 2. I love to be bare foot 3. When I was little I loved to lick the sidewalk (this would really gross out Gio). 4. My favorite animals are chameleons. 5. I don't like talking on the phone to people I don't know, phone phobia i guess 6. I am cursed with cameras, but LOVE to take pictures

Secondo: I think that because the last 6 were about me the next 7 will be about Giovanni!!! 1. Broke his nose when he was 3 months old (I think that is why he now snores). 2. I think Gio has more shoes then me 3. Gio is obsessed with washing his hands (BTW Oct. 15 was World Washing Hands Day) 4. Gio is a "little" afraid of heights (his words) 5. Prefers salty over sugary food 6. Even as outgoing as he is Gio is a bit shy when he is "in the spotlight" 7. He likes to sing, but is out of tune and was told by an opera singer that his voice needed to be educated and he would sing well I was tagged by Erica, her link is to the side, but I think she is private... sorry folks!

Terza:
Husband tag
1. Husbands name? Giovanni Antonio Criscione
2. How long have you been married? 3 years in December
3.How long did you date? Date? I don't think Gio and I really dated. We met in June 2005 and got married in December.
4. How old is he? 34 years old
5. Who eats more sweets? I eat more sweets, which is not much. However he eats more junk food
6. Who said I love you first? Giovanni
7. Who is taller? Gio is a little taller then me
8. Who is smarter? Good question! Gio has his areas of expertise
9. Who sings the best? Me, although he really likes to sing, even if he is a bit tone deaf
10. Who does the laundry? I do, unless I am gone, he does
11. Who pays the bills? both of us
12.Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do its closer to the bathroom we change every now and again
13. Who mose the lawn? we are apartment dwellers, there is no lawn (but when we are in Utah we both really love to mow)
14. Who cooks dinner? I do, but Gio is a good cook
15. Who is the 1st to admit when they are Wrong? Giovanni
16. Who kissed who first? Gio kissed me a few hours after we met, I pulled away then we he tried a few minutes later I kissed him back! Who would not want a story with an Italian?
17. Who asked who out first? I met Gio in church and he asked me to go sight seeing with him a few hours later
18. Who wears the pants in the family? I think it is pretty equal

I don't really want to tag anyone, so if you see this post and want to tag yourself... then you can say I tagged you! VIA!

searching for family

This past weekend Giovanni and I headed to a little town above Venice called Vittorio Veneto. He sometimes does contract genealogy work. It was a really great experience to be able to work along side Gio in this special endeavor. The local priest was very kind and left us for hours working and searching out the records of the church. We were able to get a lot done (there is still much to do)! Here are a few pictures of the records and a little bit of what we saw in the daylight. The hotel we stayed had bikes for the guests to use, what a great idea this was! It was so much faster getting around not to mention the fun we had! P.S. stay tuned for my turn at a few tags

Paper Mache Pumpkins

Italy is not a country that celebrates Halloween and I LOVE this holiday! It makes me a little sad not to be able to celebrate it the way I would in the states, but to make the most of it this year instead of trying to "hunt" out a pumpkin we could carve (every year it is a difficult task) I decided to use a Martha Stewart idea! We made paper mache pumpkins and "carved" them out! It takes a few days longer because of the drying process ect... I am very happy with how they turned out and since I had balloons here at the house and made the wheat paste my only cost was the tissue paper (not much at all). To light the inside you put a glass bottle with a candle inside, with out the glass bottle you would have a FIRE hazard on your hands! What do you think?

Gio in NYC

Gio has not had any time to update you about his trip to NYC, so I thought I would post a few pictures from the week in the BIG APPLE.
Giovanni has the opportunity to meet MANY well known people world wide through his work. You can see him in the background of a few pictures taken at the UN, one right after he introduced Bill Gates to Mayor Moratti and the other with Franco Frattini ( Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs), M. Moratti, in the center back P. Glisenti and Andrea Vento.
A picture with Susan (for those of you who don't know she is Gio's cousin) and with David Plonsky (one of Gio's GOOD friends). He had a great trip, meet lots of people and all went well with the work meetings! We are looking forward to November when he gets to go to London and be apart of a meeting with the Queen!!!!

Flamingos in Milan!

Today I was walking around looking for a fabric store and admiring the beautiful buildings, when I peered into a private garden and saw what I thought were those TACKY, plastic, pink flamingos (no offense to you lovers of them). When I looked a lot closer I realized they were REAL!!!!! Tons of them! I took a few pictures check it out!

last weeks travels

As I told you last week I went to Verona while Giovanni went to NYC. My trip was much less eventful then his was and I sincerely hope he has time to write on here about all the things he did and people he met! We have a few pictures that I will post in a few days to complete his NYC tales!
Before Gio left he was dealing with a cold, I was lucky to be feeling fine, but of course the morning he left I woke up with a sore throat. I went to Verona anyway and there I ended up dealing with the "COLD" full force. I stayed in the house two days (I stayed with my adopted Italian family, Edda and Remo). Some of you may have heard about this great couple, or have meet them before. While I was there they had some health issues of their own. Edda had twisted her ankle so bad she thought it was broken and had X-rays done to be sure, then one of her front teeth feel out and she had to go to the dentist. Some of you may know about Remo's eye sight, well, it has been getting worse and worse over the past few years to the point where he could pretty much only see shadows. When I arrived Tuesday it had been 10 days that he had lost his vision totally. It was hard to see him bumping into doors and little things at home, but he seemed very calm about it; almost as if he had been waiting for this to happen and now that it had he just accepted it. The following day he had a 3 or 6 month check up with the eye DR as well as a ultrasound. Edda ended up coming home hours later in a hurry to pack some things up and was pretty worried! She told me that Remo had been admitted to the hospital, currently they were running some tests and he would need emergency surgery on his eye. Apparently the retina on his right eye had become unattached thus causing the blindness! He also has heart problems and they were unsure how to proceed with the anesthesia (he has had 3 previous heart attacks)! Needless to say it was a pretty crazy and stressful week for them! The surgery went fine and they kept him in the cardo ward to watch his heart, Monday he was released and I will hear more this weekend about how he is. I am grateful for Edda and Remo who have become a true part of my family and I in theirs (I am sure if I had not met Gio they would have tried to hook me up with Edda's son or one of his friends)! I love them and pray for the health of them both!
As I mentioned, Giovanni has many adventures from NYC to share and maybe in the next few days he can write it and we can get some pictures posted!