Venice is sinking!

We were shocked to see so much of the city under water. When Alicia and I were there in the summer of 2001, we were told that Venice is sinking up to a few inches every year (I don't remember the exact amount). Well! When Brian and I got there, we were surprised to see so much of the city under water! Apparently during the winter months the sea rises quite a bit now, and much of the "edges" of the city get immersed at high tide. We took lots of fun shots because we were so amazed at it all.

Here's the main square at St. Marks. It's the one with the big church tower, on all the postcards of Venice. It was about a foot under water all the way across. They had some raised walkways for transport across the square... all the people you see in this picture are on the walkways. Unfortunately for us, those walkways were so crowded, there was no way we could get Sam's stroller on there, so we took the "back roads" and never really went into/across the square.

For the more adventurous (I've spelled it wrong, haven't I? my London life has killed my spelling), there is the plastic bag wader boot option. They were selling these plastic bags with little rubber bands and plastic bottoms, so people could wade around in the water. Brian scored a pair from a trash can (ha!) and went back for a peek at the square while Samantha slept and I shopped for blown glass necklaces! He came back with a soggy shoe, and a good idea of why they were left in the trash in the first place.

Some more flooding houses... no lunch on the patio today!

Here's one of a jewelry shop with half a foot of water throughout the store. Is that even safe? People were wading in with their wellington boots or their bag-waders, and vendors were still turning a profit!

Doesn't it look like we're at the beach, sort of?

This is my favorite... the water-logged tomato washed ashore. I thought it was quite an artistic shot, no? Well, this was the best of the five shots I took of little Mr. Tomato.

Who knows if Venice will be completely submerged in 20 years? See it while it lasts, folks!

Artsy pictures of Venice

I thought I'd load some of the cool pictures of Venice that we took while we were there. Then, I'll load some of "us" and Venice, and tell about some of the things we did. So, here are a few to enjoy, just the scenery...

The Rialto Bridge is one of the most famous bridges in Venice. You see it all the time in movies and on postcards. There are shops all across the middle of the bridge with vendors selling blown glass, lace, leather goods, and Venecian masks. In this particular picture, Samantha and I are actually standing front and center at the top of the bridge, me in a purple coat. But I don't think you can see us, even zoomed in.

The light was just slightly too bright here, but I thought it was a dreamy shot anyway. Brian took it. Notice all the stairs on all the bridges... It's so amazing how all of them are built with a nice arch so that the boats can go through in the canals. But it's not so cool when toting a child in a stroller up and down and up and down. :)

The sun came out and Brian walked to the end of a pier to get this lovely shot of the Grand Canal. It really was quite a lovely afternoon.

I'd tell you what this building is, but I'd be making it up as I went along. I just thought it was happily situated and the afternoon sun was lighting it beautifully acroos the water.
 

Weekend in Italy

How 'bout a weekend in Italy? We took a little trip to see Mauro and Larissa at their place. That's right, we traded visits -- first they came to London, then we went to see them in Mauro's hometown, Gorizia. It's quite close to Venice (2 hrs by train). And it's also very close to Slovenia -- just about a five minute drive.

For those unfamiliar with Slovenia, it used to be part of Yugoslavia, until it broke off in 1991. It's now its own country and, according to Mauro, is thriving because Italians cross the border to gamble in the Slovenian casinos. He and Larissa were nice enough to drive us across the border to Nova Goriza (the town next to Gorizia) so we could add another country to our list. (And no, we did not gamble in the Slovenian casinos.)

We took pictures at an old train station that borders both the Slovenian town and the Italian town. The border is still fenced off, but at the train station, there's an open square that we walked around, freely crossing back and forth between the two countries.

We also took a picture of the sign (below) showing pedestrians what their restrictions are. (i.e. don't cross the border, even though the fence is down.) Believe it or not, we are standing next to the sign in the picutre below. But the flash just picked up the sign and not us.

I just thought it was so cool to have an open border like that. I had Brian take my picture in the middle of the square: I'm in two countries at the same time! How amazing is that?!

I wish we would have had a camera for the rest of the evening, but we left it at home. Mauro's cousin's girlfriend's daughter was turning four, and we got invited to her birthday party. If you think that relation sounded a bit confusing, it gets worse... Mauro's aunt was there, her name is Tina. The four-year-old daughter of the girlfriend is Lina. And the little dog under the table was called Nina. Tina, Lina, Nina!! Stop the madness!

It was such a fun party, and so much food for a four-year-old! They had homemade mini pizzas, mini pastries filled some with delicious tuna, some with potato salad, and some with something like fry sauce and mixed vegetables. They also had skewers with cherry tomatoes and fresh mozerella, along with fresh pineapple skewers. For dessert, they served the most delicious cake with pudding on the bottom and whipping cream on the top. Mmm... I would take another piece right now, thank you!

The little girl, Lina, was in a bit of a pouty mood. So Larissa pointed to the statue of Santa sitting on the mantle and told her, "You better cheer up and be happy because Santa is watching you and he knows if you're being nice or not." Lina scowled at Larissa and answered, "No, Santa is not watching me because I turned him around!" Sure enough, Larissa looked more closely at the Santa statue, and he was most definitely facing the wall! Clever little girl! She got a doll for her birthday that cries real tears. All us adults took turns making it cry just to see the tears. It was a fun night.

I'll have to write more about our trip later. We took tons of picts of Venice... still to come!

More of Sam

Just a couple more shots of Samantha doing her cute stuff... She was thrilled to finally push buttons on the computer for a change. It was "off" so we let her bang away, and she liked the beeps it made, telling her the keyboard was immobilized.
My mom sent some cute little hair elastics for Samantha's birthday. I'm no hair expert, but I attempted some little piggy tails with her last week. She wouldn't hold still, so they are crooked. But they're kinda cute, eh?
 

Some fun visitors

Hi, only a minute to be on here tonight. Just wanted to report we've had some fun visitors staying with us lately. Brian's old roommate from Boston, Mauro, and his wife, Larissa, stayed over the weekend with their new little girl, Isabella. It was so much fun reminiscing old times and talking about our babies together. Sam had a hay-day with them... following them all around the house and checking out their stuff in her room. She didn't sleep much the whole time they were here because she was so excited!

Here are just a few pictures of them and us... Mauro and Brian with the little girlies.
Here's Samantha trying to take Isabella's bottle... we gave her one, don't worry.

Here is a close up of darling Isabella... look how much hair she has! It stands up on end and is sooo cute! She's three months old.

And here's a little family shot. They took one of us, too, but I will have to save it for another email time.
 

Happy December!

Here it is, barely midnight and now it's officially the first of December! Wow! Brian and I play this little game we got from my parents; I guess it's the "Happy Month" game. We compete to see who is the first to wish the other one a happy month on the first day of the new month. In March, Brian waited until it was midnight in the US because I was there. When we talked on the phone at 5 a.m. (during Sam's early morning feed), he casually mentioned the time and then said, "Happy March!" In September, he set the alarm for midnight so he could wake up and tell me. But I saw him setting it, so then we both waited it out till midnight. I heard the alarm first and was quickest on the draw. He got me in October, and I got him in November -- just barely.

And now here we both sit at the computers, when we should be fast asleep. Since it was fairly close to midnight we decided we better stay up and see this thing through. Lucky me, I noticed it was 11:59 and waited nonchalantly for the time to turn. "Happy December!" I said. Brian looked down at his computer to make sure it wasn't premature. Yep. I got him.

Now we can start using our cutest-ever advent calendar that we got at Costco a couple weeks ago. I'm soooo excited about it. It has little woodened decorations that go on the tree and around the roof of the house. It also has places to hide little candies (which I've already started doing). Let the Christmas season begin!



We got our Christmas tree this past Saturday, and I've been slowly decorating it this week. I got the finishing touches put together last night before bed. The room looked so cosy and festive I took a few pictures just to remember how nice it is. I'm glad I did, because the tree FELL OVER today! Yep. Brian had just walked out the door to work, and Samantha and I came back in after saying goodbye just in time to watch it topple over into the couch. Woops! We put it back up again, almost as pretty as the first time.

I looked out the window...

Samantha just LOVES looking out the window! Because we live so high up, it actually makes me a little nervous. But when I have time to supervise closely, I lift her up and let her have a peek around the neighborhood. She loves banging on the glass, licking it, and chewing on the cord to the blinds. It's pretty funny. There's a school across the way, and sometimes she can see the kids outside playing, and gets quite excited to watch them.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I took a few pictures this past Sunday as we were lazing around the house after church. I thought I'd share, just so people can see what we're usually up to on a Sunday afternoon.

After a good nap for all of us, here's Samantha and Daddy, working together on the computer. Sam was really excited to be Dad's helper... she loves pushing the buttons. In fact, she tries to be quite sneaky and keep eye contact with us while her little fingers go roaming over to the keyboard. Yes, she loves technology. Every time we visit someone, she's quick to check out their computer set-up and see if she can access a mouse, keyboard or printer without difficulty. Clever girl.

This picture shows off Samantha's two little bottom teeth quite nicely. If you zoom in, you can see them. She still doesn't have those top teeth in yet, but we think they're on the way. Sam loves to use her teeth to bite apples. She'll crawl around with a whole apple in her mouth, biting off bits of the peel and spitting them on the floor so she can eat the good part. She tried it with an orange a couple of times, but wasn't very happy with the results. Doesn't she look quite impish in this picture? I love it.

Here's Samantha and her favorite little bear who now goes EVERYWHERE Sam goes (including the grocery store and church); we named him Sox. And yes, he is most definitely a boy, even though he's pink. He has been through some rough stuff recently. Last week he got vomited on, when Sam wasn't feeling so well. Then he had to have his first "bath" and spend a day on a shelf to dry out. Samantha was extra glad to see him after his long absence, and hauled him up and down the stairs in her mouth all day yesterday, lucky Sox. We like to sneak him into her crib after she's asleep, so he's there as a surprise for when she wakes up. We can always tell when she wakes, because she squeals to greet Sox and then starts jabbering away at him. Cute.

This last one is Samantha trying to get the camera from me. She really, really likes the camera and thinks it should be her toy. Notice her little tongue sticking out... this is a new trick of hers. When she's concentrating really hard on something, out comes the little tongue in that crooked angle. She does it while climging the stairs, especially if she's dragging a toy or an article of clothing (usually her coat) upstairs with her.

failed blogging attempts

Hi. So, I've tried to get something to post two other times recently, but it hasn't worked. So here I go with a little test to see if this works.

I've also recently been informed that I need to respond to the people who comment on my blog, so they know I actually read the comments and enjoy what they have to say. Oops. I was not aware that was part of blogging etiquette, so my late apology to those who wonder if I ever read comments on my page. Yes, I do read them and love them. I'll do better about writing back in the future.

Cheerio, and hopefully I'll have more picts to post soon, if this works!

Primary Children's Program

Yesterday at church was the Primary Children's Program for our ward's sacrament meeting. Since I'm in charge of the Primary, it's all I've been thinking about for the past month! My first counselor (and great friend) Jenny and I started creating a script/outline back before Halloween. I typed all the kids' parts up and gave each parent a letter explaining what their children were supposed to do and how the parents could help. Then I did follow-up calls and reminders every Sunday to make sure everyone was getting ready. Jenny put together posters for all the songs, and we both made some visual aids to go with the different speaking parts and songs.

Our theme for the program was "I Will Trust in Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ: Their Promises are Sure." We keyed in specifically on "Promises" and talked about the promises the Lord gave us through the scriptures, the promises we have through the prophets, and the promises we have through the Saviour. I felt pretty good about the content, but I was nervous about the kids actually pulling through and not getting too rowdy. (We have a bit of a reverence problem, most Sundays).

Well, last Sunday we had the "dress rehearsal" in the chapel. In a few words... it was a nightmare. Brian said it went okay, but I was reeeeaaallly frustrated by the time it was over. (To give an idea, we ended 20 mins early and just let the kids go outside and run wild so that I didn't have a meltdown. not good.) It was especially hard because we were short-handed. Jenny had to work at the last minute, our assigned piano player ended up getting sick (thankfully Brian was able to fill in, bless him), one of the two teachers we have was out of town, and the mother who was going to help had to teach the adult Sunday School. So, we had one child throw a full-on tantrum on a bench, one child cried through two or three songs, with her mom holding her in her seat, two kids yelled "NO" really loudly every time we asked them to do something, and another kept getting out of his seat and running around the chapel. We only have 9 kids total, so this was pretty much the whole crowd acting manic. Needless to say, I was disheartened going home, wondering if we could pull it off in the real performance.

Well, yesterday was the big day. And....
It was GREAT! Seriously! I never even imagined it would go so well as it did. We had three kids who didn't end up being able to come, but we just excused them and read their parts for them anyway. Even though there were just six kids up there, they sang really loudly and knew all the words to the songs. When it was their turn to give their parts, they all spoke clearly and said everything just right. We had the bishopric sing along with us for part of "Follow the Prophet", and the audience sang along with a new song, "Prophets and Apostles." I could not believe how smoothly it all went -- no crying, no tantrums, no running around... Just sweet, innocent children, sharing their testimonies about the scriptures and the Saviour. It was a beautiful day!

Little Walker

Today (Sunday) was a red letter day for little Samantha. This morning she decided she was ready to start WALKING! Not just one or two steps, but MANY steps, ALL OVER the place, ALL DAY LONG! Yay for Samantha Susan!! We had an early morning meeting at church. As usual, we were letting her crawl around in the room while the group discussed things. Brian got my attention and pointed at Sam, who was standing up with a glue stick in her hand (she'd been rummaging through my church bag). Two seconds later, she was walking across the room, glue in hand, to investigate the car seat. All day at church people kept stopping us, saying, "Look! She's walking!" Yep, and she just started today. We're very excited about this.

Busy days

It seems like we've been really busy these last couple of weeks. Brian's work has been crazy, and I've been on the house hunt with increased intensity. We looked at three more yesterday, and have viewings for two more tomorrow. If you're interested, check out this Website of the place Brian wants us to live: www.princessparkmanor.net. Believe it or not, it's affordable ... no more than we're paying now! Shock! Anyway, that's what's been happening with us lately.

Sam's been busy, too. She's just cruisin' around, getting into whatever she can find. Here she is with her church backpack, all strung out! I put her in the living room while I was getting breakfast ready in the kitchen. I came back just two minutes later, and she had strung her pack all across the living room. Most impressively, she'd found the ziplock full of breadsticks, somehow opened it up, and was helping herself to a little pre-breakfast snack! Clever girl! (Our Brazilian friend says, "she's very cleverly.")
Sam and I went shopping last week to find a winter coat for Samantha. We found a goodie! It was the last one of its kind, on a great sale, and was just her size. Yes, it's true, it is pepto bismal pink. But I think it's adorable, and Sammie thinks she looks pretty cute in it, too... she was strutting around the house in it for a bit after we came home. It even has little mittens attached with buttons. How cute is that!?!

A new favorite...
I've been wondering when Samantha would pick a "favorite" toy... We know other babies (like Brielle) who have had a favorite for months now. Well, it finally happened last week. We are proud to announce Samantha's favorite toy is her little stuffed Boston Red Sox bear, a gift from our friends Becky and Tim. Who knew she'd be a Sox fan, so early?! She carries it around in her mouth most of the time (like a mommy dog carrying its pup), and squeals whenever she sees it. She even climbs the stairs with it. I think it's adorable... though it's getting a little disgusting from being "mouthed" so often. Anyway, GOOOO SOX!

Last picture is of poor Daddy Brian, busiest of all. He's fast asleep on the couch after three all-nighters in a row. He came in and sat down to veg for a minute while I put his dinner on a plate. I hurried, but wasn't fast enough... (Was it wrong of me to take this picture?)
 

Bottom drawer helper

Here's our little helper, cleaning out mom's sock drawer.

Video experiment

One of our friends' sites has a cool video of their baby. I'm experimenting with our site, trying to upload videos and such. This is just my first attempt. Hope it works.

Click here for a video of Sammie playing with a wet wipe.

Kam's Movie Day

For some reason, when Brian is out of town, my life seems to lose all sense of structure and schedule. Not that there was much there to begin with, but I find myself puzzled at my lack of direction and sometimes motivation. Time to bring out the list of "to-do's" I know, but not this week...

Brian was in Istanbul for work for a few days this week. Instead of revisiting my ever-ending list of things I should be doing while he's away, I decided to indulge in the lack of purpose. I proclaimed Friday my Movie Day. In the space of 24 hours (beginning at midnight Thurs. night), I watched three movies. Those who know my daily routines would know that is a very excessive amount of movie watching for me. I can't remember the last time I watched three movies in a day (btw, Pride and Prejudice does not count, just for the record; it's long, but it's still just ONE movie). I thoroughly enjoyed all of them and find myself still thinking about all of them. So I share my thoughts, by movie:

1. The Prince of Egypt: Alicia and Randi would be surprised to know I'd never seen this one until this week. (I bought the Nashville edition soundtrack three years ago and was cruelly ridiculed as a cartoon nerd by my two best friends, can you believe!?) Okay, so it's the typical Moses story in Hollywood animation style. I loved it, and I thought it did a lot of justice to the elements of faith, courage, and principle, as the story in the Old Testament does. I especially liked the details of Moses' life as Raamses brother. Although that part was fabricated, it made me think about the relationship they might have had, and the courage it must have taken Moses to own his heritage and turn his back on his life as an Egyptian. It really illustrated the strength of his faith in a beautiful way. I also loved the song "Miracles" and the way it portrayed his sister, Miriam, as believing in him so completely. Great message.

2. A Walk to Remember: Another one I should have seen years ago but didn't. It brought me back to high school days, trying to fit in and figure out who I wanted to be. I like how the girl in the film has such confidence in herself and others. She's a little bit idealistic in some ways, but accepts her reality as well. She has a "list" of things she wants to do in life. The boy in the film is so sweet, helping her achieve her goals and dreams. It made me want to dig out my old journals and revisit some of my "lists." (You may be surprised to know that "live in London" is actually on one of those lists! ... along with "Learn to ice skate," "Learn a foreign language," and "graduate from college.") So, that movie made me think about making the most of every day, remembering my dreams, and appreciating the people who love me.

3. The Devil Wears Prada: I hired a babysitter and had a girls-night-out with a few friends from the church, and we went and watched it at the theatre. (Aside: paying the babysitter cost more than paying for dinner and a movie. weird... the things I never thought about when I was single.) So, this is a total chick-flick, kinda silly. It's not one I'd fully recommend, although I did enjoy it. Synopsis -- frumpy girl who doesn't care how she looks gets a very demanding job at a fashion magazine and ends up buying into the "looks are everything" idea for awhile. Her job becomes her life and her personal life starts falling apart before she realizes she's lost sight of the things that really matter to her. I liked this one because it hits home in some ways; how easy it is to lose focus and get priorities mixed up. Also, the girl in the film (Anne Hathaway) feels like she doesn't have a choice with most of the things that happen to her -- her boss pushes her into a lot of sticky situations, her peers demand things of her, etc., until her life is just taken over with this job she "didn't really care about." It made me think about how easy it is to feel like the victim and blame circumstances for the way things are, rather than accepting responsibility for my choices. Good points to provide a little bit of introspection, I thought.

Anyway, that was my Movie Day. It gave me some good food for thought.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, from our little cheerleader! Go Cougars!
Hopefully everyone had a Happy Halloween in the States. I love seeing all the pictures of the kids' cute costumes. And this year, we had our own little trick-or-treater! Samantha was a little BYU cheerleader, in a special costume sent by her very kind, devoted BYU-fan, Aunt Janice. The outfit is sooo cute, I'm sure she'll be a little cheerleader more than once this fall -- not just for Halloween.

Brian LOOKS like he's just about to take Samantha trick-or-treating in this picture (above), doesn't he? Well, actually, he was just about to leave for work, and that's the last he saw of his little Cougar all day. Sad, sad. But at least he DID get to see her decked out, eh?

I thought it'd be cute to have some little pom poms to go with the outfit, so I got this goofy little headband(below), intending to cut off the froofy ends for her to hold, like a real cheerleader. Well, I put the headband on her, and she thought it was the COOLEST thing ever, so we just left it... I think it works. Perhaps more cheerleaders should take a cue?

I just wrote the details of our Halloween day in an email to my friend, Amber, which I'll share here, in case anyone wants the WHOLE story of our Halloween (not that it was that exciting, mind you):

Sam wore her costume all day, since it was so cute. We made pumpkin (i.e. round) sugar cookies at a friend's house (which turned out poorly because we had to use lard instead of shortening, which tastes terrible, but they don't have any shortening in this country. bummer.) Then we took naps. Then I made a pumpkin pie (which was one of my best cooking efforts yet) and we took it to a party up the road with some other families from our ward. I stepped in dog poo right before we went into the party, then wandered around the whole time thinking, what is that smell? Didn't discover it was ME until I stepped in MORE on the way home, how embarrassing! So anyway, we came home, I put Sam to bed, then Brian came home from work at 10ish. Not too bad! But then he had to get up at 3a.m. and work and I never saw him again till this morning, poor guy.

That's all for now, folks. Happy November is here at last!

Willow Farm -- a country adventure

Last week a group of us (pictured above, minus me) took a little trip to a place called Willow Farm. It's an actual farm about 20 miles out of London, with horses, pigs, cows, sheep, ducks, etc. ... along with corn, pumpkins, hay, etc. Yes, those of you from "where I come from" are well aware of the makings of a farm. Apparently it's an item of great amusement for Londoners, who spend day after day in their urban city life.

Escaping to the country to see the animals is a popular thing to do, and it don't come cheap!! Adult tickets to Willow Farm are 9 pounds, 50 pence (sorry I can't find the pound sign. In US dollars, that's about $17.50 with the current exchange rate.) Kids get a discount rate of 5 pounds 50 pence (somewhere in the neighborhood of $9.50). Not cheap, as I was saying. Our visit cost a bit less, thanks to Stephanie, who has an annual pass with discount tickets. Oh, babies are free, thank goodness!

Well, with that price, we were determined to enjoy ourselves and soak up the full environment of THE FARM! We had a lot of fun, trapsing around picking our own pumpkins, getting filthy in the mud puddles, looking at the animals, petting them and even feeding some of them. Samantha especially liked the guinea pigs. I let her pet one, and she giggled and grinned, until I had to put him back because her "pats" on his head got a little bit too forceful for the poor little guy. (Aside, I think he looks a lot like Buddy the Second -- not to be confused with Buddy the First, who was sadly eaten buy our dog, Mesa.)


We got to ride in a wagon pulled by a great big green John Deer-looking tractor, called Tristan the Tractor. (A week later, Joyce's daughter, Abby, is still telling excitedly telling everyone "we rode on a green tractor!" cute.) Sammie spent most of her ride trying to climb OUT over the edge of the wagon, and I spent most of my time trying to keep her from doing just that.
Sam's favorite part was the kids' play section, where she finally got to roam free... there was a nice sandpit, some fences and little toy houses, and a great big vat of balls, as pictured. Yes, the vat of balls is an addition I don't remember being a part of the farm of my youth. I guess when they charge admission, they have little extra perks that ya just don't get on the REAL farm, eh?